ALLIANCE OF LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 16

ALLIANCE OF LABOUR.

ANOTHER SECESSION. WELLINGTON. April 29. The New Zealand Drivers’ Federation decided at the recent annual conference of the Federation to secede from the Alliance of Labour. It is stated that the decision was made by a majority of one vote, and that a ballot of the members of the Federation is to be taken on the question of accepting or rejecting the action of their representatives at the conference. The Drivers’ Federation has about 2700 members. In the absence of definite information as to why the drivers have chosen to break away from the Alliance with which they have been affiliated practically since the inception of that body, the secretary of the Alliance (Mr Roberts), writing in the New Zealand Worker, assumed that it is due to the fact that the Alliance supported Mr A. L. Montsith against Mr Hunter in the recent election of workers’ representatives on the Arbitration Court. The drivers throughout New Zealand unanimously supported Mr Hunter, and Mr Roberts says that possibly some members who were Mr Hunter’s most staunch supporters are attempting to avenge themselves for his defeat by inducing the drivers to secede from the national organisation or Labour in New Zealand. Although the delegates to the conference carried a resolution to secede from the Alliance the advocates of the secession policy did not allow a representative of the Alliance to discuss the matter with them. In other words, said Mr Roberts, some of the delegates made only personal attacks behind the backs of the men associated with the Alliance of Labour, a very safe thing to do when those officials were absent. Commenting on the ballot proposal Mr Roberts said that to submit a question to ballot which had already been decided by the delegates was one of the methods Labour could not approve of. It was undemocratic for the reason that the delet es had prejudiced the case by first passing a resolution, and then proposing to place it on a ballot paper and ask the workers to confirm it. If the question were to be submitted to the drivers it should be submitted plainly and definitely without prejudicing the case one way or the other before the ballot was taken.