AT THE STATUE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 904, 25 August 1910, Page 2

AT THE STATUE.

THE INDUSTRIAL COMMONWEALTH. "NO-MOSES IN THE MOVEMENT." At the Queen's Statue yesterday Mr. R. Somplo, a worker at Iho Stato colliery and an organiser of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, indulged in some very straight talk during lunch hour. The burden of his remarks was the ineptitude- of the Trades Council and its powcrlessuess to do anything for the worker.

Sir. Seinple, who discarded the gloves from the start, said tlwS t : — •- days 'of sectional trades unionism were gone. Capital had concentrated a trust's and combines, and labour must do tho same—combine and federate. For threo or four years the miners had 'waited for the Trades Council to do something in this direction and then sent out Mr. Hiukoy ami himself on a mission of federation. They recognised it was not a miners' qu'arrel atone, but tho workers' quarrel generally; so they hold out the hand of good-fellow-ship to all of tho working classes with a view to tho establishment of an organisation such- as would secure this interest of the workers iu tho face of tho aggression of capital and capitalistic methods. It had been said that they belonged to the "red-flag school" 1 That was so, and so did the majority of the workers who recognised it as tho 'only intelligent doctrino sotting forth tho case of tho workers. They had been too long tho dupe's and playthings of tho union secretary and the politician. An organisation was, tlio reflection of the intelligence of its members. The ultimate goal oi the federation was the ' industrial common-' wealth. But political, office-seekers did not beiiolit the worker one scrap. Tho worker must depend on' his oim intelligence/ Tho Trades Council went through its half-dozen sheets of remits and then crawled to the Government, and this performance was repeated year by year. Tho Government recognised thero was nothing behind the Trades Council, and consequently flmig-all fchu remits into the waste-paper basket. The Trades Council merely- wanted tu go into And if a man got there, he. introduced a Bill to make all street? 30ft. wide, forgetting that hundreds of workers are out of employment. Tho workers- should leant m> profit.by experience. They ought to form an industrial organisation on dass-cnnsciiius lines. The employing class pinned its faith in tho Arbitration Court.' Was that not an indication that the Court was of service to them.and of-Ho service to,the worker? When introduced by the late' Mr. Seddon, it' might have been useful once, but not now. :' \ There was a movement on foot to establish a Labour party in Now Zealand, but before the Labour party should co,mo the industrial organisation, with its force of combination, and bump its members out of Parliament, unless Hhey did what they were told. The organisation should be able to dictate to its members. The days of leadership were over. They had too long been led to industrial and political slaughter by some Moses or other. There was no Moses in the movement which ho advocated. There were uo individuals to pop round with as many pens :stuck bonind their ears as an Australian porcupine had. (Laughter.) Mr. Soinpk , concluded with an earnest appeal-to tlio wharf .workers to join , the federation. Mr. P. H. Hickey advocated a better understanding andi/knowledge among tho workers. He maintained that tho strike was a legitimate weapon in tho hands of the."working classes, who had as much right to withhold their, labour for their price as any. shopkeeper had to withhold any other commodity. By combination the workers bad been able to demand the right to work 'and secure it. ■ -. • ■. •.■ On the motion of Mr. Farland a vote of thanks was carried.to the speakers, who'promised to come and speak again.