CERMAN UNIONISM.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 60, 3 May 1912, Page 2

CERMAN UNIONISM.

"Christian" Organisations.

There arc, roughly speaking, two classes of unions in Germany, the rlass- . conscious unions and the olass-uneon-_ctims unions. The latter are called '•Christian Unions." Sometimes they havo other names. The Christian unions aro insignificant compared with the others. When the Social-Democra-tic movement started in Germany the row on unionism broke out almost immediately. Tlie capitalists tried to start unions after the style we know here as AY. of I*. The bona fide •unions, led by Social-Democrats, and the capitalist creations frequently came to blows. The ultimate result was tlie reduction of the bogus thing to nothingness. Gorman legislation seeks to ■hamper freo union political activity. This notwithstanding, it is safe to say that the bulk of tlie German unions are Social-Democratic. Their National Secretary Legion is a member of the Social-Democratic delegation in the Reichstag. At tbe International Socialist Congresses the German Social-Demo-cracy halves its delegation, giving onehall to tho union delegates, who turn up at the congresses by the hundreds. There i. no compulsion for the union members to be members of the SooialDemoeraey. They are, however, induced lo beeomo such, and are such in large ■numbers, and in vastly larger numbers they are the readers of the Social-De-mocratic press. Such a thing as officers of tlie real unions being affiliated with National Civic Federations is not known in Germany; even less imaginable is the acceptance of fraternal delegates from Militias of Christ at union conventions. Tbe S.T. and L.A. before now, the I.W.W. (not the bummory) flt present, correspond to the German union. The two cannot yet be absolutely alike, seeing that-tho moment the uiii-ui was expressly to pronounce for political action it would get under tlie ban of the German law.—"N.Y. People.''