Strikes and the Public.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 57, 12 April 1912, Page 8

Strikes and the Public.

In serving up to its readers anything pertaining to an industrial upheaval, tho capitalistic press, for reasons best knov/n to its controllers, always endeavors to make it appear th*t tho strik3 centres abound the individiialiby of some prominotit personage rather than around a principle. Because of this, t!hc average citizen, hi reading of or discussing a strike, invariably loses sight of tiio issue involved, and focuses his attention upon the individual. From being a mass action on the part of a body of men, stumg into rebellion against an hereditary foes, it deteriorates, according to tho poimt of view of a largo section of tho community, into a squabblo between a muoh-wrougefl and patient employer of labor and a blatant agitator, who has succeeded, by soino mysterious process, to so mislead the workers that they strike without knowing tho reason why they, striko. With thi3 idea so very carefully fostered in tho public mind, tlio public is unable to grasp the significance of Labor's unrest and th© ultimate- result of this continual and increasing resort to concerted action industrially. Despite the noarnesß of the strike, inasmuch as it may affecfc every member of tiho oommunity, the average citizen seldom endeavors to investigate the reasons of the strike or tho force which makes for increasing discontent. Occasionally, however, the press is foroed to inform tUie public that, contrary to th& advice of some old-estab-lished and usually conservative leader, the workers have risen in revolt against their dreary lot. Here again it will bo found that, instead of this boing ackuowl'xlgod as a manifestation of work-ing-class rovolfc against leadership, it is explained away by stating that tho

sailor counsels -of so and ko wore repudiated for the visionary and syndicalist teachings of someone, else. Behind the personalities which obtrude at •strike times is a condition of affairs which is rapidly debasing and destroying tho individuality of the worker and transforming 3iim into a machine, unrated for, tin sheltered, and unfed. Instead of being regarded and treated as a human being, with human hopes and human aspirations, tho worker is looked upon merely as a profitproducing instrument, to be discarded, wounded and broken, perhaps, in the industrial struggle, at tho whim of a master. The mighty triumphs of tho moc-han-ienl arts have been made by those who strike; t'hc pahco and tiic luxury which surround the palate ihave been made possible by those who strike; tho leisure and comfort enjoyed by such a limited number is made possible by those whfi strike; and those wlio strike, re.il; 5 ing their creative genius, recognising that without them society could not exist, demand that those who create and ma.ko possiblo civilisation should be treated with, that consideration their very existence demands. Because the world's toilers have toiled so long and have so little, because those who rob are bo rapacious and would rob even more—that explains the strike. Have any of those who howl at strikes and agitators over exercised their newspaper-fashioned brains to examine that society in which millions of their feliowinen exist in a condition far worso than savagery ? Is it possible for those armchair critics to feel what the life of tho average working-man means to Limp Tho past, a hideous nightmare of v fight made by hardworking parents in the midst of poverty, a home in which scant faro was the chief characteristic; a present of the drudgery and routine of the wageslavej a future, Bfrotcl'iug; to the mouth of the open grave, offering nothing but tho continuation of the grind and drudgery, with eror-iacreu3-ing hariships as old ago creeps upon him. God! is it any wonder he strikes? Marvellous phenomena that lie cloos not strike oftaner, more cruelly, moid revengefully. The public, smug and self-satisfied creature that it is, caring liillo for the welfare of the toilers so long as it-s own ease and comfort is not dismmngod, must soon learn of tho crime it has been guilty of in dosing iv eye;; to the industnal ir.'olstroni. strikes, which sfliake society to iis wry foundations, must disabuse, the- placid mind of the public that striken can go on for over, and society continue to exist as at present. When will it bo brought home to tho public mind that, despite what the press of Capitalism may say, despite jibe ami jeer at strikers and agitators, striken are symbolic of a class stirring in its a.gony?—a class that, through the spirit engendered by tumult and upheaval, will awaken to a sense of its power, arise in ita might, and finally and forover swo>ep away the superstructure of society built upon those anomalies which germinate strikes.