The Mission of Industrial Unionism.

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 6, 20 February 1911, Page 7

The Mission of Industrial Unionism.

(By P. C. WEBB, President N.Z

Federation of Labour.)

The subject of Industrial Unionism is to-day receiving the attention of almost every student of economic evolution as well as the thinkers in "the Labour movement throughout the world. This is no wonder, when one contemplates the nature of the great economic revolutions which have taken place during this last century or so. The industrial revolution of the eighteenth centum, caused by the invention of machinery, completely revolutionised domestic industry. The workers hsirl then to leave their homes and gravitate to the towns in search of work. At this stage of economic development Capitalism was in a very disorganised state, factories were springing up like mushrooms in all directions, causing a chronic form of competition between the various factions of the capitalist class. Whilst the capitalist class were thus engaged in a bitter fight amongst themselves for commercial supremacy, the working class were secretly forming their craft unions, in order i>o protect themselves against the encroachment of th« ruling class. Notwitb standing thei craft method of organisation, thert were times when the unions were ablt to squeeze* slight concessions from the individual capitalists, who were afraid of losing their trade in the event of a strike, or perhaps be forced through the bankruptcy court. This state of things did not last long ; the inevitable laws of concentration were at work; the larger of the factories or businesses, after experiencing many bitter struggles in the competitive field, commenced co-operating, for the purpose of squeezing out the small business man in business ; needless to say, their efforts were crowned with success, the small business man or firm ever has to play a second part to the trusts. These large businesses or firms, in turn, have to give way to the trusts and, combines, many of of which have become international in character. And what is more, they have come to stay. It is absolutely futile on the part of the so-called practical politicians to pass anti-trust legislation to smash up these trusts; they are certainly the inevitable outcome of economic evolution, thus conclusively proving that competition, with its numerous little businesses, duplicating one another's work in almost comic-

opera fashion, had to give way to co-operation in the form of trusts. Now , ) taking into consideration the international character of Capitalism along with the inauguration of the world's market, one is forced to the conclusion that the international trustification of capital belongs to the very near future; and;, indeed, I see no reason why we should lament the coming of the trusts—in fact, there is every reason to rejoice; were they not more economic and efficient they would not be here. Besides their economic efficiency, have they not demonstrated the fact that co-operation is better than competition ?

Capitalism, like every other development, develops from the simple, (that is, when society supplied its wants with rude tools of wealth-production, where individual man made his own tools, owned them, and. used them individually, and participated in. full the product of his own labour), to the complex, a state of socialised production in which the worker no longer owns and uses the tools of production; he is merely a detail worker, a slave to the machine instead of the machine being the slave of him. While Capitalism has thus developed from the simple form of organisation to the trusts, the Workers' Unions have practically remained in their k nicker bocker stage— that is, in small craft or Trade Unions fightinsg one against the other when they should be lighting together. Sometimes one Union is out on strike for better conditions, while the workers engaged in the same industry are working at top speed to supply the market, every time helping the employer to defeat the striker. Take, for instance, the Newcastle strike in Australia. The miners were out on strike while the waterside workers, along with other craft organisations, remained at work, thereby neutralising every chance the miners had of gaining a partial victory. Indeed, 1 venture to say, had the workers been organised upon claesoonscious lines, making an injury to one an injury to all, the Newcastle strike would not have lasted one week. So it is with sectional fighting all along the line. Sectional Unionism has been tried and found wanting ; it has served its purpose and should be buried with the system that produced it. Presumably the Capitalist class could see the workers looking for something better than craft Unionism; and fearing the coming of a time when all workers would be organised into one great economic organisation, with a full knowledge of their historic mission, they endeavoured to side-track the working class movement by drawing a red herring across the trail in the form of an Arbitration Court, and unfortunately many of the workers were gulled into believing that arbitration between master and slave was just the thing needed; in fact, one of the craft leaders maintained that if the Arbitration Court was thrown overboard it would upset the economic structure of society. However, perhaps it's well we have experienced some fifteen years of arbitration it only to prove how utterly useless it is to depend on some class-influenceci Judge along with a class-influenced representative as against one representative of the workers, who is absolutely placed in an impossible position. After giving arbitration a fair trial in this country, we are informed that wages have risen from 8 to 10 per cent, whereas the cost of living has gone up over 20 per cent. Judging wages from their purchasing point of view, the worker a wages in this country have, during the fifteen years of LiberalLabour legislation and arbitration, depreciated by over 10 per cent. Just as soon as the workers get a rise in wages, the cost of living goes up out of proportion to the rise in wages. If the Court gives a rise in wages say, 5 per cent, it gives the employers an excuse to raise the selling price of their commodities to say 10 per cent. This means, in the long run, 5 per cent decrease to the workers and 5 per cent decrease to the employers. No, there is nothing to arbitrate between. The working-class produce all wealth, and to the working class should all wealth belong, and any law or system that insists on dividing the wean- of a producing class with a non-producing class, should stand condemned in the eyes of every honest person. The miners of New Zealand, after taking everything into consideration, arrived at the conclusion that sectional unionism, along with the Arbitration Coiirt, had outlived its usefulness. Notwithstanding the great advance science has made in the field of mechanical inventions, and the general improvements in the tools of wealth production, their standard of living was eretting worse instead of better, so they had to look to some form of organisation in working interests. After studying the evolution of capitalism from savagery to socalled civilisation, they came to the conclusion that there was but one hope for humanity to evolve to a higher stage of civilisation, and that was through the abolition of the capitalist system and the inauguration of the co-operative commonwealth, where the trusts and combines and all the means of wealth-

production would be the common property of all the people, and worked democratically in the interests of the whole people, and in order to attain that ideal it necessitates the industrial organisation of the working class upon a sound basis. Industrial Unionism is based upon the class struggle, recognising that the interests of the working class are diametrically opposed to the interests of the capitalist class, and that between the two classes a war must go on until the working class comes together on the political field as well as on the industrial field, and takes and holds that which they produce through an economic organisation formed for that purpose. Every ciass on attaining economic power brought with it its particular form of government in keeping with its economic interests. The capitalist form of government, that is a government composed of representatives of geographical constituencies, was perhaps in keeping with its mode of wealth-production then prevailing, but I think it should be quite clear to any student of sociology that the geographical form of government is unable to efficiently govern the complex tool of wealth production obtaining at the present time. The need of the present is a parliament of industry. The miners could have built a very strong organisation independent of other bodies if they so wished, and oerhaps have federated with the miners of Australia, and eventually the miners of the world. But sectional federations, like secsional unions, can never emancipate the working class. Our hope lies in the federation, of all Labour - The miners then decided to make a. determined effort to bring about a federation of all wageearners ; with the above object in view they opened their doors and extended the hand of comradeship to the workers of all other industries, inviting them to join in and help build up a federation that would reflect the intelligence of the working class—a federation that aimed first at the education of the working class in the principles of industrial unionism and economics. Without an educated working class sound organisation is impossible. The organisation must reflect the intelligence of the working class. Therefore, in order to have an intelligent working class, the New Zealand Federation of Labour has purchased the best literature available on industrial unionism and economics to distribute amongst the workers as a tonic to set their thinking machines in motion. And once the masses think on class lines it's good-bye to craft unionism and Arbitration Court, along with the capitalist system which produces themThe so-called labour leaders will be the servants, not the masters, of the labour organisations, and the intelligence of the thinking mass must and will rise in rebellion against the chaotic fcrm of labour organisation which now prevails. In conclusion, fellow workers* read and think for yourselves, and with the knowledge so gained fertilise the brains of your class, so that they may read and follow your footsteps and help build up in New Zealand a Federation of Labour -worthy of the name.