AUCKLAND ACTIVITIES.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 58, 19 April 1912, Page 10

AUCKLAND ACTIVITIES.

Mayoral Election—l.W.W. Club—Federation Conference — All that's Doing. The unions are busy forming fighting «Bunittees to aid Hall Skelton in his fight against Almighty Parr. The burning question is, "Arc you a Skeltonitc or a l'arrisitci" My opinion is that Christopher James ia going to bo counted 08l tAi» HUM' "Walter Thomas Mills's editorship of tbe local "Voice of Labor" expired after sue weeks' furious ink-splashing lb© "Voice" said, tlie "Voice" reckoned, and tho "Voioo" guessed and calculated for »ix short weeks, but still the world goes on, and tho spirit of Industrialism apace. We of the Socialist Party are indeed m a quandary. We are attacked by the- Labor Party bocauso we are against political action, and we are •Eallenged by tho I.W.W. because we ■n a political party. By the way, an IW.W Club has been formed in Auckland and is located in Rayraer's Buildings, Wellesley Street. It, has already got a large and increasing membership, and is doing sterling work, ■proading tlie doctrines and gospel of Industrial Unionism. Good luck to it, ■ay I. Scott Bennett's lecture on tho "Eureka Stockade" held the attention of an audience numbering 1700. Our comrade paid a great tribute to Peter Lalor and the band of miner heroes who fought the law and order, the soldiers and the hired thugs of tho autocratic rnkrs of Australia at that tine, and wound up by emphasising the fact that intelligent organisation) is the force that obtains fiom the owning class amended working conditions, shortening of hours, and increase of wages, and finally will securo the absolute overthrow of private ownership of tho means whereby the people live. On subaaquent occasions Scott Bennett lectured on "The Tragedy of Calvary and the Trngedv of Toil" at the Opera House and "The Opium Traffic in Melbourne" at the Federal Hall, both subjects being treated in masterly stylo. A great fight is going on in the colomns of the "N.Z. Herald." where Comrade E. R. Hartley is taking the wind out of the sails of seme of tho opponents of Scientific Socialism. Our comrade is doing great work. That reply pamnhlct to Archbishop Redwood ia splendid, and real good propaganda material. Edward's talks in "The Worker" are also very entertaining. and give many a soap-box orator a feed along the right lines. We shall be very »orry to lose Edward. If the opinions of some of its prominent officials are an index, the Tramway Union has anything but a clear c"asp of the principles of Industrial nionism, and if it is to make progress it will have to follow tlie example A Am miners of Old England, and pusli fossilised officials and their retsrofirig influence right clean out of the way. The "Union, however, i« moving, albeit rather slowly, but God knows its members will have to shake themselves a rid deal before they will be fit to be the forefront of tho figbling'division of the One. Big Union of New Zealand. We have a hard fighter in the person of Wally Breen, who has gone down to Invercargill, where hu will find plenty of room for propagating industrial organisation. Good luck, Wally! Two of our militant anti-militarists did thixxj and two days respectively in •ftio booby hatch up at alt. Edon for wfusing k> sell Ibeir consciences to General Godley. Tlio boys havo some backbone, eh ? The "Voice of Labor" lias made itsoli stink by issuing a manifesto calling on the workers and citizens to vote for "Below I'arr." As our friend tho "International Socialist" says, wo ought to call it "The Vice of Labor." Such conduct by a so-called Labor paper is to bo strongly condemned, and auch a treacherous, base, and crawling rag oughl lo lw> boycotted, and will bo boycotted, by tbe workers ol" Auckland in particular and Now Zealand in general. At a meeting of tlio combined unions tho other night, called for tho rpose of forming strong committees aid Mr. Skelton, the "Voice's" action was strongly condemned. Tlio fiat has gone forth--Walter Thomas Mills, M.A., has decided to leave New Zealand and the Disunity scheme, and return to America. Tlie career of the "Milwaukee Midget" in this country will make interesting reading when tho working-class history of Now Zealand is written. Anyway, the Farmers' Vuion and the Ministers' A.saociation will have benefited by his wor-rk. Au revoir, Walter. Tho next important item in the industrial arena is the Federation Conference in Welliiigle.a, and it will be a vita! meeling from mere than one point, of view. The qivsHon is: Is the Fed■ration of Labor to survive or not? I suggest as my huni'de opinion tltat the Federation of Labor, as constituted now, totally disappears ; that the onions coristiluting it drop out us organisations, and members join as individuals, signing the eonstituEori ;• = class-conscious workers. The more I ice if it, tho more 1 am convinced that "reactionary unionists nf the old sehoni hwst be fought outside a.n organisation not inside it. The organisation With internal dissonsiou cannot stand, md tho sooner all these chances are el-kninal-ed tho better for all concerned.

Better a small, compact organisation, class-conscious, imbued with the courage born.of lighting the class war, thitn a loose, disjointed, indecisive, reactionary mob, led first one nay and then another by the spur of the moment ano the prospect of immediate gain. When we formed the Propaganda ' branch of the Federation of Labor in Auckland, 1 proposed that individual members only be allowed to join the propaganda branch, and 1 hold with that sam« idi'ji te-dav. upon the niico oi ttle I.W.W c«ii rrn Jf-pyMjl for an effective and lasting organisation. The ignorant, the uninterested, the crawler, and the old-time unionist are (buigerous outside an organisation, bufc infinitely more dangerous inside it. The work of tlie Federation of Labor is to abolish the present machinery, and to effect tho organisation of class-conscious workers into a trained revolutionary army, whoso ideals will not bo merely a penny an hour rise in wages or such like, but the total abolition of the wage system. Ted Canham is to represent Auckland W.W. Union at the coming Federation of Labor Conference, whilst Messrs. llosser and Richardson will represent the Tramways. Scott Bennett recently lectured to a good crowd up in Dargaville on -'Socialism," and had a very good reception and hearing. This was arranged by comrades up there, whom I hope in the near future will form a Socialist brunch. The propaganda goes on apace. Between the Socialist Party, the 1.W.W., and tlie anti-militarists, things are humming. Tho times aro moving; let us do likewise.—SPANWlßE.