The Chamber of Commerce and the Working Class.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 20, 21 July 1911, Page 13

The Chamber of Commerce and the Working Class.

f 'The working-class and the employing class have nothing in common." So runs the preamble of the I. W. W. Truer -words were never written. In the United States where this sentiment was first enunciated by the Industrial Unionists, it has rapidly gained ground. Until quite recently the American workers, or a very large proportion of them, believed in identity of interests between employer and employee. Fostered as it was by the master class this idea of harmony between two opposing forces sought a common field on which their alleged mutual interests could be discussed. They found it in the Civic Federation. This organisation embraced the great capitalists of America, together with officers of the American Federation of "Labor. Many a love-feast has been held at which tbe Belmonts and the Harrimans of the Capitalist Class exchanged compliments with the Gompers and the Mitchells of organised labor. Through the medium of these love-feasts time and again was labor hoodwinked and betrayed. Handed over to the employers of the Civic Federation by the leaders of the work-ing-class, bound hand and foot, labor had been effectively kept in subjection. "When industrial upheavals were in evidence, the Civic Federation was consulted, and matters smoothed over- The workers always lost. They lost their immediate demands. They lost still more by the delusion of "identity of interests." Despite the fact that the largest organisation acquiesced in this alliance, a persistent fight against it was maintained by the class-conscious section of the workers. That agitation is now being felt. At the annual conference of the United Mine Workers, representing three hundred and fifty thousand toilers, it wa3 decided to .sever its connection with the Civic Federation and to maintain its separate identity as a class. This resolution was carried by the miners in the teeth of officialism. Its results are far reaching. Other organisations, the members of which are told by unscrupulous officers that their interests are identical with those of the employing class, are awakening to the truth and are in revolt. Tlie American proletariat refuses any longer to allow his representatives in tlie iiiame of labor to hobnob with

By P. H. HICKEY.

representatives /of plutocracy and to prostitute labor's ideals. What of New Zealand? In New Zealand we are free from | Civic Federation. But we have its facsimile in the shape of the Chamber of Commerce. Who and what are the members of the Chamber of Commerce ? They are labor's bitterest foes. They are the incarnation of capitalism Their business, whether consciously or unconsciously, is to fasten still firmer upon the worker the yoke of exploitation. It is from this source comes every demand for increased facilities for legalised Tobbery. From it comes bitter opposition against every proposal to protect Jabor against actual want, destitution in old age, or during sickness or accident. In times of strikes or lockouts, it is the Chamber of Commerce which calls upon the authorities for penal legislation to felonise the strikers. They call for extra police, they call for the military. And what does that mean ? It means the murdering of defenceless men who are demanding relief from unbearable conditions! It means the shooting and outraging of helpless women and children of the working class! It means in short -working-class subjection 1 You know that it is so You know that Tight here in New Zealand the members of the Chamber of Commerce are your implacable enemies! Have you anything in common with these men ? You haven't! You know you haven't! Yet a section of labour in New Zealand has joined hands with these people. There is at least one union in New Zealand which believes that it has interests in common with the employing class. To its discredit be it said, it is the Greymouth "Wharf Laborers Union. Who was responsible for this? The officers! That Union and its members are being used to further the ends of individuals. I say it unhesitatingly, and repeat it. You deluded followers of ignorant officialism. Awaken! Don't be a laughing stock to organised labor in New Zealand ! You are now, right from one end of the country to the other. Stand upon your manhood and sever your connection with that Chamber immediately. Kick for ever from the ranks of organised labor those' who are responsible for your ridiculous alliance ! They would sell you body and soul. They are traitors. Eradicate them from the mlovement. v ,