XIV.—THE LABOR MOVEMENT AND ITS FORM OF ORGANISATION.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 77, 30 August 1912, Page 4

XIV.—THE LABOR MOVEMENT AND ITS FORM OF ORGANISATION.

Vf© fc*v© aleeady hiilt«d ik&t the considerations involved in the Above heading are ii irhpewttivfe and puramount Tni'poi faille ffi relationship 13 tfre strike and lockout. The superficial manifestations and controversy aside, tihere remain vital and basic matters urgently bearing on working-class activity and- of concern to workers alike for and against-th® strike.

Industry Before Graft. If the engine-drivers of Waihi were better members of the working-class than they have proved themselves, and had quite approvedly demanded a separate union, it would still be questionable if they could have been upheld. Let it bo remembered that the organised workers of Waihi had declared for affiliation to a Federation whose very centre is Industrial Unionism, and that Industrial Unionism means organisation upon the lines of industry rather than per craft. The workers had superseded the craft form of organisation by making the members of each craft members of one organisation, in which craft divisions and dissensions gave way to class considerations and an injury to one became the concern of all. Tho Compact. The engine-drivers and firemen had voluntarily effaced themselves as a separate body and .with other trades had formed the industrial organisation; all the workers of the industry were to operate for the advantage of all the workers of the industry. Here was a moral compact, and though it be debatable as to bow far such a compact, like tho social contiract, must be obI served, it will bo conceded that such a compact must last through an agitatory period of discussion until events absolutely dictate its breaking. Given such a breakage upon hones, grounds of | principle—realising that within a sound and useful movement there must be room for growth, but only in trueness to emancipatory aim—given such a breakage with such a test and all things in opposition must go by th© board. Tho "Split." It would be folly to argue tbat any such ideas motived the Waihi enginedrivers. Their own manifestoes demonstrate this, fairly and squarely. There was, then, an industrial union at Waihi, and the point now is, Was the split at Waihi justified? W© think not, but according as the thoughtful and measuring reader answers the question he will side for or against the en-gine-drivers on thia aspect alone, given, as we have Baid, all other aspects discarded. Sectional Unionism Obsolete. We have to fully debate in tlhis land this question of internecine splits, seeing that it carries with it the entire protection and preservation of the Labor movement. The subject merits a treatise. If Industrial Unionism is to be the plan of working-class action, then sectional unionism has got to go •—got to go because it is helpless against trustified employerdom and most helpless in tEhat it not only implies but encourages and makes inevitable what is called organised scabbery. Scab Doctrine Evolutionary. In the class struggle the scab doctrine has developed to the extent of including tbe organisation as well as the individual. It had to thus develop in consonance with industrial development, which evolutionary concept is the central case i)r Industrial Unionism- .. „_f _' .- , The coming of ft-* combines and the trusts, together with changing tecihnical condition's and the all-conquering march of the machine, impelled the formation of industrial unions by compelling the ideas associated with capitalistic development. Barriers between trades had to disappear: the linking-up up of trades had to come. And with the linking-up there logically arrived different concepts-—revolutionary or class-oonscious unionism was born. Form Matters. Incontestably, therefore, form of organisation matters. As Dr. Louis Levine, Ph.D., author of "The Frenoh Labor Movement," puts it: "A form of organisation presupposes definite technical conditions, rest* upon certain general ideas, and leads to determinate collective action." At one time we thought that if th© spirit was rigfht the form did not matter; now w© see that the spirit cannot bo reliably present without tho form. If Unity is to be, For everybody to see, sectionalism, with its agreements expiring at different dates, forbids united industrial action—and if we are to have UNITED action then we must have the form of organisation which permits of united action. This being so, how could there be united action at Waihi if a section of the workers was allowed to become arbitratioai-t, while the remaining workers favored other methods? So it applies all-reasd. It follows that tie Waihi strike is a strike for united action, for lad__trial Unionism, for real W-r_in_-«l_S8 organisation, for a Labor movement in accord with modern requirements and historical evolution. Factions and Fractions. As to the factions and fractions of unioni-m, do not for one moment think that they are peculiar to the Federation of Labor. They are not: tbey constitute a world problem. Similar troubles to the one at Waihi have arisen over and over again and for much less worthy an object than a battle for Industrial Unionism. Trade- Union records are full of them. The United Labor Party (into which the Trades Halls merged aiid §5 lost their distinctively industrial character, aiid consequently made ft blunder time will revenge)—the UXJP. will re. P w hJ*t it has »«•» w » whirlwind of ".actional and fractional disputations. Hughes—and Queensland, Mr. W. M. H-gh--, M,__>R.» in «i afldre-S oh "Sytt-fc-tt-i-.' much rj-oted in New Zealand hi the" foolish _otfon thai it somehow hits and hurts the Federation of Labor, pointed out the nfie-s-ity of the big uniofi and the silliness of the __-__> unions and it as instrtictive to n_i» that in <J_e*:__,l„Bd the --UTS- of a-ctfcri ad-vocatw. by Tke Wdß__fc in order to beat the t__u§trial Peace Bill of a paternal Goverhhi-fr. (and it's a million to a gooseberry that w -similar Bill will be introduced in New _e„l-h-.) -is t. extfeftd indw-trial action beyflhd th* juri_d_S_re_ bf the St_t- Iftw, to grvs i. _ breadth by linkiug-up. A _ _mhrk-bla drttcTe it is, tho LP.B. being termed the Bill to Suppress Unionism and Jail Unionists; nevertheless, the logical outcome of arbitration under capitalism.

Kill or be Killed. To close, we could give many instances of unions acting as the Waihi En-gine-drivers' Union—with all its sanctity and all its playing for support by picturing the organisauion tlkat improved its conditions as disloyal, atheistic and revolutionary—but, for the meditation of Trades Hall unions will only instance the defunct Machine Shearers' Union, the defunct Non-poli-tical Union of Broken Hill, and the ex* istent Indopehdent Workm* F«d-.a-tioh, all of Australia, and, upon the evidenco, with each a "case" superior to the Waihi engine-drivers. Unionism had to kill the two firsts named notwithstanding " internal' * quarrels, and will have to kill the laefc named. Kill or bo killed. The Fight that is on. To make this section quite plain a__ understood, keep in view that although the Federation stands for Industrial Unionism, that Industrial Unionism hu to be achieved ere lasting class results and economic contirol are possible. the unions, or nearly all have to,be merged into One Big Union befor. the One Big Union can be tried and prove victorious.

The real fight in this country is the fight to crush the Federation of Labor before it has strengthened to the point of emancipatory effort. That fight is on.

(To be continued.)