A WORKER'S MESSAGE FROM THE WEST.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 2, 8 December 1911, Page 17

A WORKER'S MESSAGE FROM THE WEST.

I Dear "Worker,"—Let mc in this wilderness of boosted boomst&rs>, sharks, and frauds, congratulate you on the progress and general tone of your paper. As one who has always leoked* forward to the time when we should, have in every part of Australia a machine in the form of our own press' that would pump knowledge and light into the life of the I must felicitate you on the literary matter of "The Worker.'V\^..i»:'l»i_h*>-,t!hoflgh i t rv ful, educational-and readable throughout. "The Worker" will achieve much and is success. In our movement we have many workers strry- - ing to lessen of the proletariat, but travelling, along ; ways'Nso different that it;seems as if they would■ never come together. "i our paper js pursuing the right course—that of per- ; footing the unions. . It;is there we have the material; it is there -we must educate; it is from them-we will get results. No Labor" party, no ' Socialist party, is worth spilling one drop ot ink on, unless the force of Industrial Unionism is behind them. . The workers in your- land, and m the other Australasian States will think we have done great things m the west Let -them not be misled. It is an old sayino- there is nothing in a name, and that may be applied in the present case; I have taken a prominent part in the Labor and union movement tor many years, and participated m what is called"'the great Labor victory here. But do not be misled. We are in a state of semi-decay. It is not for want of material—we have that in plenty; but oh I the lack of knowledge, the ■ lack of enthusiasm, the -lack of light. Just imagine, Avith-our great opportunities and freedom from many of the eyils of the older States, yet we have> bii t 18,000 unionists out of at least iOO.UUU workers. Our paper (I do not wish to discredit those working on it) is a reflex of the unionists, and may have been accepted as a decent sheet 20 years ago. That is our position. We are having a springtime without a blossom; a harvest without corn; we have reaped before we sowed. Yes, comrade "Worker," you are on the right track; propound unionism, pump that medicine into their very system, get them into the union, that school of thought, that helper of the weak, that protector of the distressed, that comforter in time of trouble; it is from that source progress shall spring, from there the impregnable bulwark ot our emancipation shall be reared. I a,m an old supporter of the Labor party, and realise tha". it is not perfect, but it can be made so through the unions, and while that chance remains I will support no other. Comrades of Now -Zealand, you have no party; remain as you are unless your districts are well organised on linos that mean the overthrow of the present capitalist system etc., " Bullfinch, W.A. WM. NTJC.TY.