ADVICE TO CIVIL SERVANTS.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 475, 21 April 1920, Page 6

ADVICE TO CIVIL SERVANTS.

• Civil Servants, in . common with other workers, are in a state of ferment occasioned by- the soaring cost of living, and the failure of the Government, now known as the Monopolists' and Traders' Executive, to restore the pre-war standard of living. Many Civil Servants who, by force of circumstances, have been driven to devote less of their leisure time to sports and acquire a knowledge of elementary economics, now recognise that their interests as workers are identical with those of all other branches of the great army of Labor, and that it is futile to keep on demanding increases of remuneration which are promptly swamped by greater advances in the cost of living. There is only one way out of the eco* nomic jungle—change the system. If we advocate this we shall be rifliculed and designated Bolsheviks by those who pocket the bulk of the wealth produced. But what does it matter what we are called so long as we know what we are after and are determined to get it by \raited action? The Civil Servants of this "democratic" country have not yet even got their full political rights, but instead of grovelling on their stomachs and asking for them they should take them. Their Association is strong enough to do this. All they have to do is for each branch to send a remit to Wellington for adoption by the Association's Executive, resolving that henceforth all Civil Servants shall exercise their frill political rights, and that should any of them be victimised for so doing,' the Executive will call a general strike unless the victimisation ceases and the scapegoats -are reinstated without sustaining any loss. ' What is the use of any organisation possessing strength unless it utilises it to improve its political and economic position? Sectionalism, too, is useless. The Public Service Association should link up with the railways, post and telegraph, and teachers' associations, and this combination should then ally itself with the Federation of Labor, with a view to, changing the economic system from the foundation upwards, thus bringing about swiftly the only possible reconstruction of society that is compatible with justice. This done, there will be no "future wars for this country to engage in; no more profiteering; no more slums and festering poverty. Peace and plenty will be the new social order, fewer hours of labor, and the opportunity of living a. fuller, happier and more rational life, not only by the present generation, but by our children and those who are to follow them. The monopolists and profiteers are magnificently organised, and with the support, too, curiously enough, of the great mass of the people upon whom they practise their predatory operations, for the robbed themselves become the armed forces to protect the proceeds of robbery, and pay for such defence with their life blood and money, tfot only this, but they swell with pride for mitted to do it. If they would only think they, would realise the utter stupidity of their actions and the idiotic role in which they appear on .this planet. They allow themselves to be doped by the Press, which is owned and controlled by the monopolists, and soothed by the hireling clergy Into tolerating the present iniquitous economic system. Surely the robbed majority can beat the robber minority by the right use of their brains. Let them organise themselves into a large army to protect themselves and to turn this country, which belongs to the whole people, into a co-operative, commonwealth, so that the wealth produced shall be wisely ,and sanely distributed. This must be done by the. robbed and enslaved people of every country. It is their only hope, and the sooner they face the task the better.—LlNK-UP.