THE PROPOSED GENERAL STRIKE.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13410, 7 May 1912, Page 5

THE PROPOSED GENERAL STRIKE.

SUGGESTION NOT SERIOUSLY

TAKEN

Christchurch, May 6

The decision of the Ironmoulders' Union to take a plebiscite of its members on the proposal that if the compulsory clauses of the Defence Act reman unrepealed by next Labour Day a strike should be declared, is'ridiculed in responsible Labour circleß in this city. Even Unionists who have some liking for the strike as an argument, and who are bitterly opposed to the compulsory clauses, say that it would be folly to use a strike in a purely political controversy. This opinion is not unanimously felt, but the great .majority.of the workers' representatives who were questioned to-day, decline to take the suggestion seriously. One Labour leader remarkecl that there was little chance of the trades unions generally faljing in with such a proposal, as they were divided on the question of defence. Personally he , favoured military training, but not the present Defence1 Act. He wanted'to see. some scheme which could be democratically administered. A resolution was carried last evening by the Socialist Party to the effect that in the casa of war the workers would down tools. It was decided that the resolution should be submitted to every Labour organisation in Now Zealand.