Lessens from the Past

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 303, 20 December 1922, Page 12

Lessens from the Past

Most young people, and many anclent ones like myself (writes G.L. in an exchange), often "forget the debt we owe to the many, many thousands .of.people on whose efforts and sacrifices on behalf of humanity the foundations of all social improvement have -been built. R. W. Postgate, in " Out of the Past" (Labour Publishing Co., 3/6), devotes considerable time anfl research to the task of bringing before us the cost in mental and physical suffering , which the early Communists and Socialists endured in order that we might enjoy the privilege of organising the new social order of which they could only dream aiid long for.

la this"little book, "Out of the Past," the writer brings vividly before our minds the life and anguish endured in and out of prison by "Blanqui," the great Frenchman, whose proud boast before his judges, "I am a proletarian," brought him weary years of imprisonment under the most loathsome conditions. There are also sketches of the Commune, and a story of Mr. Smith, one of the men who helped make Trade Unionism possible in the days of Robert Owen.

Everybody' who is interested in the past history of the working-class struggle at home and abroad should read this book. To mc the lesson taught is not one of failure, but of hope. We can learn from Bianqui, Smith, and the Admiral of the Nore revolt that social, industrial, political change cannot be rushed. We must all work on', toiling with patience until the day comes when mankind will by its own individual action redeem itself.