LABOUR AFTER THE CONGRESS

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1800, 12 July 1913, Page 4

LABOUR AFTER THE CONGRESS

• It ia perhaps worth while giving ; a brief outline of the situation which has developed in Labour circles as the result of tho "Great Unity Congress" which was to do so much to i advance the cause of the worker. When the Congress opened there were, broadly speaking, excluding isolated unions, three organised juabour parties in the Dominion which appeared to have something in common. They were the Federation of Labour, the United Labour and the straight-out Socialists. Of these the Federation of Labour was probably the most active and the most powerful, and it overlapped to some extent the Socialists. The unions composing the three organisations named were represented at tho Congress, and the idea underlying the gathering was to provide a constitution under which they could work in unison towards a common goal. The Congress has ended with the Federation of Labour, the So- . cialists, and a section of the old United Labour party pledged to a constitution and a programme frankly Socialistic. A section of the leaders of the United Labour party has refused to com? under the constitution of the new United Federation of Labour, as it is styled on its industrial side j and has also declined to associate itself with the political side of tho new organisation, which is known as the Social Democratic party. Thus we find the position very much as it was at the beginning of the Congress so far as unity is concerned. There is, however, this difference. Unit); has been attempted; and it has failed. Moreover, its failure has resulted in a hardening up, and strengthening of, the militants, and an increased bitterness of feeling between tho two factions, represented on tho one side by the old Federation of Labour, and on the other by the United Labour party. The failure to secure the' complete unity of organised labour may bo traced back to two causes. Firstly, to the extreme aggressiveness of the Socialist element at the Congress; and, secondly, to the complete checkmate of those chiefly associated with the United Labour party, who had hoped to use the Unity movement to further their own personal and _ political ambitions. When the militants took charge of tho Congress the plans of these selfstyled evolutionists were badly upset. The attempt of the latter to sway the Congress in the direction which suited the political purpose they had in view failed utterly, and finding themselves out in the cold, they seceded. Now they are striving to rally around them the unions associated with the United Labour party, and to drag them into a conflict which must inevitably widen the breach between the two factions. »The leaders of cach section are proclaiming the virtues of their own particular brand of Labour-Socialism, and decrying the other side's brand, and the unfortunate rank and file have a cheerless .prospect of continued dissension/4nd the consequent dissipation _of the strength which should legitimately belong to a 'truly united labour party. .It seems very plain, however, that the new organisation—the so-called United Federation of Labour—which has emerged from the Unity Congress, is, and will be for some time, the dominant influence in Labour matters in New Zealand. Its militancy and aggressiveness make it a possible source of serious industrial unrest, but in some respects at least it is less dangerous than its rival. With the United Federation of Labour the public knows exactly where it is. The Federation has the courage of its views; it is frankly Socialistic and Syndicalist. With the selfstyled evolutionaries, the position is different. Their methods are more insidious. Tliey seek to disarm suspicion and to gain their ends by lulling the public into a false sense of security. They want to capture control of the administration of tho affairs of the country, and in due oourso give rein to their ambition, but in the meantime they deem it advisable to preach a policy of sweet reasonableness, and they are virtuously indignant at the extreme ideas of the leaders of the rival organisation. Both parties, however, have the same goal in view, and but for the personal ambitions of some of the leadoi's there would probably be a Unity movement in New Zealand to-day , which would have left no room for tho United Labour party. The one. clear conclusion to be drawn from tho proceedings at the Congress is : the fact that Labour's greatest handicap is its own leaders. They arc ■ either too narrow, too selfish, or too ! extreme in their views to hold for ; any length of time the confidence and ' respect of any organisation truly re- 1 presontativo of all classes of labour, i