The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1916. THE MENACE OF SYNDICALISM

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1916, Page 29

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1916. THE MENACE OF SYNDICALISM

f S EFINITE, detailed, and coherent informam tion regarding the actual outbreak and K early course of the Irish rising' trickles through to us only in very small driblets. ■ Monday’s cables throw a further tiny ray of light upon the situation. They tell us that the rebel executive assembled on Good Friday in Dublin, awaiting news of the German gun-running attempt. Meanwhile emissaries with news of its failure met with a motor accident at Killorghan. ‘ News not arriving,’ says the cable, the executive, by 86 votes to 82, decided upon a rising without further delay. When news of the failure of the gun-running expedition was received it created confusion, and some attempt; was made to countermand the rising, but without success.’ Whether that be the correct account of matters or not, it seems certain that the rebellion was in point of fact unexpectedly and prematurely launched. Otherwise the rebels would surely have made better arrangements for the storage and supply of ammunition, and, also for provisioning their men. On this latter .point no provision whatever had apparently been made inconceivable thing if the outbreak had taken place at a time and date that had been long and carefully pre-

arranged. Deep regret will be felt throughout New Zealand at the sad recorded in the cables just as we went to press last week—that the Very Rev. Dr. Watters, S.M., formerly Rector of St. Patrick's College, ' Wellington, has been a victim of this unhappy trouble. Learned, genial, and cultured, this gifted educationist was an ornament to his Order, whose memory is still lovingly eherished in the land where he Labored so faithfully and so successfully. May he rest in peace.

We have received so far no full or authentic account of the means employed by Pearse, Connolly, and the rest, to work up the rebellion and to inflame the minds of their followers; but from the known character of the leaders, and still more from the trend of the manifesto just issued by the Nationalist Party, it may be safely inferred that the appeal has been markedly along socialistic as well as along the more familiar patriotic lines. Connolly was the ally of Larkin and of those other syndicalists who' organised the Dublin Labor riot of two or three years ago, and who showed their respect for the Catholic religion by handing Catholic children over to English Socialists with the almost certain prospect of their being robbed of their faith. There seems little doubt that at least a section of the rebels were won over to the cause by the rallying-cry of a social upheaval and industrial emancipation.' The seed has been diligently sown for some time past by imported Socialist propagandists in more than one part of Ireland; and the rebellion is, in some small part at least, the fruit. The v movement has failed; but it serves to throw a somewhat lurid light on the menace of syndicalism, both in Ireland and elsewhere. For syndicalism is not a legitimate, constitutional working-man's movement. It stands, simply and absolutely, for revolutionary socialism; and the hour and means of the revolution are to be dictated and governed not by any principles of right and wrong but solely by the question of opportunity and expediency. On its militant side syndicalism is, in, fact, little better than anarchism, with which it is actually and closely allied. Its one gospel is the gospel of irreconcilable class warfare. The workers are to be federated into one big union; and when the time for revolution comes, they are to be called upon ' to take forcible possession of the means of production, to do away with the present system of State government, and to establish the reign of free co-operative labor' (Jane T. Stoddart, The New Socialism, page 217). As we have said, the movement is definitely and closely allied with anarchism. The Survey, in a well-informed article on the syndicalist-socialists, says: ' The membership of the Industrial Workers of the World is about equally divided between anarchists and socialists. Among the ( anarchists are some whose anarchism is based on theoretical ground; others who from their failure to become naturalised or from the migratory character of* their work are deprived of the vote and therefore look to industrial rather than political action as the way to secure their endsmass strikes and ultimately revolution, rather than the ballot and State Socialism.' Eugene V. Debs, one of the best known of the syndicalist leaders, has declared: ' The revolutionary movement of the working class will date from the year 1905, from the organisation of the Industrial Workers of the World. The old form of unionism (trade unions) has long fulfilled its mission and outlived its usefulness, and the hour has struck for a change. When the revolution comes, they (the I.W.W.'s) will be prepared to take possession and assume control of every industry.' ' Without revolutionary principles,' says Vincent St. John, another authoritative writer on the subject, ■' industrial unionism is of little or no value to the workers.'

The menace of syndicalism is assuming serious proportions in the United States ; and the American leaders are perfectly frank in their statements as to the methods which they are prepared to adopt in giving effect to their doctrines, and in. hastening the day of

the final conflict with Capitalism. These methods include a policy of constant irritation and the use of forcestrikes, sabotage, and protest meetings, followed by riot, law-breaking, and almost every possible form of disorder. The official history of the Industrial Workers of the World, written by Secretary Vincent St. John, has the following:—'As a revolutionary organisation the Industrial Workers of the World aims to use any and all tactics that, will get the results sought with the least expenditure of time and energy. The tactics used are determined solely by the power of the organisation to make good in their use. The question of "right" and "wrong" does not concern us. No terms made with an employer are final. All peace so long as the wage system lasts, is but an armed truce. At any favorable opportunity the struggle for more control of industry is renewed.' Eugene V. Debs, one of the standard-bearers of the movement already quoted, writing in the International Socialist Review for February, 1912, says: - 'As a revolutionist, I can have no respect for capitalist property laws, nor the least scruple about violating them. .. I hold all such laws to have been enacted through chicanery, fraud, and corruption, with the sole end in view of dispossessing, robbing, and enslaving the working class. If I had the force to overthrow these despotic laws, I would use it without an instant's hesitation or delay; but I haven't got it, and so I am law-abiding under protest —not from scruple—and bide my time. I agree with these (militant, socialists) that in their fight against capitalism the workers have a right to use any weapon that will help them to win.' In a memorable address delivered ' out West,' William D. Haywood one of the most eloquent of the syndicalist leaders, who was to have been invited to tour New Zealand in the I.W.W. interests —is reported in the same number of the International Socialist Review as voicing the following sentiments :—' So you understand that we know the class struggle in the West, and, realising, having contended with all the bitter things that we have been called upon to drink to the dregs, do you blame me when I say that I despise the law (tremendous applause and shouts of 'No!'), and I am not a lawabiding citizen (Applause.) When we come together and are of a common mind, and the purpose of our minds is to overthrow the capitalist system, we become conspirators then against the United States Government. And certainly it is our intention to abolish this Government (applause) and establish in its place an industrial democracy. (Applause.)' It is considered that the great revolution may, perhaps, be accomplished peacefully, because the capitalist is regarded as a coward who will promptly run away. But the possibility of an other than peaceful issue of the uprising has been duly contemplated—and apparently prepared for. Daniel de Leon, one of the founders of the 1.W.W." organisation, thus expresses the authorised syndicalist view of the situation : ' But perhaps the capitalist may not flee. Perhaps in a delirium of rage he may resist: So much the worse—for him. The Might implied in industrial organisation of the working class of the land, will be.in a position to mop the earth with' the rebellious usurper in short order, and safeguard the right that the ballot proclaimed.'

That is the sort of pap upon which Irish malcontents among the working classes have been nurtured during recent years. It is, we repeat, nothing short of anarchism ; and Mr. Redmond's manifesto states the issue clearly and fairly when it ' solemnly appeals to Irishmen to choose between anarchy or full support of the constitutional movement, as no mean course is possible.' The appeal is a sane and timely one; and we may have every confidence that it will not fall upon deaf ears.