The Dominion THURSDAY, JUKE 12, 1919. THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 221, 12 June 1919, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, JUKE 12, 1919. THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE

Owing to the disorganisation of 'mail services some features of the strike situation in Australia are not as sharply defined as they might be,but its main outlines are quite clear. At the moment no hopes of an early settlement are held out, and by the time it has run its course the great industrial upheaval in which-the first move was made last ■month by the seamen of three States will probably rank as the most disastrous that ever occurred in the Commonwealth. The magnitude of the conflict is not more evident than the fact that it is tho outcome of a. deliberate attempt by an insurgent section of organised Labour to overthrow constitutional authority and, gain a position in which it would bsTimmune from all restrictions in exploiting the rest of the community. All who have followed the course of events from day to day in the cablegrams must be aware, that the Australian strike has nothing in common with an ordinary industrial dispute. It is true, that the seamen at the outset put. forward a schedule of demands, asking, amongst other things, for an increase in wages of thirty-five shillings a month. They have refused absolutely, however, to'submit these demands to arbitration. Some officials of the Seamen's Union and a proportion of its members favour the constitutional method. It was reported last month that the assistant secretary of. the New South Wales Seamen's Union had resigned as a protest against the men striking without a ballot, and a little •later it was stated that the New south Wales men were confident that an overwhelming number favoured the resumption of work, and would be able to out-vote other branches (i.e., those of Victoria and Queensland). As information stands the South Australian branch of the Seamen's Union, of which tho \Vcst Australian branch is an off-' Fhoot, is still refusing to have anything to do with the strike, although recent news shows that the strike is spreading to South Australia by the crews of-all vessels giving notice as they arrive. The position seems to be that while many seamen are opposed to the strike, as a body they are allowing themselves to bo dragooned by a section of their officials. The maritime strike in any case is now incidental only to. the widespread' conflict which is directly and indirectly paralysing trade and industry over the greater part of the Commonwealth. The real nature of. the struggle appears in the tactics and proclaimed.objects of the waterside workers in Sydney, Melbourne, and elsewhere.' The watersiders on strike have fiad little to say about the seamen's demands, and do not even profess on. their own account industrial grievances of tho ordinary kind. It is their avowed object to establish the Labour dictatorship which they and other unions vainly attempted to ' establish in 1917. In that year, it will be remembered, _ a general strike' was fomented in . the • Commonwealth, allegedly as a protest against the introduction of the Taylor system in the New South Wales railway Workshops. The ostensible grievance was obviously a pretext. The lay or system is a commonplace check system to which no honest worker could possibly take exception. The struggle in 1917. precipitated regardless of the critical stage then reached in the war, developed on tho lines of an attempt to substitute an irresponsible Labour dictatorship for the authority of the State and Federal Governments. A number of Labour organisations Honourably bound by agreements of then recent date violated these agreements in order to take part-in the strike._ Very justly, unions which acted in this way were subsequently deregistered and deprived of the preference which was one of the chief instruments of their power. The present strike in its total scope is a deliberately-planned attemptto reverse the defeat sustained by tho extremists in 1911. Their immediate object is to hound down the workers who in that year loyally remained in their employment and enabled Australia to go on playing its part in the war. By terrorismand viole/ice, which in some cases have been ineffectively repressed, and by the paralysis of industry, the extremists are endeavouring to drive away tho loyalist workers from wharves and other places of employment. The essential issues at stake are so clearly defined that absolute futility may seem to bo touched in the decision, reported a day or two ago from Melbourne, to appoint a Royal Commission "to inquire into the wharf labourers' strike." Pro. sumably, however, the object of the inquiry will not bo to ascertain the merits of the strike, which are quite obvious, but to investigate the circumstances in which it was engineered and to fasten responsibility on the right shoulders. If such an investigation is carried out as searchingly as it ought to be, the results .should be of material value, not only in awakening the people of the Commonwealth to defend their invaded rights, but in stimulating Labour to cast out those within its fold who arc leading it to destrucand arc solely intent upon welding powerful sections of its organisation into an instrument of exploitation. There never was a time when light was more needed in the dark places of Labour organisation in Australia—a thing which may bo said, indeed, with as much truth -of Labour organisation in other countries. It is impossible to believe that the men responsible

for the widespread paralysis of industry which thus far has thrown forty thousand workers out of employment in Melbourne alone arc actuated by any desire to promote the welfare of the wage-earning population. On the face of it their activities, in the limits to which their power extends, are as wantonly destructive as those pursued by the Bolshcviki in Russia. The extraordinary thing is that these anti-social wreckers and exploiters are permitted so much license. That they and their dupes, who include unquestionably all that is worst and weakest in the Labour movement, are in a minority even ip. the ranks of organised Labour was demonstrated in the test of strength which occurred a day or two ago at the annual conference of the Australian Labour Party. They were there outvoted, though by narrower majorities than could be desired. Existing circumstances demonstrate, however, that - as a minority they are capable of working almost indefinite harm, and unless constructive forces can be marshalled, in the ranks of Labour far more effectively than at present in opposition to their destructive at tack the outlook'for Australia is as dark as it could well be.