LABOUR’S PLATFORM

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16875, 28 October 1922, Page 9

LABOUR’S PLATFORM

1 for THINKING PEOPLE. 1 i ® _ 3—Communal Ownership and Commiinal Control. i Q - \Y hat are the main divisions of t modern social industry? t A-—(a)lbe Capital-supplying (banks); t (b) the Extractive (mines, farms): i (c) the Manufacturing; (d) the Tran./ - porting (railways, shipping); (e) tlio Distributing (shops,) ; (_e) the Efficiencye producing (work of teachers, doctors) Q Are any of these com mu nail v owned to-day? A—We have to-day State Mines (b) , State Factories (c); State Railways (d); State (municipal) Shops (e); State Schools (f); all communally owned. Q—What other industries does the N.Z. Labour Party propose to own communally ? t A-—First and foremost, the Capitalsupplying (a), by the immediate establishment of a State Bank with sole right of note issue and to the ultimate exclusion of private banking; State Farms (b); State Housing Department " ( c > 5 State Shipping Service (d) ; State * Medical Service (f). Q —How will all communally owned industries lie controlled? A—At least half the Board of Control will be appointed by the workers in the industry concerned, the remain--1 der being experts appointed by the community as a whole. Q—What is the object of this arrangement ? A—To ensure that these workers shall not be controlled bv officials from r above and thus still remain in the ecc- ;- nomic servitude in wheih they as wage a slaves exist to-day, but as self-govern-ing units co-operate in the work of social production. n Q —Will they not make many mistakes at firet ? A—Very probably. Only by going wrong does a man learn how to go right. But it is better to make mistakes as a free man, than to make no mistakes and remain a slave. Communal Ownership and Communal Control assuring Every man, woman and child his or her social heritage of equal possession if. the means of life, ABOLISHES the system under which the MANY (in order to live) sell themselves to the FEW to become cogs in an industrial machine the primary object of which is to produce MADE-TO-SELIj commodities (often adulterated, generally shoddy) for the private profit of a few, and INTRODUCES a system under which EACH co-operates with ALL as a selfgoverning unit to carry out the work ix of social production for the equal benHt fit of .ALT;. ; l i ' (Next week— ‘‘ Political Machinery. Internal and External.*’) 9978