LABOUR UNREST

Otago Witness, Issue 3517, 9 August 1921, Page 13

LABOUR UNREST

THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM. LONDON, 2. Sir Montague Barlow (Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour) stated in the House of Commons that, despite the shortage of houses all over the country, 3400 bricklayers, 7600 bricklayers’ labourers, 12,300 carpenters and joiners, and 400 plasterers are now unemployed. DIRECT .ACTION CONDEMNED. LONDON, August 1. Speaking at the Social Democratic Federation Conference, Mr Will Thorne denounces direct action as a means of achieving the ideal of Social Democracy. He said that a sane, sound advocacy of the principles of Social Democracy would outlast all direct actionists, who were vvill-o’-the-wisps who lead to anareliial swamps and morasses. DISSENSION IN THE RANKS. LONDON, August 2. T The National Sailors and Firemen's Union has given notice of intention to withdraw from the National Transport Federation owing to the Federation Conference’s adoption of a resolution which the union contends gives the federation full power to call out on strike any constituent union without the union’s authorisation. CRITICISM BY MR BEN TIL LETT. LONDON, August 4. Mr Ben Tillett in his annual report to the Dockers’ Union strongly animadverts on the want of unity within the Miners’ I nion in the recent strike, wftich destroyed the action which had been carefully planned by the Triple Alliance. The Aimers’ Union needed amalgamating more than any other union. Mr Tillett suggests co-operation between the great trade unions to deal with unemployment. BIG REDUCTION IN NY AGES. LONDON, August 4. The Alidiand Counties’ Wages Board reports that since January the price of finished iron has fallen to the extent cf £l3 per ton, the effect- of which is an 80 per cent, reduction in the iron workers’ wages. The North-East Coast Arbitration Board reduced puddlers, forge, and mill workers’ wages to the extent of 47 per cent. SHIP JOINERS’ STRIKE. LONDON, August 3. The Federation cf Shipbuilding Employers’ meeting at Edinburgh considered the failure to end the ship joiners’ strike. They regard the position as most serious, in view of the orders which are going abroad and the absence of orders in the home yards. The meeting decided that it could not make the joiners a new offer. IRISH UPHEAVAL THREATENED. LONDON, August, 3. The Irish Labour Party and the Trade Union Congress in Dublin debated the cost of living and the proposed all round reductions in wages. The executive combatted the official estimates in regard to the present cost of living, which it con tended was 178 per cent, above pre-war prices, compared with the official figure of 132 per cent. The chairman declared that there very shortly would occur one of the greatest upheavals in the Irish Labour movement’s history. One delegate proposed taking up the employers’ challenge en masse, adding, “That means facing the possibility of a social revolution.” THE LILLE CONFERENCE. PARIS, July 31. The Central Confederation of Labour at Lille resolved, by 1572 votes to 1325, to adhere to the platform of the Amsterdam International, rejecting that of Moscow (otherwise the Third International). ER INCH RATI AY AYM EN. PARIS, August 4. The officials of the extremist Railwaymen’s Union were to-day turned out from their offices in the Rue Baudin without a farthing. RIOTS IN JAPAN. TOKIO, July 31. A meeting of Cabinet has been called to consider the Kobe strike, which again has assumed violent features. The police drew their sabres, and in a skirmish with the stril ers wounded more than 50. Several thousand labourers in the various industries ceased work and marched to the Shrines, singing* labour songs. The Municipal Assembly in Kobe carried a motion condemning the use of sabres by the police.

August 1. The vernacular press hints that Soviet influences are behind the strikes. Bolshevist literature seized at Harbin was traced to an Osaka printing office. It is alleged that numbers of Bolshevist agents are in .lagan posing as merchants.—Reuter. Continued violence at Kobe resulted in the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Works grant- | ing many of the strikers’ demands, including the placing of the factory under the charge of technical management, a workers’ commiUee, an eight-hour day, and pensions. Hie Kawasaki Company is also expected to grant the demands. August 2. Ihe Kobe workers refuse to accept the conciliatory actions of the owners, and declare that they will continue the strike until the shipyard strike-break ers have been discharged. Four hundred strikebreakers have been arrested. RAND MINERS. CAPETOWN, July 30. A meeting of shop stewards at "Johannesburg, representative of every trade union connected with the mining industry and of every mine, unanimously decided to recommend the workers to vote in favour of a strike against the proposed reduction in wages. August 1. The acceptance by the meeting of trade unionists in Johannesburg of the Chamber of Alines’s proposal for a- conference to discuss the automatic adjustment of wages affords the hope that the threatened mining strike will he averted. LITHGOW SMALL ARMS FACTORY. SYDNEY, August 4. In order to obviate the necessity for the dismissal of 200 employees in the Lithgow Small Arms Factory the employees decided to reduce the working hours to 36 weekly and to receive iess wages