THE FEDERATION OF LABOUR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1458, 5 June 1912, Page 8

THE FEDERATION OF LABOUR.

THE STRIKE LEVIES. Holiday's sitting of the conference, of tho Xew Zealand Federation of Labour was devoted to the proposed new constitution. The following preamble was adopted:- •

"The working class and the employing class have liotning in common. Tlicre | tun be no peace h> long as hunger and want are found among millions of working people, und the few who make up the oinp'oving have all the good things of life. "Jiotwuen these two classes a struggle must go on until tilt workers of (lie world organise as a class, take possession of tliu earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system. "Wo Jind that tilie centring of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope wilh the ever-growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a stato of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping to defeat one another in wage wars. "These conditions can bo changed, and the interest of tho working class upheld only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries, if nec-s----sary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to nil. "Instead of the Conservative motto, A fair day's wages for a fair day's work, our watchword is 'Abolition of tho wage system. , "It is tho historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism, ihe army of production must bo organised, but only for the everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organising industrially we are forming'tho structure of the new societv within the .ilurl 1 of the old. "knowing, therefore, that such an organisation is absolutely necessary for our emancipation, we unite under the following constitution." At yesterday's sitting of ,the conference the constitution was further under discussion. It. was announced that the We-1-

liugton Waterside Union had voted i! 100 to the strike iind lock-out fund, and imposed a levy of 2?. fid. per week upon each member. Further, that the. Lyttelton Waterside Union had imposed a levy of 10 per cent. These announcements were greeted with cheers. A telegram was read from the Westport Wnter.-iders' Union statins that the 10 per cr>nt. levy for the strike fund had been imposed. , Tt was resolved:—"That federated unions be instructed not to take any vote or ballot for or against a, strike unless instructed by the New Zealand Federation of Labour." Tho mattcT of work ceasing at certain hours on wharves was referred to the executive. . On the motion of Messrs. V. H. Hickey and W. Young, it was resolved:— "That it be an instruction to all unions in. the federation to cancel registration under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act as soon as practicable; further, that it be a recommendation to all unions desirous of joining the organisation to seriously consider the n<lyisI ability of cancellation before joining, as we consider the Conciliation and Arbitration Act detrimental to the best interests of the working class, and directly in opposition to the spirit of industrial unionism."