UNITY CONGRESS COMMITTEE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 542, 15 February 1913, Page 6

UNITY CONGRESS COMMITTEE.

CONGRESS CONVENED FOR JULY Ist, 1913, AT WELLINGTON (The matter in this column ia supplied by authorised advocates of the Basis of Uni ? y adopted by the Trade Union Conference, which met in January at Wellington. The writers o? the articles are alone responsible for the opinions therein expressed). INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL PARTIES APPROVED. ONE ORGANISATION IN INDUS TRY. ONE ORGANISATION IN POLITICS. The following is the plan of unity adopted by the Trades Union Conference and now submitted to the organisations cnncerned: —■ INDUSTRIAL. That this conference recommend the following outline as indicating the lines along which a constitution should be drawn up by the sub-corn mittee set up to draft a constitution to be considered, amended if necessary, and adopted by the joint con of union to be held in Wellington, commencing on the first Tuesday in July, 1913. Your committe« also recommends that the pr-posed conference to be'held in July shall forthwith inaugurate the new body as a go ing concern. Name. United Federation of Labour.

Composition. —The organisations must all be composed of actus! wage-wor-kers brought together in an organisation embodying industrial departments, each department to cover some industry, such as mining, transportation, building trades, etc. Preamble-—The working-class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no space so long as hunger and wsnfc are to be found among millions of working people, and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production can abolish the wage system. We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and frwer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with ths ever-growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars Thes9 conditions can be changed, and the interest of the working class upheld, only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members, in any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto: "A fair day's Wiiges for a fair day's work," our watshwurd is: "Abolition of the wage system." It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organised, not only for the everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organising industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old. Knowing, therefore, that such an organisation is absolutely necessary for our emancipation, we unite under the following constitution :

Objects, —1. To secure employment of our members in preference fo nonunionists; to maintain a spirit of fraternal sympathy with the workers of this and other countries by assisting them when necessary. 2. To use our united efforts to discourage the contract laoour and bonus systems, and as seon as possible to abolish these, believing the said systems to be detrimental to the best interests of organised labour. 3. To enable and provide for the Federation to own, publish and control a newspaper or newspapers. 4. To ensure to members who are proved to have been unjustly treated the support of the Federation. 5. To link up with the industrial organisation of all other countries for the achievement of international solidarity and also for more effective working class action in time of international conflict. 6. The United Federation will always act with the end in view of securing to the workers the full product of their labour. Management. —The national executive shall consist of general officers and of representatives of each industrial department, the officers to be elected by ballot of the whole organi sation and the other executive officers to be elected by referendum of their respective industrial deaprtments. Arbitration.—The United Federation of Labour leaves the matter of registration, or of not registering, or of cancelling registration under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act entirely with each union but in any case it will oppose registration of any new union to succeed any union which may have cancelled its registration, and will seek for legislation to that effect. Strikes. —Each union shall have power of internal govr-mment, but no union shall involve another in any strike without first placing the matter unreservedly in the hands of its department for decision, and no department shall involve the national organisation in any strike without first placing the matter unreservedly in the hands of the national executive for decision. In the event of the national executive deciding in favour of a strike it shall give the whale power of the United Federation of Labour in support. Existent Parties. That the respective executives of the New Zealand Federation of Labour and the United Labour Party be irivited, while not in any way, abating their own

activities, to utilise their existing machinery and organisers to push forward the wurk of organisation on the lines agreed upon at this conference. POLITICAL. That this conference recommends the following outline as indicating the linea along which a constitution should be drawn up by the sub-com-mittee set up to draft a constitution to be considered amended if necessary, and adopted by the joint congress of unions to be held in Wellington, commencing on the first Tuesday in July. 1913. Your committee also recommends that the proposed conference to be held in July shall forthwith inaugurate the new body ad a going concern. Name.--Social-Democratic Party. Objective.—The socialisation of the collectively-used means of production, distribution, and exchange. Composition.—The party shall consist of unions, local branches, and individual members prepared to endurse the foregoing and pledge their support. Principles. —That the sub-committee be instrcuted to draft a declaration of principles. This shall be distinct from any other party or parties, snd its attitude towards any other party or parties shall be that of independence. Platform.—The sub commitee shall prepare a platform which shall include the usual legislative proposals of organised Labour in this countrv, in eluding a consideration of wages and hours, together with such matters as land, industrial, and commercial monopolies, the initiative and referendum, the recall and proportional representation. Existent Parties.—That the respective executives of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, the United Labour Party, and the Socialist Party he invited, while not in any way aoating their own activities, to utilise their existing machinery and organisers push forward the work of organisation on the lines agreed upon at this conference.