CO-OPERATIVE LABOUR

Otago Witness, Issue 3511, 28 June 1921, Page 38

CO-OPERATIVE LABOUR

FORMER LABOI R LEADER 6LEAKS OUT. (Froji Our Own Correspondent.) . WELLING TON, June 20. ’’ ” a * : ' !s described in the evening paper as a remarkable address was delivered to a crowded audience on Sunday evening by .Mr Robert Semple, formerly well known as a Acw Zealand Labour leader. Some time back Mr Semple got a few miners together and fixed up an agreement with the Wellington City Council to carry out an important tunnelling work in connection with me water supply, which fames from the > alleys away beyond ti:e harbour. ihe aork is being done on tlie co-operative svstein, and the men are putting their buc ks into if, and hope to put up a record in tunnelling, just as some of tho colonial miners who went to the war did on the western front. Mr Semple’s subject was Industrial Co-operation.’ During the last 12 months, he said, he had been out in the finis at \\ ainui-o-Mata, working hard all l j e tuile > but he had not been left alone, 1.0 had been me victim of tho most vicious slaiidei not only of employers and capital. !'(•', but of sections who regarded tfaemte.ves as captains of Labour. Some would no ciuubt say that he had gene over to the. side u£ ( apital, but lie had done nothing of t:l ®, sort - Ele had never side-stepped a strike when the cause was a ju-t one, and he would never do so. “I think,’’ he added, “that every practical working man v. jo has lia.t anything to do with strikes will not only desire to minimise them, but wni wipe them out altogether. No intelligent man who has been through a strike wants to go through another. 1 have se< u the wretchedness and the misery they cause, i o me the strike is a nightmare, and I want to see the day when the strike in New Zealand is as extinct a« the inoa. 'This can be done, i say, by instituting a system which will eliminate tile middle-class exIn ihe job we have on hand at U ainui we have done this.’’ —(Applause.) Mr Semple went or: to state that hitherto such a work as he and his mates had undertaken, had been left to an individual contractor. He and his friends were out to prove that the eomratioi- was unnecessary. In this case lie and his men had undertaken a very important and urgent work, necessary tor the health and happiness of the community. The big contractor might have come along ami exploited the ratepayers on the one hand and rile workers on tlie other, lie would have had his pound of flesh, and would have been the personification of a parasite, in this particular work the men appointed their own officers, and were practically their own bosses. Every man would do his work as rapidly as possible. There would be no "go-slow” and no strike. Some said that they had surrendered the strike weapon. Of course, they had, for there was no need for it. They wanted to get he work through as fust as they could. A Voice : Speeding up? Mr Semple: Y’os, »p' eding up; and I would like to speed up 6ome of you roosters. Come out to Orongorongo, and I will speed you up. We claim that we have not departed from any one of Labour'd principles. The Same Interjector: Yes, you have. The unions are against the contract system. Mr Semple: There is a great deal of difference between tlie competitive contract system and the co-operative contract system. By the latter the workers share and share alike. There is a great difference. It is better than "your dirty cast-iron wage system. The Interjector: Abolish the wage system. Mr Semple: Y’cs, I have fought for that, and when tlie workers are ready I will do my share in another fight for the same thing. You will not find me lugging behind. Friends, you can rest assured that there are no blacklegs at Wainui. ”1 have said ” concluded Mr S- mp!e, ■'that: v.c have surrendered (he strike weapon. We do -o because we have nothing to strike about. I for one am not going to indulge in a strike for practice or just for a past ime; if there is a real strike for a real cause anywhere I will be in it just as quickly as those i-ieatmes who have criticised mo so freely. If we put this job through half as quickly as any contractor could do it, don’t you think it will be i good thing for the men and tile community? Do you want to see strikes and trouble and turmoil? We are out to give a social service as quickly as possible. Let the workers watch the experiment. Wo may wipe out altogether the need for a strike—at least we will show how this can be done. This is a practical demonstration of tlie fact that the workers do possess constructive genius, once said to be the monopoly of tlie private contractor. When opportunity knocks at the door. let the worker get in and show what he can do. J.et us be without this slandering and back-biting from poisonous industrial toads, and get down to practical methods of making New- Zealand a better place for all concerned.” —(Loud applause/)'