Herve and Voting.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 74, 9 August 1912, Page 1

Herve and Voting.

"LA GUERRE SOCIALE" AND POLITICAL ACTION. CHANGE OF OPINION. In a recent number of Herve's J "Guerre Sociale" the following article appeared:— There is no doubt that we in "La Guerre Sociale" have changed our opinion as to the expediency of voting in municipal elections and we have several tfifleo £iven the reason. No one has written to ns on the subject except a comrade who, In sending a subscription, asks us to explain our views, so we shall again stato the reason for our change of opinion. The "Guerre Sociale" was founded in December, 1906, by some who, like Herve, belonged to tile Socialist Party but favored a revolutionary polioy ; others, like M. Almereyda, who trefonged to the Anarchists, but' all very sympathetic to the tactics of direct action of the C.G.T., although not agreeing to the doctrine of revolutionary Syndicalism. "The C.G.T. applies to all; Syndicialism only refers to itself." It was under Clemenceau's rule we feared a war with Germany on account of Morocco. The founders of tne paper wished to call into existence the spirit of revolt which had fallen asleep owing to a too exclusive electoral and parliamentary Socialism, to re-awaken it so as to permit of an insurrection if war were declared. But if common , action was to be possible it was necessary to bring together Socialists and Anarchists, who up to that time were always quarrelling. This was the more necessary because the Anarchists were the leaders of the C.e.T., and that organisation was very hostile to Socialism; this Was the second point which the "Guerre Sociale" wished to secure, and therefore we tried to discredit faith in voting because we thought the Socialist Party was too favorable to that method. But we did not wish to advocate absolute non-vot-ing, as we all thought it to be important, but we did not wish Parliamentary ■ action to be the one thing tsocialiHtp. should be interested in. /s niair, ii out friends wwe Anarchist*,, it was to: strange that we sneered at rot.iag ; besides, Herve was uiore often in prison than at the helm. But in May, 1910, Her?e denounced non-voting; and even Almereyda, although he had opposed llouanet, acknowledged that we could not continue an anti-voting campaign. We are proud that the "Guerre Sociale" has ro-awakened a revolutionary spirit, and we firmly believe that only revolutionary action can get rid of our present Government. We also know that it is owing to our action that the workers have lost faith in votes and in Parliament, and we are proud of it, because we believe that otherwise all revolutionary spirit would disappear and we could not hope, if a favorable opportunity prevailed, to make use of it. We have, however, been too successful ; we wished not to reject all voting, but to consider it with suspicion; but many workers now dislike it altogether, and this was not our intention. In 1906 there was too much faith in voting; in. 1912 there is too little. We wish to bring about a more friendly feeling between the C.G.T. and the Socialist) Party, which both have good work to do. It is with regret that we censure those who advocate complete abstention from voting as we know how brave and how disinterested they are but we think it only right to make this explanation. We are fairly convinced that absolute abstention from voting would be a danger, and contrary to the best interests of the proletariat. Note.—C.G.T. stands for Confederation Generate dv Travail, the French Union of Tmdea Unions, who advocate non-voting in all elections and trust in direct action. 64 of the 70 present voted in favor of continuing the 10 per cent, levy, the vote being- greeted with tremendous applause. Splendid! .«- " . Bob Gould, the Timaru militant, put an ad. in the local paper calling upon unionists to support tradesmen who advertise in The Worker. That's the way to break the boycott. * » • Millerton has distributed out of f> mr pays a total of £1030 to the unemployed Waihi and Reefton miners. Isn't this is a record for any one place? It 's estimated that the district contributes fortnightly between £700 and £800. * » * SPECIAL STRIKE NUMBER, next week. History of Waihi and Reefton Trouble. Case for the Federation.