CO-OPERATIVE LABOR

Hokitika Guardian, 22 June 1921, Page 4

CO-OPERATIVE LABOR

“THE STRIKE IS A NIGHTMARE.”

MR R. SEMPLE SPEAKS OUT

WELLINGTON, June 20,

What is described in the “Evening Post” as a remarkable address, was delivered to a crowded audience last evening by Mr Robert Semple, formerly well-known as a New Zealand Labour leader. Some time ago Mr Semple got a few miners together and fixed up an agreement with the Wellington City Council to carry out an important tunnelling work in connexion with the water supply, which comes from the. valleys away beyond the harbour. The work is being done on the co-operative system, and the men are putting their backs into it and hope to put up a record in tunnelling, just as some of the colonial miners who went to the war did on the Western Front.

Mr Semple’s text was ‘lndustrial Cooperation.” During the last twelve months, he said, he had been out in the hills at Wainui-o-mata, working hard all the time. But he liad not been left alone. He had been the victim of the most vicious slander, not only of employers and capitalists, but also of sections who regarded themselves as captains of Labour. Some would no doubt say that he bad gone over to the side of Capital, lmt ho had done nothing of the sort. Ho had never side-stepped a strike when the cause was a just one, and he would never do so. “I think.” he added, “that every practical working man who has had anything to do with strikes will not desire to minimise them hut will wipe them out altogether. No intelligent man who has been through a strike tvants to go through another. I have seen the wretchedness and the misery they cause. To me the strike is a nightmare; and T want to see the day when Hie strike in New Zealand is as extinct as the Mon. Tin’s can bo done, I say by instituting a system which will eliminate the middleclass exploiter. In the job we have in hand at Wainui we have done this.” (Applause). “NO NEED FOR, THE STRIKE

WEAPON.” Mr Semple went on to state ti

hiterto such .a work ns he and his mates had undertaken had been left to an individual contractor. Ho and his friends were out to prove that the contractor was unnecessary. In this case he and his men had undertaken a very important and urgent work, necessary for the health and happiness of the community. The big contractor might have come along and exploited the rate Payers on the one hand, and the workers on the other. He would have had his pound of flesh, and would have been the personification of a parasite. In this particular work the men appointed their own officers, and were practically their own bosses. Every man would do his work as rapidly as possible ; there would he no go-slow and no strike. Home said they had surrendered thp strike weapon. Of course, they had, for there was no need for it. They wanted to get the work through as fast as they could.

A voice: Speeding up. Mr Semple: Yes, speeding up, and T would like to speed up some of you roosters. Come out to Orongorongo, and 1 will speed you up. We claim that we have not departed from any one of Labour’s principles. The same interjector: Yes you have. The unions are against the contract system.

Mr Semple: There is a great deal of difference between the competitive contract system and the co-operative eontract system. By the latter th c workers share and share alike. There is a great difference. It is better than your dirty cast-iron wage system.

1 lie interjector; Abolish the wage

system. Mr Semple: Yes, I have fought for that, and when the workers are ready 1 will do my share in another tight for the same thing. You will not find me lagging behind. Friends, you can rest assured that there are no blacklegs at Wainui. “CONSIRUOTTY E GENIUS. “I have said,” concluded Mr Semple, that we have surrendered the strike weapon. We do so because we have nothing to strike about. I, for one, am not going to indulge in a strike for practice, just for a pastime. If there is a real strike for a real cause anywhere, I will be in it, just as quickly as those creatures who have criticised me so freely. If we put this job through half as quickly as any contractor could do it, don’t you think it will be a good thing for the men and the community? Do you want to see strikes and trouble and turmoil? We are out to give a social service ts quickly as possible. Let the workers watch tho experiment. We; may wipe out altogether tho need for strikes. At least wo will show how this can he done. This is a practical demonstration of the fact that the workers do possess constructive genius, once said to bo the monopoly of the private contractor. When opportunity knocks at the dix>r, let the worker get in and show what he can do. Let us he without this slandering and hack-biting from poisonous industrial toads, and ( get down to practical methods of male- | ing New Zealand a better place for all concerned.” (Loud applause.)