Be An Insurrecto !

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 17, 30 June 1911, Page 8

Be An Insurrecto !

Bo an Insurrccto!

Bo an Insurrccto. Fighter for Freedom, Rebel for Restitution; Lover of Liberty, Evangel of Emancipation.

There is notliing greater under tho sun.

Agitation, Organisation, Education, —these throe., but the greatest of

these is-

Not so, citizen; the three arc One As one their name is Insurrection Their doer is called Insurrecto.

An Insurrccto made you possible. An Insurrecto made New Zealand possible. An Insurrccto made home and humanity, love and life, possible.

All beauty and .blessing, all joy and hope, come of insurrection.

Be an Insurrecto! Agitator, Organiser, Educator. Stand in the company of Bruno, John Ball, . Marat, Owen, Garibaldi, Darwin, Marx, Morris and their comrades of the deathless army. Stand in the regiments of the Levellers of Britain, the Revolutionists of France, tho Abolitionists of America, and the everlasting hosts whose sepulchre is tho whole Avide world.

Hark back to the days when Social Selection challenged Natural Selection as force in development, and see liberty and progress slowly ousting bondage and despotism, and know that liberty and progress were outcome of insurrection. Sco savagery, chattel slavery and serfdom—alike within barbarism and within civilisation — going down before tho resistless pressure of insurrection. See,, in all ages, in all stages, in all lands, the conquering power of insurrection. In insurrection sco the rescuer from tho Past and the saving-salt of the Present. See mankind, rationalized, enlightened, emancipated by insurrection, and by nothing less. Bo an Insurrecto ! We of the Present arc a weird order. We know ourselves to be under debt ( of gratitude to ancestry, and that tho insurrection behind us was wcH and truly made. Wo know that development is along the lines of insurrection : that only thus has developed development. We are ready to that insurrection will be proper and right in the future, for, we admit, mankind must mount into millenium oro mankind fulfil its destiny. Yet — and yet— we would evade the insurrection of the Now—for "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world."

Blasphemy bottomless! For, despite all development, a world fuller of disease, crime, and poverty than ever before 1 Wondrous advance there has

been; aye marvellous, even miraculous. But all fruitless if men and women be economically heavier-laden and more oppressed than in any preceding social order. Progress thero has been, but even progress may be too dear if it show in the many's sweat and agony alongside tho grandeur of the few—ii it show in such outrageous distinctions as hovel and mansion, poor and rich, impelled celibate- and compelled prostitute.

Yes, despite insurrection—glorious and mighty—-tho people have been brought to this pass; but not because insurrection has been ill-timed or faitldess, but beeavise insurrection needed us just where we aro in order to teach us the lesson of insurrection and propel us into insurrection against tho stupendous stupidity of the present system. Be an Insurrccto! Liberty and progress must be made ouster of industrial exploitation and social rottenness thereby to complete their ousting of chattel slavery and serfdom. Insurrection did the one; insurrection will do the other. As a weird order wo just now described to-day's people, for their complacency. With some justice we might havo termed them cowardly. What is it makes them refuse to do for posterity what ancestry did for them?

Ancestry rebelled against intolerable conditions, and gave its posterity increased rights and privileges even as it tried to win for its posterity equaller distribution of wealth. To-day's unjust distribution of wealth could not bo helped by ancestry; to-morrow's unjust distribution of wealth can be helped by to-uay s peoples. Can be helped inasmuch as into the world has como Socialism out of Capitalism, and cure for tho economic miseries of the masses. A great discovery has been made. It is the discovery of Way Out of unjust distribution of wealth (wealth boundless in its leaps and heaps) by everybody owning wealth instead of a somebody owning wealth. Instead of the absurdity of Private Ownership and tho consequent denial of Social Ownership, we havo discovered that under Social Ownership, plus tho product to its producer, all woidd benefit and none suffer. Tho discoverers of this and their followers are Insurrectos; • and thus is insurrection tho saving-salt of this our day, as of day reaching back to beginnings. Be saving-salt, Insurrecto. Out from tho craven misled majority which reaps what it has not sown and will not sow tliat others may reap! Out from the jaws of Hell into land of liberty and life !

Posterity looks to us. And—rebel or bo ridden. It is written that no man may help another • without himself beinix helped. Nor no man may

suffer slavery without himself being

enslaved.

Which brings us back to the present order. A servile and silly order of people, surely, which say Emancipation (and all it connotes in workingclass thought) good if in another time out not good in their own time. Cannot they see that had their forefathers so argued the descendants had not inherited blood-bought gains? Can't they see that what they say now about Emancipation as for other time than their own was said of every reform from Free Speech down to Adult Suffrage, and tnat every reform had to bo worked for and fought for in somebody's time ?

We must have done*" with the foolosophy which disputes the practicability ot teociaiism in our time. Why, Socialism is tbe most practicable scheme belore the world—practicable here and now demonstrably. If it is supreme need, it is practicable. Sure. Never yet supremo need without deliverer at hand. Wiien people say "Socialism" they will behold Socialism. They'll get the mnienium if they want it, by voting for it. If they can get everything else by voting for it, why not tno miuenium ?

To teacn this to the people, with emphasis upon tno point that to-day's people are the people for whom Socialism is meant, and the people who require lair and square treatment equally with the people of posterity— to teach this is the work at hand for .Agitators, educators, Organisers. insurrectos. Industry by, for and of tho people after tne manner of Government by, ior and of the people is transformation and transition demanding insurrection. I'no divine gospel of discontent—this is to spread and spread, and again spread. By hooK. or crook. xio an Insurrecto! Work or be workless. J\lovo or be moveless. Speak or be speechless. SpeaK, move, work against the lies of Convention, Complacency, Contentment. Against the seductive Imperialism threatening real nationhood ; against tho pageantry and panoply of armaments and war stifling fraternal lnternauoiial association ; against tho carSto ceremonial sapping tho independence of tho people ; against the sectional unionism of conflicting agreements and awards shattering the spirit of aspiration ; against the plutocratic politics filling the v. jrkingclass with illusions and delusions; above all, against tho deception of bombast and drunkenness of conceit which have for many years joined together in iiroclaiming a model Maoriland that never was and never could bo while Wage-Slavery lasted. Be an Insurrecto! One who dares to be Truth-teller ; one who dares to be in

fierce antagonism to the capitalist system and tho ensnaring morality and guilty institutions springing from the capitalist system. There is work to bo done. Industry must be organised ready for tho Revolution. Politics must be bent to the purposes of tho Revolution. Deadly-earnestness is the chief Heed. All tho workers to be gotten together in One Big Union. All tho workers to bo casting ballots for • Production for Use. Simply and resistlessly marching ./O the Co-operativo Commonwealth of Now Zealand. This also is work to be done. A grand work, a work xr*. which to share in is to have been born blest and gifted, a work splendidly practical and practicable, and promising rewards of eternal worth. If New Zealand is to lead tho world, its leadership must bo insurrectionary. Organisers upon the industrial field, Socialist candidates upon tho political field, propagandists tirelessly at the street corners, literature distribution upon a vast scale, and The Maoriii_nd Worker covering tho Dominion—theso ero departments part and parcel of insurrectionary activity.

The reconstruction of society is not to be effected without upheaval. New Zealand must rock with agitation. InBurrectos are wanted. Be one. Mes-sage-bearer of protest and power, passionate for righteousness, on fire with healing. Be an Insur~?cto!