ENSLAVING THE SEAMEN

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 1, 3 January 1923, Page 1

ENSLAVING THE SEAMEN

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Surely it is time some one made a protest against the use of the- gaol to aid. the shipping profiteers and to terrorise workers during periods of industrial-dispute. ' Already scores of seamen have been sent to prison, for "refusing duty," and a law intended to ensure discipline on a ship lias thus been perverted to serve a gross class purpose. There will.be no disagreement with legislation which exacts discipline from a crew when a ship is at sea and would be endangered by disobedience. Brit if such a law is exerted when, a ship i* in port, there being , not the remotest possibility of danger, and when A STIJIKK Is IN P.ROGI\ES>S, it becomes a weapon of tyranny and an instrument of enslavement.. At botiom,. every seaman, who has'been condemned to the prison cells and treated' Jike a criminal, has suffered NOT FOR INDISCIPLINE, BUT FOE UNION PRTNCIPLE. 'In-spirit, therefore, the administration of this law in the circumstances mentioned takes us back a century when Unionism was illegal altogether. II" a se.iiiKiu misbehaves himself in port the shipowner should have no more power in dealing with him than any other employer —the scaninn should be dismissed and no more. If a seaman cannot refuse to work under conditions he regards as offensive, except at the risk of imprisonment, he is a slave. The law has been so twisted to intimidate the seamen by men. ■who pretend to hate ''class legislation." The seamen know this. It would strengthen Unionism ii other workers felt a keener sense ■ of its injustice.