International Item

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 2, 1 March 1913, Page 2

International Item

FRANCE The Confederation of Labe held a special convention and 1 cided on a 2-1 hours strike to s!k they mean business if war is t clared. They decided also, in ca of a call to arms, to assemble union headquarters, and declare general strike. The French wo kers are moving fast.

AMERICA America is seething with wlia the, daily press calls “ unrest. The strike of 200.000 garment vt,o> kers in New York with prepalra turns for sympathetic action on [tin part of 4.0,000 workers in Chickgi was badly needed. Exploited alnc crushed under hellish condition these slaves have at last rebelled, Some “rioting” (probably cauied by private police and thugs) t«pk place. An employer shot a dead. His shop was sacked. I The workers in the Great Hjwtile Industry have held a; National' Convention, and are pushing on the work of organisation on up-to-date lines under the I.W.W. banner. The I.W.W. is urging the steel, slave to organise and fight. Active workers on the Little Falls strike have been jailed, and are being brought up on faked charges. They are in damger of long terms of imprisonment. Organised labour can, and probably will, prevent it.

AUSTRALIA % * Movements State consolidation of bushworkers, as well as general labourers, and to form an inter-State federation of building trade unions, are on foot in Australia. Clerks, shop assistants and storemen also contemplate a similar move. These efforts towards One Big Union involve 100.000 workers.

Miners at Burwood recently refused to do the wheeling while the ■"'■'Mers were on strike.

ENGLAND The transport workers are preparing for a strike to shorten the hours so as to meet a coming industrial depression, the result, as usual, of over-production. ' The Woman’s Labour League Conference passed resolutions in favour of a general strike to prevent war. Ihe workers at home are getting wise, to professional labour fakirs.

Some few months ago, just before the-trial of Etter, Caruso and \ the others, the Auckland I.W.W. received a communication from one | of the defence committees asking I how many bronze medals, faced with Bill Haywood’s image, the local would take and sell so as to raise money for the defence. While ]< cognising the value, to a movement, of good organisers, etc., the local has no use for hero-worship and replied to that effect. It spared no efforts, however, to get as big a protest from the NZ workers as possible, and held several outdoor meetings, circularised every union in N.Z., etc., for that purpose, and also raised and forwarded a little towards the fund.