LABOUR POLICY

Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1931, Page 7

LABOUR POLICY

EC'OXOMIC PROBT.EA IS. STATK.ME.NT BY .MR J. THORN. WELLINGTON, April (>. A comprehensive survey of the preseut economic position of New Zealand was made hv .Mr J. Thorn, president of the New Zealand Labour Party, in the course' of his address to delegates attending the fifteenth annual conference of the Party, which opened to-day in the Trades Hall, He said with the increase in the wealth of the country there should have been a commensurate improvement in the workers’’ conditions. If, instead, til© workers suffered, it was a condemnation of the modern social order. He referred to the displacement of men liv machines, and declared that the remedy was to reduce hours, and to pay wages which would allow the workers to come effect, ively into the market.

Mr Thorn criticised the deflation policy of the banks, one of the results of which, he said, was to enrich the inter-est-receiving class and to curtail the buying power of the masses. From the position of the Dominion as lie saw it, he thought the following deductions were reasonable:

(1) That New Zealand’s interests are constantly in jeopardy while it almost entirely relies on the London market, where a disastrous fall in prices may he ordained by tors and speculators, (2) That a gradual development of New Zealand’s local market is desirable to lessen the need to sell in London, and as our production is increased it should be devoted to the liquidation of our indebtedness abroad.

(•<) That to accomplish this development there should lie a socialisation of New Zealand's credit resources and their devotion to stimulation of primary and secondary industries. NO MAGICAL REMEDY. Continuing, Mr Thorn said: “For myself, 1 never felt the problem presented by the capitalist and financial industry 7 for-profit to be more intricate, and its solution more difficult, than it is to-day Two tilings are- certain. The first is that a remedy cannot be applied by magic; the other is that there is no solution whatever that will take tlie workers’ interests and well-being into account, unless the workers unite industrially and politcallv, and are ready for the patient yet determined work '’evolved in the reconstructive policy. The situation requires, 1 think, efforts in the following directions:

“A trades union movement which can visualise itself in the role of the creator of a new society based on cooperation, and which fully appreciates the value of political action because it, is now impossible to confine the definition of industrial questions to the negotiations that go on between the workers and the employers, “The fullest possible unity between the trade unions and the Labour Party, with frequent- consultations in a spirit of helpfulness and comradeship so that the most vital effect can be produced in every situation as it arises, and so that propaganda and Parliamentary work might have the full benefit of combination and be encouraged and inspired,

“Contacts to he established with the many organisations serving humanitarian purtioses throughout the country, '‘"Endeavours to meet farmers’ organisations for discussion on common problems, with the object of gaining opinion for the Labour Party’s view that farmers are at least' entitled to the same economic security and advantages as it- is asking for wage workers, -and so that the bond of common interest between the two bodies of workers might be strengthened.

“Tn these ways the Labour Party can widen its influence- throughout the community and strengthen every tendency towards social growth. It will act as a democratic leaven and he an instrument for the rejuvenation of the country,”