THE RAILWAY STRIKE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 46, 6 February 1945, Page 4

THE RAILWAY STRIKE

Sir, —The New Zealand Herald in. its issue of January *25 states in its f edi'toriah "He. (Mr Donovan) is pre- [ pared to create a industrial chaos. . This is lie technique employed by , Communists ..." Yet only four l columns away ? on. the same page under the heading of. "Wise Appeal . Rejected" it quotes Mr L. Reid Chairman of the Otahuhu Branch of A.S.R.S. as saying: "We .should return to work on the basis of th,a i promise that the wages question will; be settled by the middle of February-" The Herald may strive to malign Communists but Mr Rekl's words give the lie'. The Communist Party believes that the main task before all the people of New Zealand is the totai defeat- of Fascism. Until this defeat is accomplished all other democratic aims ftnist be considered of subordinate importance. At. the last conference of the Communist Party in their "No Strike" policy was discussed and formulated, Here it is: "We have to struggle against strikes, not isimply by taking up a correct opposition but by finding alternative methods of meeting the workers' - legitimate grievances." Nothing that can be said in an attempt to discredit the Communist; Party can get around that plain | statement of our attitude to Strikes and Industrial Disputes. Yours etc., SECRETARIAT Edgecumbe Brandy Communist Party. Sir—Now that "the tumult anfl the shouting" has died and the railway strike may I, for one, voice a protest at the surely unconstitutional way in which this was engineered Hnd carried out.

i With such vital issues involved - one would have expected that a t deliberate and dispassionate vote would have first been taken before committing the men to sueh an extreme step. As far as this district is concerned it was not so; only those railwaymeii near enough to fauranga to attend a hastily arranged meeting there, had any say in the matter of coming out on the. rest of the men had neither voice nor vote; nor had they any say as to how long they should stay out. (True there had been a hasty attempt to take a vote but this had been declared void—and rightly so—because subsequent developments could have altered the direction of the voting). I contend that those railwaymen who were forced out on strike against J their will; who could see nothing to be gained by such drastic action, or in continuing to stay out when the more sober-minded had l gone back ? were just as much victims of. . this regrettable strike as the rest of the community, perhaps even more so, as they had to smart under the opprobrium of an irate public when ironically they were actually in sympathy with it. Yours etc. ? RAILWAYMAN'S WIFE..