PLEBS LEAGUE

Evening Star, Issue 21743, 11 June 1934, Page 7

PLEBS LEAGUE

■ TIME FARMERS AND PRBUFEiITY rAt.the last '.'meeting of the above league the tutor, Mr M. Silyerstone, took the above subject for the. title of his address. The . speaker , said the farming industry was occupying the attention. ‘of . every Government in the world tp-day. The reason for this was not far to seek, farming was the natural activity of man, to provide for his own'.nee'ds. There was. no fanner’s problem , until; the institution of privateiproperty. It' was from ■ this period that the ; problem. of the farmer could be traced. Man in his natural state lived a life of, primitive Communism’. In this state his troubles were caused by famines. To-day, in our civilised state, we were not troubled with famines. It was artificial conditions that now caused troubles. , Wa had year after year our farmers’' conferences but they were mostly composed of persons who did not seem to be up against it. The working fanner’s voice entered into these conferences hardly at all. The discussions at these functions always viewed the situation from the capitalist standpoint, and sup-' ported the continuation of the present system. • ■ ' ’ ' . In 1911, when we had about a million of we had 130,000 people , employed in agriculture. - ■ Re-cently,'with-a' 50 per cent, increase in population, we > only employed 136,000. Under the oTd methods this : increase in population would mean an increaMi in the- number of . workers, ■ but improvement* in production, etc.; had the effect of freeing the people from extra toil. Under a capitalist economy this had created a problem of unemployment in tbis industry. Theses people still needed the essentials, of life, and tbe increased productivity of the soil could supply this demand, 'but our distributive methods prohibited this functioning, because profits and interest charges took precedence over human needs. Speakers at these conferences said Britain was our only market, overlooking the home market Another speaker said we must export or expire. This person could not see that if this happened we would so arrange our. condition as to consume the goods ourselves. Mr Poison urged, a rearranging of the, .currency question, etc.’, not understanding, probably,' that- all the' contradictions that the farming and other industries were experiencing were :an inherent part ,of capitalist society, and could not be solved as long as Capitalism lasts. *So long as society was composed .of - exploiters , and exploited, we would continue to be faced with the problems that-were occupying these conferences, and only by. national effort could any degree of alleviation be attained. What New . Zealand was faced with-every other capitalist country'in the . world was faced with. Under private ownership and control for profits, ; where the few had the power over the lives of the many as to the standard of existence they should have, a conflict; must go on, till the many realised and assumed control, so that a system of common ownership, and control for use was instituted, wherein all would have their heeds adequately , supplied.