Don't Shoot!

Industrial Unionist, Volume 1, Issue 12, 6 November 1913, Page 4

Don't Shoot!

WELLINGTON WATERSI DERS’ APPEAL. This is the appeal ot the useful, honest workers of the waterside to* the Bluejackets. We are locked out because we' would not see our workmates victimised. Would you r We have' stood by them, and consider it was the only fair and manly thing ta do. Don’t you? Your fathers and brothers haye stood by their mates. YVere they wrong? You know they were not. You know that it is only a man’s duty to stand by his mate. Then if our employers call upon you to fire on us, DON’T SHOOT. Yl en are brought here to work in our place to drive ns by starvation to turn our backs upon our mates. Would you be able to quietly stand by and see men take the bread from the mouth of those you hold dear ? You would kick the same as we do. They tell you we want to destroy life ana property. THIS IS A LIE. We want to jmotect the only property we have, our lives. We want such conditions as may make them worth living Is that wrong ? They tell you we have “ boo-ed” the special constables and the scabs. YY'ouldn’t you ? The employers are trying to* smash our union, they don’t want us to stand by one another. But we are going to. Wouldn’t you? They want you to help in their dirty work of breaking us up. DON’T DO IT, BOY'S! Y'ou have no quarrel with us, nor we w T ith you. And have our bosses ever done anything for vou ? NEY'EIt. If is into workers’ homes that you go Avhen on leave. Y'our friends are our friends; your faand brothers are our fathers and brothers; the same live., they live we live. Y"ou belong to the working-class the same as we do. And it is to us and our homes, our friends and our relatives, that you come wffien you are free. Then, mates, as mates we ask you not to allow yourselves to be used as bullies or perhaps murderers against us. If they call on you to intimidate or slaughter us, DON’T SHOOT. Do you go to homes of the rich when you land? No. Do the officers take you to their relatives and their friends? No. Then think of your own mates - and relatives first, and remember we are they and the same as they. Then, DON’T SHOOT. Don’t let it be said that when you get back home that you have” shed the blood of your mates. Could you face your ola friends wffio have had to struggle the same as us if you fight us dowm ? No, you v'ould be ashamed, you say. “ Y es, but I am a sailor or a soldier, and must obey orders.” But when you joined the service you did not join to kill unarmed men, women, and children ot your own nation and class. You did not mean to leave your manhood behind, did you? Don’t be a machine ; be a man. Don’t be a scab or help scabs. Think of vour old vmrkmates. DON’T KILL ITS. Think of your own fathers and brothers, and if the men who whnt us to desert our mates call on vou to fire, DON’T SHOOT. Worker.”