POLITICAL ACTS AND POLITICAL ACTION.

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 November 1913, Page 2

POLITICAL ACTS AND POLITICAL ACTION.

Things are rapidly moving in Sydney, New South Wales. The workers are surely within sight, if they have not actually reached, the Promised Land. What with Labour Government banouest to Tory politicians from England, who are here to study the beneficent results of Labour castigation (beg pardon, legislation), the fining of Pailway Commissioner Johnson by Judge Hey don, of the Arbitration Court, for an infringement of the Industrial Disputes Act, the excitement being* caused over the forthcoming arrival of “ our ” navy, not to speak of the enthusiasm on account of the proximity of the annual slaves’ procession on Eight Hours’ Day (when the workeis will be graciously granted a “holiday” for the purpose of advertising the businesses of their masters). Surely you New Zealand workers must envy us our Labour Paradise! That social and economic conditions in Australia are totally different to those which exist in any other part of this benighted planet, we have on the authority of no less a personage than Labour Premier William Holman, who, when drinking the health of his noble and honourable friends at the banquet above referred to, told his hearers that such things as millionaires and poverty were unknown in Australia. According to the report this remark was made pretty early in the evening, too; but one must conclude that either Holman was drunk or he must have a poor opinion of the sobriety of British politicians. Mr. Will Crooks —the original William, not Holman —the Socialist Imperialist (ye gods!), the “ self-made man,” as the capitalist dailies call him, “ who rose from the Poorliouse to Parliament,” is aslo a member of this touring gang of parasitical shysters. Willie very evidently prefers the company of aristocrats to paupers, and champagne repasts to thin gruel and salt herring. His preference may be natural, if it could be proclaimed with less show of unctuous selfsatisfaction, for Crooks seems never to tire of getting himself interviewed and expressing his worthy Imperialistic aspirations.

While Premier Holman was painting his picture of this democratic and happy Australia, in which there are no classes, no oppression, no privilege, no poverty, the ink had scarcely dried on a report of Professor Irvine, of the Sydney University, depicting the appalling conditions under which the slave-breeding portion of the population are huddled together in the working-class residential areas of Sydney. And this in spite of the baby bonus, too ! The report caused such a sensation that even the “ Worker/’ a Labour Party organ, was impelled to remark, inter alia, that “ Professor Irvine’s exposure of squalid slums in the city of Sydney is a grim condemnation of the capitalistic system ” (administered by Labour politi-

(By T.G.)

Sydney, September 7, 1913.

cians by the way, T.G.) “which can produce such a result in a young country like this.” The article goes on to take the “ Herald ” to task for its “ callous effrontery ” for suggesting that there is no need for workers to live in slums as they are paid good wages. But this “ callous effrontery ” becomes “ high statesmanship ” when Holman and Co. close their eyes to the poverty which exists, nay, even deny its existence, and boost Australian economic conditions in speeches specially prepared for the cable-crammer, so that unfortunate slaves from the slums of London, Glasgow, and Dublin, shall travel 12,000 miles only to find themselves in the friendless hovels of Bedfern, Wooloomooloo, and Surrey Hills. But the Socialist and Labourite, the Liberal and the Tory, the “ Worker ” and the “ Herald,” are out to play the game of politics. The slave must meanwhile suffer in pestilential-stricken surroundings, be starved by the master and landlord, fooled by lawyers and politicians, vaccinated by doctors, and damned by the parson. Apropos of the fining of Commissioner Johnson by the Arbitration Court, those who believe in waging the class war on a “ civilised plane,” etc., should be hugely satisfied with the result. Mr. Johnson was guility of altering, without notice, the conditions under which some State employees toiled. Not relishing the change, these Labour Government slaves actually had the audacity to go on strike. Ex-Premier Me Go wen, now Minister for Labour, doubtless with the forthcoming election in view, instead of following the now wellestablished practice of political Labourism of prosecuting the strikers, decided to prosecute Commissioner Johnson for a breach of the Industrial Disputes Act, with the result that a fine of £5 was imposed, with about a tenner in costs. The Commissioner being a Government servant, of course, Treasurer Cann took a fiver out of the Treasury with the right hand and placed it back again with the left. The costs went to a legal parasite, and to fool the workers was cheap at the price. They were coaxed back to work pending the result of the prosecution, and if they do not now consent to the altered conditions they will, of course, be legally dismissed. Another glorious victory for labour! Events near and far, however, are steadily educating the slaves. The Band butchery and now the Dublin massacre are fresh in their minds; and despite opposition from all quarters, not the least of which comes from the class war constitutionalists of the Socialist Party, the I.W.W. here is making rapid progress. The need of the moment is a weekly “ Industrial Unionist ” to counteract the insidious teaching and quackery of politicians of all persuasions.