GENERAL STRIKE INSANITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3523, 12 August 1926, Page 4

GENERAL STRIKE INSANITY.

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER

The general strike which took place in Britain only lasted, for nine days, but the suffering and loss which ensued will not be got over in ninety. It was a policy of insanity and such men at Messrs. Ramsay MacDonald, J. H. Thomas, Phillip Enowden, etc., who previously condemned the policy of a “general strike,” find it impossible now to explain as, they countenanced this one. COUNTING THE COST. If the Unions had counted the cost beforehand it would have been more sane than having to do it now. The Railways Men’s Society has, we are informed, lost a million pounds. Only one loss amongst many. Three members of the T.U.C. flew to Amsterdam in order to raise a loan of £1,000,000 from the Internation Federation of Trade Unions, the body which some members of the Congress have been trying to suppress in the interests of the Red International of Moscow. A member of the General Council expressed l tlijb hope that enough would be raised to assist the miners to some extent. “But apart from the miners,” he said, “there must be 800,000 trade union members atjeast out of work since the strike. I think there are 120,000 on the railways alone. The strike has cost the trade unions several millions, and some of them are so down now that they cannot meet members’ claims and can hardly pay the official salaries. In some unions the members who have got back all right are levying themselves Gd a week to help the general funds.” A BETRAYAL. Many people were at a loss to account for the fact that the London taxi drivel's took part in- the general strike. They themselves aro now wondering why. Mr. Wlilliam 11. Tucker, General Secretary of the Motor Cab Trade Protecting Society, explaining the position of the London taxicab men during the strike, said that when the strike was called off they made a request to the T.U.C. for the implied promise of financial assistance, and were informed that the T.U.C. liad no funds. “As the net result,” the secretary added, “our members have not recived one penny strike pay, and we feel that after being persuaded to enter the lists, and after much side tracking evasive replies, and finally derision, we have been badly betrayed. We have learnt ocr lesson, once but, twice shy.” A BRUTAL FEATURE.

The sufferings and inconvenience caused at the London hospital by the cutting oft of the electrical current during the strike were described by Lord Knutsf ord, the Chaiim'an, at the meeting of the Court of Governors on June 2nd. The action of the strikers affected the whole hospital, chiefly the operating theatres, which could not be used even for serious cases. As a rule, 50 serious operations were carried out there daily. The Finsen light department for the treatment of lupus, had to be closed, radiant heat baths, Rontgen rays and other forms of eletciical treatment had to be abandoned. Operations for c-ancer and other diseases by cauterisation were stopped, and the electric sterilisers with which each ward was provided, put out of use. The research department’s activities were greatly curtailed, and the workshop for mending and sharpening instruments and the machinery for grinding drugs and for making pills and tablets came to a standstill. The eye, ear and throat surgeons tried to carry out the day-time outpatient. service with candles, as the great majority of these patients were workers, to whom the abandonment of the treatment meant real cruelty. Lord Knutsford personally explained some of these hardships to the Electrical Trades Union, and as a result a permit was issued to the Stepney Borough Council on May 6th, authorising a day-time supply of electricity to the hospital, but the Stepney Council of Action, stepped in and prevented the supply being resumed until four days later, on the pretext that “blackleg” labour was being supplied in the strike by the medical staff. TO SMASH HOME LIU. “Having regard to the lessons we

have learned from the general strike,” writes Miss Jessie Stephen. (Hon. Sc,, of the Domestic Workers’ Union and the prospective Labour candidate for Plymouth) to the editor of the “(New Loader” on June 4th, “is it not about time we paid some attention to domestic workers? They have the bosses’ view point in but my experience has shown over a period of. years that the domestic worker is just as receptive to new ideas -as any other; They must, however, be organised. Had they been well organised it would have been jiossible to dislocate the home life of every aristocrat and capitalist in the country.”

Mr. Arthur Henderson has been warning the workers in Britain that the communist element is gaining too much’control over the Trades Unions. The same dangerous spirit unfortunately exists in, New Zealand as was evidenced by the action of members of the New Zealand Labour Party, the Labour Alliance and Trades Councils in manifesting their support of the most stupid and destructive strike which has ever taken place in the Old Land. This sad occurrence should prove a lesson to the whole of our people.

(Contributed by the New Zealand Welfare League).