BRITISH MINERS AND LEADERSHIP.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 45, 19 January 1912, Page 18

BRITISH MINERS AND LEADERSHIP.

Drar Comrade, —The Miners' Conference, hold at Southport, England, during the first week in October, gave expression to the fact that the policy of old leaders is no longer desirable to the rank and file, and that the minors are. now prepared to mako a fight for the minimum wago and the abolition of the three shift system (in operation in Northumberland and Durham). To these, who move among the rank and file tho decisions were expected. The aspirations of the miners won't find expression in a Conference controlled, to a large extent, by fakirs because they are bound to be- modified. But all j&e sa<mo the miners aro restless and ready for a fight, but they aro handicapped in so far as they are not yet emancipated from belief in leadership. They trust their leaders too much, it ay, they are steeped in tho superstition that loaders are necessary, and their step from the old leaders to the new —as they are called —is only a step from one set of labour-fakirs to another. And the step from , the "Peace at any price" policy is only one to tho little more advanced one of "Prolonged negotiations before a strike." As for the delegates to tho Conference, they aro afra.id to take a definite stand against the leaders; they have not tho backbone; they are petty leaders themselves, and their ideal i>9 tho craft union one of "a fair day's work for a fair day's pay." 'Until tho miners get the true conception and send men of backbone to the Conference, their demands will be shelved and they themselves sidetracked. A miners' delegate soon finds out that it becomes a question of raising "hell" and "stumping" against the Labour fakirs ot fall , into line, and in these cases the crooked road is the easiest to travel, but a man of backbone, with a knowledge of scientific! organisation, politically and industrially, would stand up and expose their muddling, and meet his fate, namely, ejection and suspension. The outcome of the discussion on the minimum wage was the decision that each district federation should approach the owners for a minimum , wage justified by the focal conditions, the result of the negotiations to bo reported to a Conference in November. If unsatisfactory, action' to bo taken. Tin's means that stoppage could only take place in January, for South Wales has an agreement and tiho Labour fakirs will enforce a month's notice. What will this mean? Why, tho owners will stack coal, just to show they mean business. Pita <m slack time before aro now working full time and prices of coal are going nip, while industrial concerns aro laying in supuliea. lUfnra a strike can com-

wine there'll be enough coal u> tide over at least a. month, and by that time the miner.* will be on short rations. So is the lighting spiiit c.liokrd iiiider (rait union is in.

New Zealand minors, wnteh what agreement you make with your ex[ilfiilrr«. *r>lo Northumberland Minor? <l<T'i<i<-il on a plebiscite by ■"> to 1 lor a strike riii the question in July last, and liuw ;iltor putting it off and off, the executive promise, support. The rank and file arc forcing the- paw. So long as tli" workers do not «■" iho economic position cloiirly. periods ot' unrest will result in yes-no Labour fakirs being fleeted tVoflieo, but tliry occupy a very sbnkv position. Tlioir triumph is the triumph of a transitional stage on the road to revolution and will be enjoyed only so long as it lusts, and all the. facts say that it will not last Innpc, for not only are the, Socialists and Industrial ("nionists out on tiio warpath doinf splendid work, but the capitalist system is tottering and forcing the pare Kvory Minors' Conference, that passes "ill declare for oppression ; the revolutionary position will triumph : the victory (so-railed) of new leaders is but a victory of a day, been vise at last a move is being made from the bottom, and onward goes the cause.—lours,. WM. MURDOCH.