PRACTICAL POLITICS FOR THE PEOPLE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1140, 30 August 1913, Page 4

PRACTICAL POLITICS FOR THE PEOPLE.

EVOLUTION V. REVOLUTION.

An Appeal to Wageworkers and Employers, to Capitalists and Professional Men, to Exploiters and Exploited. [By George Foweds.] 11.

That a considerable section of the Labour forces of New Zealand are in a revolutionary mood at the present time was made manifest by the proceedings at the Labour Unity Congress, held at Wellington last month.

Owing solely to the revolutionary spirit that dominated the Unity Congress Committee and the majority of the delegates, a magnificent opportunity was lost of welding together the whole of the labour forces of the Dominion on a sound programme, both industrial and political, ot moderate, immediately practicable, yet wellworth while reforms. This revolutionary spirit was made very clear by the fact that the committee submitted to the Congress as the preamble of the industrial section ot the dual organisation that it was proposed to set up a preamble almost identical word for word with that of

THE NOTORIOUS I.W.W. OF AMERICA

and was emphasised by a further fact that when the conference by a very close vote threw out the preamble, the Congress committee reinstated the very same thing in veiled form as the first of the objects of the industrial organisation.

In order that my readers may judge for themselves, I give below the proposed preamble of the United Federation of Labour, as submitted by the Congress Committee. The words enclosed in brackets indicate how very slightly this preamble differs from that of the American I.W.W. as it appears on pages 8 and 9 of “The 1.W.W., It’s History, Structure and Methods,” a pamphlet written by VincentSt. John and published by the I.W.W. Publishing Bureau, P.O. Drawer 622, New Castle, Penn, U.S.A. The passages marked with an asterisk (*) appear in the American I.W.W. preamble, but were omitted by the Congress Committee for reasons that are fairly obvious ;

THAT I.W.W, PREAMBLE ! i. The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want 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.

2. 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, and abolish the wage system.

3. We find that the centreing of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the 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 to defeat one another in wage wars. (Moreover, the trades unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.*)

4. These 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 (constitutionally authorised) strike (or lock-out)* is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to ail. 5. Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work,” (we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword :)* our watchword is : “Abolition of the wages system.”

6. It is the historic mission ot 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 uew 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.

"I.W.W. TACTICS AND METHODS.” On the defeat ot their proposed preamble, the Congress Committee substituted lor it, as the first ot the objects of the Federation, the following : “To organise systematically and scientifically upon an industrial union basis in order to assist in the overthrow of the capitalist system, and thus bring about a co-operative commonwealth based upon industrial democracy,” The very same thing in a veiled form; for the innocent seeming phrase, “upon an industrial union basis” means upon the basis of “industrial unionism’’ as against trades unionism, on the lines of syndicalism, direct action, revolutionism, 1.W.W.-ism, as against peaceful, constitutional, constructive effort.

In this connection it is significant to note that in the abovementioned pamphlet Mr St. John, under the heading, 1.W.W.: Tactics and Methods,” declares that—

“As a revolutionary organisation, the Industrial Workers of the World aims to use any and all tactics that will get the results sought with the least expenditure of lime and energy. The tactics used are determined solely by the power of the organisation to make good in their use. The question of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ does not concern us.” EXORCISE THIS EVIE SPIRIT. Such is the spirit of the American I.W.W. organisation which drew up the precious preamble that the Unity Congress Committee sought to force upon the Congress. It is, indeed, the spirit breathed in the famous “To hell with agreements !” uttered some months ago by one of the promient members ot the Congress Committee.

I trust, however, that ere long this evil spirit will be very thoroughly exorcised by the people ot New Zealand. Small wonder that a Labour Unity Congress ruu on I-W.W. lines failed to achieve any real unity !