STRIKES AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16353, 16 February 1921, Page 6

STRIKES AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

The demonstration which occurred in Sydney yesterday is not without its lesson for New Zealand. A procession of unemployed marched to tho office of the Minister of a Labour Government, and left evidence of its indignant spirit in the shape of a smashed door panel. The State Governor, on his way to an Executive Council meeting, was surrounded by '‘ a howling mob asking for work.” The unfortunate men who are out. of work were wasting their time. The powers of Governors and Ministers are limited, and they cannot control an industrial situation which has been deliberately created by the workers themselves. The unemployment in Sydney has been largely created by the succession of strikes, and the deliberate abandonment of work by men who xrere engaged in vital occupations. The stewards’ strike was successful in paralysing the shipping of the Commonwealth, and the creation of an army of unemployed was absolutely inevitable. If the procession had marched to the meeting of seamen at the Sydney Trades Hall it would have performed a much more effective action. Wo refer to this matter because of the evidence that tho tactics which have landed the Australian workers in disaster are making their appearance in NeAv Zealand. The policy of irritation of the waterfront is designed to extort increased wages for the watersiders, but one of its effects will certainly be an increase in unemployment in the cities. The lesson of the Australian situation should not be wasted on New Zealand workers.