RECENT SUCCESSES INSPIRES OUR BRITISH COMRADES

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 31, 1 August 1923, Page 9

RECENT SUCCESSES INSPIRES OUR BRITISH COMRADES

Speech by R. C. Waliead, 1.P., at LLP. CoKerence

"The last year will long mark the beginning of a great historic epoch. The -break-up of the justly discredited Coalition brought to Socialism and JJabour a great opportunity. We rejoice in the splendid victory of the labour Party, and are proud of our long- years of association with our comrades of that organisation. "By the great victory of last year the time has arrived when the dumb majesty of misery has found a voice with no quavering and uncertain note. "The victory of 1922 has brought new life into the movement. The present Tory Government finds itself quite unable to stem the tide of disaster which mis-begotten policies have brought to the flood. The ardently longed for period of repose has not materialised. "Men cannot pursue policies of politically criminal folly for years and expect to arrive at tranquility at the end, and the present party in power has only succeeded as a Government to the legacies of its own propaganda of unreason, hate, greed, and imperialist grab and bluster." So said Mr. *R. C. Wallhead, M.P., in the course of his opening address at the last annual conference of the British Independent Labour Party. RESULT OE A MAD POLICY. The present situation in Europe, he added, brought about by the mad policy of M. Poincare, the egotistical leader of French Chauvinism, was a case in point. British leaders of Liberalism and Toryism had for years maintained the lie that Germany alone was wholly responsible for the war. They had persistently held up France as an absolutely immaculate martyr, ruthlessly immolated on the altar of a criminally bestial Germany. French diplomacy, like our own, was without guile and above reproach. "The. whole assumption was grotesque," Mr. Wallhead continued, "and it is only possible to maintain such a view by a point-blank refusal to see nuyUiirxfe iiiat could tell against it. Mr. Lloyd George went to Versailles With this fiction on his lips, and assisted French Imperialism to establish a so-called peace treaty that reeks with cant on this stupendous lie.

"It is on the basis of that lie that France is in the Ruhr, and in the Rhineland, and intends to stay there, no matter -what the world effects may be.

"If it were possible that the Socialist and Labour Parties of France, Germany, and Britain could have the handling of the terrible tangle into which their respective capitalist Governments have involved Western and Central Europe, we could, I am certain, quickly discover a way out of the difficulty. "Our method would be to bind up and heal the wounds caused by the late criminal war. Our way would he the way of reconciliation and friendship, and the using of our joint resources to rebuild, over the graves of the victims of the hideous strife, an enduring structure that would ensure the world's peace in the future. "As we would deal with the Western and Central European question, so we would deal with the Eastern European question, typified by the case of Russia. The I.L.P. has always opposed the policies pursued by successive British Governments towards Russia, while not always ac-| cepting as wisdom the actions of the Russian Soviet Government, which seems at times to heap folly upon folly with irritating persistence.. "We have always advocated full legal and diplomatic recognition, with the full establishment of trading relations.

"In the same way would we deal with the question of Egypt. If we protest against the action of French Imperialism in occupying the Ruhr Valley, ,in violation of Treaties, so' also we raise our voice against the continued military occupation of Egypt, which is even more fragrantly a violation of solemn pledges and commitments. CO NTINENTAL COMRADES. "We are honoured to-day with the presence of tv/o of our Continental comrades —(cheers) —Crispien, late of the Independent Wing of the German Socialist Democratic Party, and Longuet, representing the French Socialist Party. Their presence is an indication, of the attitude taken up by tho.se two great parties."

If there was little prospect of tranquility ••»broad, there was certainly no sien of it here at home. Everywhere the workers found themselves in bit-

ter conflict with capitalism, fighting for or defending -bare subsistence conditions of employment. Even should the agricultural labourers win their stuggle their wage would not reach that level. The miners were still in that position. The dry rot of capitalism was spreading in all directions.. The recent utterance of Mr. Bonar Law on the agricultural question showed that lie has g*iven no hope of being able to give any really helpful assistance. Referring to the recent scene in the House of Lords during the reading of the King's Speech, Mr. .Wallhead said: "It was in the few moments that I stood there confronted with the magnificence and costly splendour of the old and new aristocracy that there came to mc a full realisation of the sources of class prejudice and privilege, of the pride of caste and the pride of possession. ■COUNTERPART TO SHRUNKEN LIVES. "Here was the splendour that found its origin in the bent back of the starvelling land labourer, in the pits and quarries, the factories and the workshops. . Here was the counterpart to the shrunken lives and squal-. id hovels of the dispossessed. "Here had gone the labour of nun--dreds of women in order .that other women should be splendidly arrayed. Here had gone the maintenance of hundreds of families in-order that one suburbly disdainful woman might decorate her hair. ■ . "There is in this no question of malicious envy or hatred for those who fail to realise the iniquity of a social system that permits this tremendous injustice, but such a system is absolutely wrong, and sooner or later it must pass. The capitalist system ran-> sacks the world to pour luxuries at the feet of a rapidly growing parasitic class. "It robs the Indian ryot, plunders the Egyptian fellaheen, exploits the Arab in Mesopotamia, and the coolie -of Singapore. It keeps the British worker in poverty and distress, starves the mentality of the worker's child, and swindles the broken soldier tool of. his just reward. THE I.LJVS. CHALLENGE.. "The I.L.P. throws down its challenge to the capitalist form of modern society. In 1901 Keir Hardie, a splendidly courageous and isolated figure, moved a Socialist resolution in the -arrouse of Commons challenging capitalism. His challenge then was derided and scoffed at.

"Twenty-two years pass and the same challenge is again thrown down. But the conditions have vastly changed between then and now; a veritable political revolution has tak-. en place. Now the challenge comes from his Majesty's official Opposition. It is a unique position in our political history.

"Never before has the official Opposition challenged the social system represented by the Government of the day. It is extremely likely that a few days from now the whole of the members of the official Opposition will go into the division lobby to register its declaration that capitalism has failed, and to declare that Socialism is the only remedy for the existing evils.

"The issue, therefore, is fully engaged, and as long as the members of the iI.L.P. remain in any force in the House of Commons, that issue will remain the centre round which will revolve the whole of our political activities."

| There are als 0 economic reasons i why the programme of the Labour Party is commending itself to Che middle classes of our country. Many of them begin, to se c th.it only through it can they- escape destruc-' tion. The small investor, the • individual trader, who has not behind him large capital 0 r unlimited credit, finds himself in danger of being ground to death by "big business" capitalist?; who, in great part, live upon the lost sayings of small investors. When, therefore, ■ the capitalist press endeavours to frighten him with the bogey of confiscation, etc., he remains unconvinced. He knows mo well that under no system that the Labour Party would be likely to promote would h e be so affectively robbed as he is under the present system! , • THE TIGHTENING VICE Tliat the- middle classes are beginning to see the inevitable tendencies of modern economic Ufo is all to ■:o good. But they are doing so not because they have become consc'ous of a higher vision, but because they, are beginning to feel pressure upon their own lives. S 0 long as only the workers were crushed under the wheels of the capitalist juggernaut they remained aloof and voted Tory. They wore both blind and deaf to the os.ll of higher things. But now that the v-ce is beginning to tighten and to grip, them also, the grievance'they never felt before. They are learning that the capitalist Sta<« does not

protect their widows and children if, in the contest for wealth, they an© crushejd by others; that the teeth ot the city shark e<ats up them &nd| theirs es well as the working classes. If the average English middle-class, man has children, he is even anxious' about their future than ar-eij tho daily labourers about theirs. He cannot:, or will not, send them to tke public elementary schools, and he cannot jaffdrd to provide for them tho education that will give t_e|m spieciai qualifications. For every one' of their needs he has to pay owner's profits, and everything that either he or his children eats or wears is taxed; tho quality of his food sinks to the minimum of and he finds himself being gradually brought down under a burden, which is too great for .him to bfJar. THE QUESTION? OF THE FUTURE The question prises whether the middle-class man has come to the Labour movement to cast! in his -lot j wi-th it and to stand by it for good or ill, ias an expression of a Teal faith, or whether he i 3 hut a friendly caller who *eels free to desert to the' old camp .any time he pleases? The answer to that question belongs to (li e future. We hope for the best. In the meantime he brings to our work a trained mind and a higher education -than belong to the mass of the working class who aryo its loyal and heroic safeguard. He ia proving himself to be a good comradeand the kindest-feeling prevails between him and the rank and file of tho Party. Our British Labour Party is (a power, precisely because it Iras af'ectcd this wonderful combination of those who work both by hand and by brain. If the alliance is maintained, it will grow from strength to strength.