Conscription

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 6, 1 July 1913, Page 1

Conscription

What are you going to do?

Just now r the conscription-mon-gers are getting a firmer grip on the w*orking-class boys of New* Zealand. They have taken the BOYS because they did not dare to compel the MEN to train for the purpose of tearing other wrork-ing-men’s flesh to pieces wuth bayonet, bullet and shell. The younger and more plastic material is being made into A MACHINE FOR MURDER; the machine is to be called the army. Do you know what Military Training means ? It means that YOU —you young men —will be taught that your first duty is to obey. To obey orders wdthout question. To sink your individuality —your manhood. To do whatever you are told. To cease to reason. To become lower than an animal —to become a soldier. The w r ild animals have freedom of individual movement; the soldier has not. The tame animals have more exercise of free will than a soldier —a donkey when to gibWhen you submit to Military Training you wflll be told to “ left wdieel” —and you will “ wdieel” with the other parts of the machine. You wflll be ordered to go through a thrusting movement which is calculated to give you greater efficiency in driving in a bayonet, giving it a twist and a wrench and pulling it out again dripping with the blood and entrails of a fellow*-w*orker and fel-low-conscript of some other capital-ist-ridden country, and all for profit —to satisfy the greed and lust of that INTERNATIONAL BAND OF COMMERCIAL BRIGANDS, THE CAPITALIST CLASS.

And you —you older men,—what

are you going to do about it ? Are you waiting until some UnitySchemers get a few* politicians into Parliament in the hazy future ? Until they try to amend the Conscription Act and make it more palatable ? If so, you may as well recognise that, wdiile you are v*aiting, the imported military snobs and other murder specialists, aided by the Press, are tightening their grip and making Conscription more and more difficult to fight. Determined agitation and ACTION is urgently needed. The Conscription Scheme is a partial failure and can be made a complete failure. They are resorting to all kinds of dodges to bolster up the system, including the illegitimate garnisheement of boys’ wages —which is daylight robbery. But already there are indications that they fear they are going too far. A vigorous distribution of the right kind of anti-militarist leaflets among the recruits; open contempt for, and disobedience of, orders; a few r more threats to pull down drill sheds —followed by action if necessary—and an all-round increase in anti-militarist agitation would certainly have results. What are you going to do about it?