The Maoriland Worker FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20,1912. The Present Crisis

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 80, 20 September 1912, Page 4

The Maoriland Worker FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20,1912. The Present Crisis

Men Jailed.

Every Federationisfc -worthy of the name and the cause will rejoice in the fact that the hour has come when he can prove his mettle. He will feel proud of his grand opportunity in a matter-of-fact world monotonous in its unheroic complacency. For to such a pass has Capitalism brought civilisation that society can only be stirred by being shaken, shocked and startled. This is why militant working-class action has so great a place in modern life. Unless itf can save civilisation, civilisation is doomed. As far as New Zealand is concerned, the hour is heroic, for* those who have courage to view Naked and Unashamed Destiny, or who ran grasp the glory of swinging into line with a Tendency. Each for each are both, while to hinder cither is marching backward. Events in regard to strike and loekoufc follow fast and follow faster —but still the fight goes on, climax succeeding climax, yet the fighters ever undaunted and unbeaten. From first to last has the plutocratic press unblushingly repeated its opening lies of "all over," and only that Ananiases nowadays are not stricken dead it would ere this be a stale and loathsome corpse. Fortunately, liars usually over-reach themselves, and hence slowly but surely the feeling grows that only mugs believe the newspapers. When a fortnight ago the police began to storm Waihi and Waikino the press once again loudly trumpeted the collapse of the strike, and the mafficking dotards actually seemed to believe that all that was wrong at Waihi was the absence of police. Meredith's supremely satirical title, "The Tragic Comedians," is irresistibly recalled as the papers arc perused dealing with the marshalling of the police. And, furthermore, it is not difficult to see at work the process of inoculating the public with the desires of the conspirators, nor even, to trace encouragement of lawlessness and riot. The answer? —well, the answer is a spectacle of solidarity that must make even the drugged public stare and wonder. The answer is a display of disciplined orderliness never equalled in an industrial upheaval. The answer to tlhe bluster and threats of lawless Law and Governmental hirelings is men going to jail rather than be legally bludgeoned into silence by being bound over to keep a peace they have not broken. Lest these Waihi men be deemed to be undergoing quixotic martyrdom, we ask our readers to note the significance of being "bound over." It means perpetual police surveillance, tho being spied upon and spat upon at the whim of the uniformed weapon of espionage, the surrenger of those civil rights without which democracy is a farce, and the foregoing of a privacy held to be institutional in homo and social life. It means this and more—it means consenting to the dogging, the insults and the regulation of policemen given power to summarily execute the bond, and maybe for just a whisper being hurried into the cells, and anyway with tho policeman's clutch ever hovering near the throat. These men at Waihi could not have their lipes sealed or their hands tied in so cr'tical a period as a strike, and so were sooner or later bound to be prisoners. Better resist at the outset than be driven to desperation in the long run. Better far a revolt sit the start* thun for a whole population to be cowed like driven dogs by ever-expand-ing "bindings-over." Added to this, it is open to serious doubt whether these Waihi men are guilty, even if "following-up" bo an offence—and 11* is questionable, if tho hardly-won right of picketing is not be-

ing legally tampered with at the behest of the hypocritical Massey Government. Picketing is permissible, and trades unionism has ever fought—in other lands —with -earnestness and power for its maintenance. For our part, we congratulate tho men of Waihi Mho have gone to jail, and we call upon every union not sterilised of its spirit to make the country rock with denunciation of the outrage and to vigorously protest against offi-cially-arranged police provocation. To the meeting halls in defence of traditional liberties and in behalf of men loyally upholding working-class standards! As to "Free Laborers" disguised as " arbitrationists," but indelibly "scabs," it seems certain that the hope is to get enough derelicts of the work-ing-class to make a show of opening the mines and thus break through the ranks of the legitimate miners. Men wanted at Waihi and Reef ton, according to advertisement, "need not necessarily be miners," but these sort of men will never work mines but only wreck them and themselves too —they are wanted as decoys and frighteners of weaklings on strike or locked-out. They are wanted as strike-breakers. Hie miners of the Federation will know this better than we do, and the more strough , surge together in impassable solidarity. Yes, we uso the. word often. We. like it. It is working-class religion and deed. Solidarity; benign and divine solidarity! Make us and all workers realise thy good and thy omnipotence. While men are going to jail-—and us we compliment Waihi president and other witnesses and indeed all the men of the union; and the women at the margin too, God bless 'em—and while we vow in breathless enthusiasm to see this thing through and to never give in, we should try and make plainer the historic mission of the working-class and the message of Industrial Unionism. Now, here, must men be filled with the beauty and service of Industrial Unionism. Make unionists, be. unionists, body and soul. Unionism is threatened as it has not been threatened for decades—that is, the unionism with business in it. An interesting study was afforded last week in the. press re-discovery of, Semple. Just when the Federation had been comfortably wiped out (for tho thousandth time) and just after Waihi appeared to have been given the knockout blow, Semple and Howard electrify New Zealand by the most confident statements and most optimistic outlook. Following upon a couple of weeks of paper jubilation, and upon Mr. Selwyn Mays' inspired threat of imprisonment for strikers, it seemed incredible; but a greater surprise came when once, more tlhe unexpected happened and strikers refused to be "bound over" or to be terrified into srabbery. 0 for a man in Parliament brnve enough to mount this nighty platform and impeach the Government! 0 for a class-conscious man in Parliament knowing the mission of the workingclass with daring and determination enough to tell the truth about Waihi and Reef ton! Of what- use so-railed miners' representatives like Poland, Guinness, Colvin and the rest when the miners need a spokesman of strength, knowledge and courage? The miners might as well have sent in penny pop-guns. As for tho "Labor" members, their conception of working-class duties and movement is enough tn make a man cry. We must alter all this, by-and-bye. Meanwhile, understanding the nature, numerical size and influence of Ilie forces endeavoring to break the strike and the locked-out. and seeing the unbreakableness of the strike and the locked-out, will not the people have regard to the miracle in their midst? Think of all tho defaming and besmirching of the strikers, the lockedout and the Foderationists; of all made of the "rats" and the informers; ."f all the glorification and bribery of "scabs" ; of till tho social as well is economic pressure brought to bear upon the fighters; of all the juridical and Parliamentary coaxing and coercive efforts ; of all the intimidatory and eland-

ero-is ■;■; -nons from platform and press ; of .'H the repudiations by Trades Councils and their litenturo and letters son I. to Australia ; of all tho potty ostracism and tho incitement to violence; of all tho everlasting beatingdnwn, boating-down almort everywhere; and then think of an indomitable group of unions doggedly overcoming obstacle after obstacle and ploughing onward, ever onward —kept up as if on fir© with class zeal and "Plymouth Fathers" of workers' supremacy. Think—and learn. Hoar the bell-toned Lowell:— Then to side with Truth is noble, when we share, her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame, and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just; Then, it is the brave man chooses, while tho coward stands aside, Doubting in his nbjert pririt. till his Lord is rmcififH. And the multitudn make virtue of the faith they had denied.