OUR HOME LETTER

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 447, 1 October 1919, Page 1

OUR HOME LETTER

Revolt or Revolution

THE POLICE STRIKE; NIGHT- BAKING; DIRECT ACTION; NEWS OF THE WEEK; FOREIGN AFFAIRS

From Our Own Correspond*.

London, Gth -August, 1919. Is it a revolt or i-volution? Or, to use tho phraseology of the Home Secretary in describing the direct' action iust taken by the police, is it a strike or only a mutiny? After all, ther© is a good deal in a name—if only temporarily. A public that wants to believe the assurance of the Capitalist Press that the present Labor troubles are | merely the outcome of the agitation of a few irresponsible "Bolshevists" can take refuge in a misleading title for the situation j but that will not long bring them consolation iv face of the facts. For there is no doubt that the Labor crisis is momentarily growing more serious. The announcement that Mr. Henderson lias been recalled from the international meeting at Lucerne is only ono indication of this fact. STRIKE UPON STRIKE The strike of the police last Thursday lacked the dramatic compleness of last, year's strike, when not a constable was to be seen ©n the London streets, and Mr. Lloyd George came hurrying home from Paris to ask pathetically—"Why wasn't I told?" anil alter wards to post- as the heaven-sewt i-e_<_i.' tf all strikes by conce.-edi._g the. demands of the men, including an assurance that their Union would only be refused recognition during the war. Unfortunately, ix>t all the men came out this time, and the prompt dismissal, without pension, of all those who did gave it a look cf failure. But only a. look, because events are now proving that the rest of Labor realising how much it also is affected by the . -pti-nfttple of^i4v«.:**V...;;.-- -BUI, (thff-ai'so of the- police strike), which forbids th* police to combine in their own trade union, is gradually taking direct action, in order to back up this attempt of the force to defeat the '"direct action" of the Government. For, in view of the fact that the present capitalist and c(mlition majority in Parliament was secured by the rushed election of last December and does not remotely represent the real feeling in the country, a Bill to take away Labor's liberties that is passed by a majority is in effect direct action and not constitutional G overmen-. So, while the police strike is still unsettled (for the refusal -f the Borne Office to re-instate the dismissed men has proved another reason tor oissatisf action) other branches of workers are coming cut in sympathy. A light- - ning strike yesterday both at a London '' railway depot and on one of the Tubes has dislocated both underground and holiday traffic. To-day it is 3 spreading to other railways, who realise, like these men, lhat "the Police Bill is tho thin end of the wedge to suppress the freedom of the individual which w» have beer.' fighting for in the past five years." So much so that J. H. Thomas has been constrained to issue a manifesto bogging to suspend takinff lcoal Taction till the whole situation lias been dealt with by the Executive Committee of the National

'Union of Eailwaynien, which ratc-ts today. OUR DAILY BREAD At this moment of all others, the crisis in the biead trade has culmiixated in a strike of bakers r-U over thle country. Yo:i will remember that night' baking was universally condemned by the Commission of Inquiry that sat iv the early part of tho year. But the master bakers have refused definitely to abolish nigh! -baking ("which was suspended during the war) aud so, rfter due notice tbe men have come o.t, and a bread famine is now to be added to the evils of high prices, oiflealty of transport, and all the other ills that make feeding a family a line r-t in these days. The bakers are securing the supply of bread to the hospitals, however. THE STORM CENTRE Though events point to a serious crisis in London, Liverpool still remains the storm-centre. There- the police strike lias been very thorough and is being backed by the tram-men and the municipal employees, wh.le the bakers are out and other Trade Unions are preparing to take action al-o on behalf of the police. Troops ara, pouring into the. City, where looting quite unconnected with the ?*Tik-°rs lias beer, rife: and already one collision between soldiers and civilians has resulted in this death of a civilian. There is no doubt that the arbitrary clauses of the Police Bill, while supported enthusiastically by a majority in Parliament, and by the whole of the capitalist Press, is the match that, has set' light to all the discontent that is seething in the country, and n>> one can say w-vat will be the end of it. LABOR AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS Discontent with constitutionah methods of Government is not allayed by our policy outside the country. "Democracy" is being "secured" in Ireland by means of tanks, aeroplanes, nrmourcjil cars and an army of occupation! several hundi>eds of thousands strong costing, as we are told, -2900,000 a mouth; in Russia, by sending munitions to the counter-revolutionary reactionaries while Parliament is informed that troops are being withdrawn and 'intervention is ceasing; in Hungary, by starving the people into deserting the Government they like and the one that probably comes nearest to neal democracy >cf any government that has been set up. These things are not calculated to increase the confidence of our own democracy in the goodwill of our Government where dealings with the workers aro •oucerned. The ballot of the Triple Alli.nce (miners, railwaymen and transport workers) is about to be taken to dec-id. whether some millions cf organised workers shall come out on strike, principally as a protest against the Government's Russian policy. The danger, of course, is that ;>. nominal withdrawal of troops may appear like the real thing. In the House of Commons, yesterday for instance, we are told that "no blockade

of any kind ha. basil declared ot ia being exercised against arty part of Ra» . eia." But the .act remain-- that, a* cording' to the saute authority, it i| "physically impossible for goods t« reach ihe interior of Russia,-''' and pre_u_aably to coiae out from -Russia, sinof we hare it cm th» authority of th« "Hid© and Leather JewJ-ai'*' (America) that the shoe fan-ins as partly owinf to the millions of hidae now rotting in the interior of Russia. In the midst of all t-nese alarms ani excursions, a Thames pageant to cele. brate "Pea_e" took place last M«aday c There -were enormous crowds, swelled no doubt by dismissed policemen and workers on strike. NEWS ITEM A "Reformer's bookshop" Tho Bradford Labor Party is excellent propaganda work throiigh it* "Reformer's Bookshop" whose customer* come from all political parties. Tnfey have had an official visit from the local director oS national service, have beea raided once by police and subjected to an u__ncceß_ful attempt on the part of the military authorities to chut down. In spite of this opposition ttney continue to flourish, and anticipate starting huainess ia other English towns. The Ideal Worktop Day Speaking at t-ite Sanitary Institui* Congress, last week, Sir Thomas Olivet contended that there oonld not be ab. solute conformity in the le_-gtl_ of • working d.ssy for all industries and all countries. As regards di-.«re_tces be* tween the ©exes; he had formed thf opinicia that for repeat work women were e^ ua l to men but in non-repeat work men were superior. He referred to th© industrial revolution now pro. ceeding, *nd thought that, "wisely guided" itn trend was towards epoiaJ improv«_a#_t. German* in Britain In -tfeww to a _--#st-on in Parli* ment it wes stated last week that ther* are 11,750 Germans, male aM female uninterned in this country and 2,359 still interned. Until the Aliens Acf became laiP, ths fate of thte former wai uncertain, but it was proposed to • deport those of the interned wbo were not spticirfly recommended for exemp* tion by Mr. Justice YouHge.. Gotomittee. Typioal IfWi Sentence saving in his poffl_e«3-0 | _t-'-»i',»edl-tious leaflet entitled "fiuthießs- War* fare" and another leaflet making allegratione »s tje th« treatta-nt «f ,prieonere in- Belfast Ja_l, Matthew Butler was sentenced to six months' hard labor hy a Dublin court-martial. Bela Kun'« Personal Courage Tt was in Moscow, 'luring a meetint of Social Revolutionaries. An armourea car full cf revolutionaries came down the street. Without a moment's hesita» tion __*«_ walked into the road, raised his hand and eiHuuted t>o them to stop. They covered him with their rifles. He stood then., 'quite unarmed and talked to them. After a few minutes he got into the car with them and drove away. They had surrendered. C.O.s Released at Last Mr. Shortt, the Home Secretary stated in the House of Commons &a Monday that no conscientious objector wa9 now in prison or under and none temporarily released fro» prison will be required to complete' hi. sentence. This is at last the end' of the four years' persecution.