LABOUR AND POLITICS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 205, 25 May 1920, Page 3

LABOUR AND POLITICS

"The Times We, Live In" was the" iubject of an address delivered by'All'. 1. Hickey in tho Alexandra Hull. on bunday. Mr. T. Brindle presided. The speaker devoted considerable attention to the progress ol' the Labour movement in Australia, contending that in that country there was "never a more deplorable crime commuted in the niune of than the attempted Labour administration .of -capitalistic institutions.' Labour Governments in Australia had not benefited the working Ciass one iota because wrong methods ha 1 been pursued and, because,'as one Australian politician had put it, they could not usher in Socialism on money berroived from the London monev-lend-ers. Wherever political action was not attunpted, trades unionism had i'uiled miserably as a means of retaining the status of the workers. Political action, too. had often been wrongly employed. The way lo overcome thg difficulty was lor organised Labour to carry on its industrial organisation, establish its shop committees, establish, if it could, its shjp stewards, establish its political party, and, after winning political control do the essential thing for the industrial democratisatiori of the industries in which the workers were employed. Industrial action and pulitirnl action must work hand in hand, aa Indirect action alone tho objects of Labour could never be attained.