REVOLUTIONARY TRADE UNIONISM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3565, 20 November 1926, Page 4

REVOLUTIONARY TRADE UNIONISM.

A DANGER TO GUARD AGAINST. All Trade Unionism is not. the same to guard against in character. There is a Trade Unionism which is sane, constructive and beneficial both to the workers and to Society at large. On the other hand, there is a Trade or Industrial Unionism which is fanatical, destructive and injurious in its operations to the mass of the people and to the Nation. We have both of these classes of Unionism hr New Zealand. Care should lie exercised in seeing that these two forces are not classed. They are not one and the same but are in principle opposed to each other. There are employers who commit the blunder of opposing all Trade Unionism and thereby force moderate and thoughtful workers into alliance with revolutionary extremists from whom they would gladly be free. Employers and others, who oppose all Trade Unionism and do not distinguish between good and bad, do a great deal of harm and their attitude must be condemned.

The form of Unionism which is dangerous and requiries watching at every step is industrial syndicalism, or revolutionary Trade Unionism. Rightly considered, this syndicalism is really not Trade Unionism or industrial at all. It: is at the base a political movement of a subversive character. We have a specimen of it in the “N.Z. Alliance of Labour,” the objects of which, when it. was in Court, was declared by the Judge to be “political.” EXPERIENCE AT HOME.

The influence of syndicalism, or revolutionary Trade l nionism in Britain is traced by Mr Ramsay MacDonald (“Syndicalism” page 30) to the visit of William, D. Haywood, an American who had taken the lead in forming the I.W.W. (“Industrial Workers of the \Yorld’ ) in 1005. He came to England, speaking mainly to South Wales’s audience, where, says Mr MacDonald, “his crude appeals moved his listeners to wild applause.” In other words., he made many of the South Wales miners as insane as himself. Mr Frank Rose, Labour M.P. for North Aberdeenshire, says the virus of revolutionary syndicalism thus implanted, now “permeates the innermost. councils of labour, deny as we will.” Mr Rose points out that the hands of Labour have been strangely tied in upholding its Constitutional rights against the destructive policy of the Communist wing. As evidence of its power he cites the explanation of the National Labour Party’s executive committee that “neither affiliated trade unions nor loeftl labour parties are in a position to debar the association with the party of Communism who technically indicate their acceptance of our constitution and principles” nor can they “curtail their activities to undermine the whole purpose of; our movement from within.” This open confession shows how dangerous Communism is even to the Trade Union movement. The term “direct action” was adopted in Ifllfl. The Trades Union Congress later endorsed “direct action.” Then the policy was adopted of forming “councils of action.” We have the final result in the general strike of this year and the coal stoppage which has cost Britain £400,000,000 in hard cash, and its people untold suffering. CURSE OF! HYPOCRISY. In New Zealand we have the syndicalist Labour Alliance hypocritically professing that they want one big union for purposes of peace and the leaders at the same time fomenting trouble wherever they can. It has been the same in the Old Land. “The fact remains,” says Mr Rose “That the general strike of 1926 is the outcome of revolutionary propaganda that has vitiated the working class movement, under cover of some pretentious misnomer for at least a quarter of a century. . . . To speak of the general strike as an industrial instrument is sheer liypocrisy; it is purely political in design, and intention What was nothing but a surface smear a few years ago is not much more than skin deep and will need the knife to remove it.” Against this danger it is needful for our people (both workers and employers) to be ever on their guard. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)