THE LABOUR PARTY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 948, 31 January 1911, Page 3

THE LABOUR PARTY.

A NEW ORG A NISATION. Auckland, Jan. 28. The last Trades and Labour Council meeting has been held in Auckland, and that organisation is now a thing of the past. In its place has sprung up a new labour organisation, which will be known as the New Zealand Employees’ Federation. The object of this new organisation is set forth under four headings :

(a) To secure by all just means the best possible advantages for all classes of labour throughout New Zealand.

(b) To maintain a spirit of fraternal sympathy with the workers of other countries.

(c) To uphold the rights of all workers to remuneration equivalent to the full value of their labour power.

(d) To affirm the distinct identity of labour as a factor in the field of politics. The federation is composed of a Federal Council (whose headquarters will in turn be at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin), of district councils, federations of unions, and unions. In the past Trades and Labour Councils have been practically self-governing bodies. Now that they have been abolished, the district councils will take their place, and each shall have control over all matters falling within the district, provided that such council shall take the advice of unions affiliated to it on such questions as the delegates may be seriously divided upon. Each union has control over its own internal affairs, and shall have representation on the council of the district, and, through it, on the Federal Council. Full control in respect to all matters of a colonial or national character is vested in the Federal Council.

A DIFFERENT VFIRSION. A very different statement of the position was given by Mr E. J. Carey, president of the Wellington Trades Council, to a Post reporter when asked to explain the telegram. At the last annual Trades and Labour Council’s conference, held in Auckland in July last, explained Mr Carey, a resolution was carried to the effect that in the opinion of conference the Federation of Labour, initiated three years previously, should be brought into existence with as little delay as possible. A further resolution was carried as follows :—“ That the incoming executive be instructed to circularise all the unions, federations and councils who have signified their intention of joining the Federation of Labour, intimating that the next conference should be held in accordance with the constitutor! of the Federation at a date and place to be decided on by this conference. ” Only four delegates voted against this motion. In conformity with this decision the Dunedin Trades Council, which is the executive council for the Dominion, has sent a circular letter to the eight existing councils and to those federations which had previously intimated their agreement with and willingness to join the Trades Councils’ Federation of Labour under the constitution adopted in 1908, and slightly amended in 1909. At its meeting on Thursday the Wellington council formally resolved to constitute itself a district council in keeping with the constitution. The Otago, Canterbury, Auckland, and East Coast councils are reported to have resolved similarly. The objects of the federation as set out in the constitution drawn up and adopted at the 1908 conference in Wellington, are as follow

(a) To secure by all just means the best possible advantages for all classes of Labour throughout New Zealand.

(b) To maintain a spirit of fraternal sympathy with the workers of other countries.

(c) To uphold the rights of all workers to a remuneration equivalent to the full value of their labour power. (d) To affirm the distinct identity of labour as a factor in the field of politics. The taking of that title by the Miners’ Federation and the registration of that body as a Federation of Labour may put some difficulty in the way of official registration by the Trades Council authorities. But little difference will be caused by the change. The official standing of the Trades Councils in each centre and the work they are engaged in is not in any way affected by the bringing of the federation into existence. The individual Trades Councils have still local autonomy, but they have a bigger scope under the aims and objects of the federation, and, in addition, trade federations, which may not belong to a local council, have fuller and freer opportunity of joining the federation.