THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR

NZ Truth, Issue 437, 8 November 1913, Page 5

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR

PLUTOCRATS PROPOSE TO PARALYSE THE PROLETARIAT Cullen's Cossacks m Charge of Empire City PREMIER MASSEY PREVENTS PEACEABLE SETTLEMENT OF STRIKE Labor's Splendid Solidarity

■ i ' ""- .. ... V**' '■•• i During fyib past week Interest m the ; } . Waterside 7 Workers' lock-out has grown- i^'irttehsity and- the very air of „ seems electrified. The : ; \ brutally^ tnurderous charge made by t CulWh's clodhopper . constables oh H ty*"> et) ack on an Inoffensive crowd m . j, POst Office Square on Thursday after- ; J> noon of last week brought public feel.^Q ing iip to aS liitch of vehement' excite- ' ment never befhre equdlled- m this ' ,-clty. iOn Friday, shocked somewhat at ;. , their, own brutality; the ' kept their raw recruits out of sight all day. It was well that they did so for • the temper of 'the penile was such that the very sight of a policeman on ' the street would have been ( sufficient to have led! to a Yriot. During the whole/ of Friday and Saturday there seemed to bo a sort of _. truce by mutual consent, neither side Making any action, except thnt several speakers as usual during the afternoons of both days v |a^dressed \ .'. very large audiences 'in* the 1 open-air on bohalf of the men locked out. On Satprday information was received from the YWellihglon Trades .. Council that! thht bpdr was to meet V that evening to ' discuss its attitude + towards tho prosent trouble, and later the public wereinformed that a meeting of delegates from the United Fed; T eratlon of Labor, the jUnited Labor • Party and the' Wellington Trades • Council would meet oh the Sunday morning with a view of tsvolvlng terms „.•• of agreement to .which all sections of " 'labor could subscribe arid thus meet tf- tho, employers ; ; | it] •';. WITH A UNITED FRONT. . Thia meeting was duly beid and on ..-',' ■■■ (he motion of E. J. CareyV secretary of the' Cooks' and Walters', it was agrucu that the following proposals bo sub- ..< mitted by a deputation to the Employers'. Federation Strike Committee: (1) That all waterside worker^ .'- should at onpo return to : work on ' the same conditions as were oper- • ating prior to the cessation of ' nperatlons, and that a conference . < be immediately held between the •■''*' shipping companies and the par- • ties concerned for the purpose of drafting a new agreement. (2) That tho present national

agreement be extended for a period to be arranged, from date, to cover the waterfronts of the Dominion; with a "penalty to be arranged tor a stoppage of work as defined by claiisa -B of the old • agreement. As the above were practically two o! four alternative offers made by the , employers on Wednesday of; last week, but subsequently ' withdrawn, it was thought there would be little if any difficulty insetting the latter to reopen negotiations, upon the lines they had themselves laid down.. On the afternoon of Sunday a meeting of from eight to ten thousand people gathered m Newtown Park and stood for - TWO HOURS IN DRENCHING RAIN while the various speakers on behalf of the men locked-out pleaded for the citizens of Wellington to help them to see justice done. It was" a most enthusiastic meeting and. every point made by the various speakers was cheered and cheered again. Another successful meeting was held m the Opera House tho same evening, and Monday morning opened wUh bright hopes of an early . settlement of -' the trouble. Throughout the whole of Monday crowds waited m, front of the Post Office eager to pick up the latest scrap of news as to, the -progress of /negotiations. Several .wild rumors /were afloat, but It -wjts not till a little after five o'clock that Mr. George Glover mounted the rostrum and announced that the Ttfen's Committee had nothing to communicato as the conference with the employers had been adjourned till the following afternoon. What happened >on Monday night will be found fully described In ah^ other column. .-•* Meanwhile the public waited patiently for tho result of the resumed conference. It with all too sudden abruptness. The two parties met at two p.m. on Tuesday afternoon Within practically five minutes the doors that had opened to receive the workers' ambassadors re-opened to let them out, r ThY masters had thrown -down the gauntlet and, would accept- no terms short of capitulation on the part of the waterside workers and the Federation. From a tvldmg dispute, between th* shipwrights and employers of same m Wellington, involving, an outlay A less than ,£i per day additional wages, the, .trouble has spread, until nbw all the W&torsldo Workers of the Dominion havo been oaljed out. From tho attitude of tho Employers' Association it 1b quito evident that the monopolists of New Zealand have determined , to break up unionism as at present organised outside of the Arbitration Court. From proscnt appearances, and the temper .of the men engaged m the present struggle, there is a grave possibility of tho whole of the organised labor of the country "downing tools."