THE BIG THREE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 177, 22 April 1919, Page 5

THE BIG THREE

BRITISH LABOUR'S TRIPLE ALLIANCE

HOW IT DEVELOPED

(By Robert. Williams, general secretary, National Transport Workers' Federation, in the "Daily Mail.") -

Many people are by tho diverse and conflicting reports which appear from time to time regarding the organisation known as the "Triple Alliance." As the three executive councils of the miners, railwaymen, and transport workers, which form the Alliance, have been discussing issues of the most farreaching and momentous character, some usoful purposo may bo served' by setting out very briefly what this body really is. The Triple Industrial Alliance of the National Union of Hailwaymen, the National Workers' Federation, and the Miners' Federation of Great Britain was first constituted in London on April 23, 1914, in pursuance of a decision of the annual conference of the latter body held at Scarborough in 1913. Tho mandate upon which the executive committee of the Miners' Federation was then acting was to tho effect that they should "approach the executive committees of other trades organisations with a view to co-operate action and the support of each other's demands." This resolution, it will be seen, was arrived at in consequence of the experience of the miners in their strike for tho minimum wage in 1912, and their knowledge of the equally formidable railway and transport strikes of 1911. • At the inaugural meeting unanimity was manifest concerning the desirability of a joint working agreement for action of ail offensive and defensive character. The policy pursued by tho Alliance has been one of extreme caution, testing its strength, improving its' moral, and assuring.its discipline step by step and stage-by' stage. The cardinal point in the constitution of the Alliance is that which expressly states that action taken should only bo of a national character and vitally affecting a. principle which necessitates joint action. The constitution moreover provides that co-operation of the joint organisation shall not be callefl upon, orexpected, unless, and until, the matter in dispute has been considered by, and received, the endorsement of, tho national executive of the organisation primarily concorned, and that each organisation instituting a movement which is likely to involve the other affiliated organisations shall, before any definite steps are taken, submit the whole matter to the joint body for consideration. . All theso developments have taken place by reason of the fact that the organised workers are realising more and more the; powers, accruing from numerical strength. Trade unionism grows 111 so far as it recedes from sectionalism and localism and proceeds towards industrialism aud nationalism, lho bargaining power and authority of tho national organisation transcends that ot theorganisation of a local character. Bitter and humiliating experience Ims tauglit us that the working class must depend moro and,moro upon-its power to influence negotiations by cumulative action. Between tho mine workers, tho railwaj workers, and tho transport workers thoie is a strong bond of union .based upon analogous interests, l'ljst, in that thej are powerful of themselves and irresistible if they should bo compelled to resoit to the arbitrament of strike action, inej are, moreover, essentially interdependent one upon tho other. For instance, Mi. J H. Thomas, M.P., speaking foi tho railway'workers, has indicated on moro than oiio occasion that, during the nuncio strike of 1012 his union paid m unemployment benefit some .194,000, whereas dispute pay in the railway istrike ot 1911 cost his union only .C 15,000. Thcro can be no denying the fact that industrial capital is organised with increasing efficiency. 11l the old days thoie was tho Employers Pnrlianientarj Association; now wo hnvo tho 1* ederatxoi of British Industries represenlting 1 iter ally hundreds of millions of '»a ustl ™ capital. Wo for our part woulc pre u to see a big dispute which ot itself could not last moro than a week than have a series of' long-drawn-out disputes whore we-should be taken in and, as has happened all too frequently, broken severally and eeprtratolj. , It must not bo imagined for a moment that the Alliance is out for strike action. Far from it. Since its inception it has not encouraged or countenanced one single stoppage of work.