Industrial Unionism

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 8, 20 April 1911, Page 11

Industrial Unionism

(By Richard Chesntjtt.) The question of the organisation of the Avorkers is most vital. By the many papers and articles appearing to-day advocating closer workingclass unity, and by the rising of a new and growing school of earnest men and women with a new philosophy, called in Eng-lish-speaking countries "Industrial Unionism," we are becoming seized of the fact. As a believer in this new philosophy (though I do not claim to be able to do it justice), let mc attempt to sketch the evolution of industry, the social relations arising therefrom, the foundations upon which Industrial Unionism is raised, and its relations to the present and future. For fuller and more complete analysis of past and existing conditions, the problems arising therefrom, and the power of Industrial Unionism as a solving agency, I refer readers to the many books and pamphlets issued on the subject by Socialist and Industrialist organisations committed to its principles. It may be news to a great many of our class that capitalist society, with the gigantic forces of modern commercialism, are but the product of changes which occurred in the method of producing and distributing the necessaries of life less than tAVO iiundred years ago! Before our present epoch there existed what is called Feudal society, a state in which the land, the principal means of support, was held by the few, these being the feudal lords and barons who kept their own armed retainers, and the large mass of producers on their lands—tlie serfs—Avere tied thereto. In this state of society industry was carried on by hand, and was pretty evenly distributed throughout the towns and villages. Industry was confined chiefly to production for immediate consumption within local and national limits. The handicraftsman owned the tools with which he worked. He could be his own employer, but often he worked for a master-craftsman who employed a few journeymen and apprentices. In such cases, while wages were paid this Avas not so often the object of working for the master craftsman as with a view to becoming masters themselves and perfecting themselves in the trade. The masters were responsible for the moral and technical education of their employees. It will be seen from the foregoing that with trade confined in narrow limits and unstimulated by wide markets, manufacture made little advance and inventions were rare. The military and political power -were centred in the hands of the nobles, shared to an extent with the merchant class, and representative government as understood to-day did not exist. With the growth of scientific research and knowledge the discovery of America and the Cape route to India, a stimulus was given in the direction of invention, which, with the capital furnished through the influx of precious metals to Europe consequent upon the discovery of new lands, created a revolution in the methods of production and distribution, which altered all the old social relations. Roads were built, railways laid, and steamship lines founded. The little shop with hand methods was supplanted by the factory. The new machines effected an even greater revolution in production. Workers became associated in their hundreds and thousands, for, whereas before production Avas individual in its nature and for personal and local needs, now it had become social, and was carried on by the owner of the huge machine (the factory, etc.) for profit. The market how was national and international, this implying an ever growing amount of interdependence between the individuals comprising the nation and also between nations. With the rise of these new conditions the old methods of production became obsolete; the feudal lord gave way to a more powerful class —the rising capitalists—whose interests lay in systematising the affairs of the nation by consolidation of its parts, in regulating tariffs, etc., on a uniform

basis, in improvng its law-making and executive functions, and making of themselves instruments for carrying out and legalising their oppression and tyranny over the Avorkers. In this way they ensured for themselves a "free" and "fair" field in competition with each other. With this development of modern society—Capitalism—that of the Avorkers entered upon a new phase. Ownership became centred in the hands of this small and powerful capitalist class. Now that the workers had become divorced from the avenues of Avealth production they must of necessity sell their power to labour for a wage at a profit to the employer. Thus with the system of profit m production was developed that of the wages system, and the value of the worker's labour was determined by the same standard as that of any other commodity—by supply and demand. Needless to say, with the growth of industry and tne greater productivity of labour, aided by an the latest inventions, die conditions ol the workers as a ciass grows rexatively worse. Unemployment, siuindom, disease, vice and crime are steadily on t.ue increase, because 01 a iacic or tnose material tilings necessary to tlie heartily pnysicai and intellect uai development oi tlie individual. The rise and growth of oa.pltaiir i has been attended with at-LeL-v.*-. .11 the part or sections of the wor_.t3rs to better their conditions by medium of Trade Unions and by associations endeavouring to gain political power. The Trade Unions served a useiui purpose m the early stages ox Capitalist development, when individual ownership of the factory, etc., was the rule, but now they have become powerless and a stumbling blocii in the path ol progress, opposed as they are by the modern syndicate or trust. Moreover, the capitalists are dany becoming more united as a class, and are thereby able to defeat the workers who light them m sections. From all of wnich the Industrial Unionist draws this lesson: tnat social production has enabled each nation to produce wealth in abundance for all, but the private ownership of tlie means whereby -wealth is produced worlds incalculable harm to the workers who produce all wealth, Avhile enabling that small section of the people called capitalists, who perform no useful function in society, to be parasites upon it and a clog to progress and an invitation to social ruin. Consequently it must be ended if the race is to survive and progress. Social production and distribution should also mean social o-wnership, so Aye strive to build an organisation of our OAvn class with the mission of taking over and keeping for society those things upon which tho existence and welfare of all depend, building it up in all those branches of productive activity yet as a component whole. Our class to-day does the world's work and iurnishes even those salaried officials who superintend capitalist industries, so that as a class we have to-day the greatest power in society—that of making existence possible. We must destroy class ownersnip, with its attendant misery and robbery, and institute social ownership and reward based on service performed. As has been seen, the capitalist class has succeeded in gaining political power in proportion as they gained industrial, so we gain the knowledge that all power springs from the industrial, thus we make industrial organisation a pie-requisite for political activity, and with the object of legalising the gains made on the industrial field and eventually with social ownership abolish the present parliamentary machine as being of no service in a cooperative commonwealth in which the administering of affairs must necessarily be accomplished by the industrial parliament, springing from the industrial organisation. For that hour let us work, think and hope ; for that hour let us pawn our present ease in hopes of a glorious redemption; for that hour let us prepare the hosts of Labour with intelligence sufficient to laugh at the nostrums dubbed practical by our slavelords, practical for the perpetuation of our slavery; for that supreme crisis of human history let us watch, like sentinels, with weapons ever ready, remembering always that there can be no dignity in labour until Labour knows no master.