BOOKLAND and Thereabout

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 80, 20 September 1912, Page 8

BOOKLAND and Thereabout

SYKALA

BY TWO OF ITS ABLEST THEOFIE-I TIGIAMS, ODON FOR AND F. M. ATKINSON, IN "THE ENGLISH REVIEW" "lii - Syndicalists perceive tlio tremendous dillienlty of social progress. They knowit could make lin substantial difference lo have a inAV social order with i he liiiniiii! material of iln , present order uiK-bangrd. Accordingly ihoy endeavor lo fi,inl)iir> I lie event inn ol' iho now .'.scii'iv with l:!i." creation of the new 111:111. They have :i vision of a I'nturn in nhich socinl discipline will be evolv-(-1.1 by I lie nature of ihe labor l-> b<? [ii'coinijli^lit'd; (if :i i'l'inro in which label- will 1)° free :uid at the same time organised undo- an inner logical discipline voluntarily aecomod. They lirtnly b.-lieve that the realisation of such a future drnonds entirely upon thoir por-:--.!ii!ul (ii'i'Sitir, :iiid efforts, and upon limir >i!»r,-il value. And so 1 hey oonseiouslv "'''l; nut ways of in< rinsing tli(> technical oaprieiiios of I lie individual worker, knowing that through this be will d'-sivp a profound change in ill" onri nidation of the industries in particular and society in general. They an , , therefore, intent on teaching the \oung workprs all the details <if their professinn, iv order to make thorn capablo of +a'ii! 1 ;< the organisation of production m 1..» their own hands. This li'is been very well expressed by f.'. BeauboU, a dork in the French post-oflice: "Syndicalists must take can. , of the technical, moral and social perfection of the young workers; they must guide and advise them, mid awaken in them the spirit of observation, (he qualities of initiative and energy. They must oli'ace the painful and . repugnant features that. accompany labor under the present organisation of production. The problem of progress lies in savin?; work from monotony and routine, from fatality and servitude. In ether words, the problem of progress lior. in freeing work and ennobling it. To initiate ovory worker into the progress of industry and the marvels of hiiman activity, to show them the usefulness of their efforts and tho grandeur of tiheir work —this is to give them a passion, a soul, a conscience. "Tho labor organisations should broom o. paternal homes for the young workers, protecting them from all temptations and leading them into life. A revolution docs not improvise itself, and it is necessary that in the industrial groups now ideas, new collective sentiments should bo born and should develop and prepare the social change." This process of preparing' the creation of the now society by the creation of new men and now industrial organisms with new functions —functions essentially different from those existing —is the. basic tendency of theoretical and practical syndicalism. And this tendency is such yn organic product of certain conditions prepared by 'industrial progress and by a living social morality called forth iv the working-class by the Socialist educative propaganda, that it imposes itself upon organisations that do not propose to call themselves by syndicalist theories. Tho greatest practical experiment in syndicalism lias been carried 011 now for some ten years by the Industrial Unionof the Bottle Blowers of Italy, which had always been a so-called "safe" Socialist organisation, adhering firmly to the Socialist theory of realising a Socialist society by political action. J ll Italy the bottle-making industry now lies between the factories of the .Industrial Union and the Botlle Trust. The beginning was in -a strike against one glass manufacturer who refused a series of demands from the Bottle Blowers' Union, to which all workers in the bottle industry, whatever their trade, belong. After a year of struggle, the union made- a. tremendous effort, raised a fund among its own members, many of them contributing all their money, .selling all their belongings, even their beds, and with this fund they set up a factory, in which part , of I heir comrades on strike found work. This factory was an immediate success, and a new furnace was planned to give work to yet more members of the union on strike.or out of employment. Without help from mechanics or mason:;, the men built the second furnace themselves in -17 days, a surprising feat considering that in normal circumstances it would have meant six months' uninterrupted work. All the strikers found work in their own factory, the manufacturer whs' beaten and was finally absorbed by the trust, which granted all the demands of the union lor its members, comprising priieiicallv all the glass blowers employed in Italy. .Hul now tlif co-operative factory became a competitor with the trust, and till. l trust, seeking to crush it before it should become too firmly established, quarrelled with the union, which l< d to a series of strikes. Nearly every strike meant the starting of a new co-operative factory, so that the trust found its commercial activities curtailed and its prelits diminished. Then the trust tried to beat thorn by

underselling, and by persuading the banks to refuse them credit. This method failed, for the bettor wares and tho technical superiority of the co-op-erative factories gained a decisive victory. Each factory produced a special bottle of such excellent quality thnt though its prices were higher than those of tho trust, it could dispose of its whole output in advance. At the present moment the union has about .'3500 members, of whom the trust employs 1000 and the co-opera-tive factories 2000. There are a very few bottle blowers not in the union, mostly foreigners. Kvoj-y member of the union is a shareholder, even those working in tlio factories of the trust. Two factors have especially contributed to the success of the workers. One is the technical efficiency of the glass blowers, their professional' consciousness brought out iv their effort to create collectively something new and positive. The other factor is their moral solidarity evolved by their Socialist training. Their Socialist education imbuod the glass workers with I bat high sense of solidarity which calls !!or some productive work nnd is not satisfied with mere indulging in sentiments, while their professional and industrial organisation gave a definite form to their work tind made them capable of realising their productive aim. In their struggle they forgot their immediate interest a and worked with all their energy for the liberation of their whole class from capitalism. They were dominated by a social vision, by a greater sense of human fraternity. A wonderful discipline prevails in thyir factories, a discipline that guarantees a continuous process of production and fires each worker to work at his best. In all the factories of this union there is not" a single overseer, and the technical and business managers are all bottle blowers. The moral solidarity civated by the struggle awakened the conscience of the workers in all directions. For example, glass blowers the world over (are. heavy drinkers, but these men gave up drinking. Their life filled with an ideal, a. social purpose, and a continuous concentration on various problems, they find pleasure in it, and have no need to drink for solace. They renounced their legitimate dividends, accepting the same wages as their comrades working for capitalist concerns, and turned over all the net profiti of thoir co-operative to tniitualaid funds; and, as we said before, they gavo up and are still giving up when necessary, their last farthing towards the establishment or strengthening of their movement. They have no intention whatever of becoming capitalists. They want to free themselves from capitalism and to set an example to other workers. With tho profits of their enterprise they help the Socialist and labor movements, they provide schools for their own children and for the children of other workers, and were actually among the first to adopt the now famous Monttssoi'i system of kindergai ten education. They built workmen's ■houses, providing better homes, bettor nucleuses for the new social life, Their factories are model factories in the industry; they are the bestequipped in the world with labor-sav-ing machinery, labor-protecting devices, hygienic arrangements, and they are prepared to introduce any new technical or financial method in their industry. Exports from' sll countries come to them to learn and profit by their experience. And by their example and by their closer union with the workers employed in all ,the other branches of the glass industry they are in a fair way to raise to their own level a group of about 10.000 workers. Iv short they have improved the conditions of their own life and work, making both healthier and less irksome, accomplishing their higher duty to themselves, since a revolutionary work-ing-class must elevate its material level ii\ order to make itself fit for fulfilling its social mission. (To be continued.)