A BITTER STRUGGLE

Hokitika Guardian, 12 February 1921, Page 3

A BITTER STRUGGLE

IN THE INDUSTRIAL FIGHT. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. GABLE ASSOCIATION. (Received This Day at 8.30 a.m.) SYDNEY. February 12. The ‘Daily Telegraph” in a special article dealing with the industrial position. says the general public fails fo realise there is now in progress one of the bitterest industrial struggles in the history of Australia. On one side are employers who are determined,, if indusi..,. i:—... ti,;.. ;i „.:ii

try is to live in this country it will be free from the unreasoning but deliberate obstruction which it lias suffered from during the recent years. On the other side are the dupes of industrial extremists, whose sinister and calculated purpose is to wreck the existing economic scheme and put Bolshevism in its place. The legitimate trade unions federations are placed in an unenviable position between the contending forces. The Telegraph adds that the present position of the shipping strike means that for the first time in Australia, the body of employers is making, a frontal attack oil the industrial methods which the younger workers have learned from the Independent Workers of the World. Bolshevists and other fanatics, and one seeking to put it into effect. A simT’r fight is rapidly developing between t'c coalminers and the coal owners. The newspaper published a list of fifty strikes in five weeks, which occurred on the northern coalfields and the- position is similar in the southern coalfields. The mine owners declare they will be compelled to take a line of action which they are unwilling to take, unless there is soon some improvement in t Im* position. The emplovers claim the fight is

not being put up against unionism. The modern employer is willing to assist craft unionism in every possible way and if they can seoure industrial peace. The whole tendency is to give the worker a big Interest in his work ns far as possible. The fight against Bolshevism is lieiug made as much on behalf of the community generally as for employers, and they look to the public generally and the solid body of workers for assistance in the fight.