"The Destruction of the Federation of Labor"

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 91, 13 December 1912, Page 3

"The Destruction of the Federation of Labor"

: $. . Editorial Glee in Australia

Arbitration and Scabbery

By P. H. HICKEY

When the oable manipulator? in Nc-w Zealand forwarded to Australia, the press reports of recent' happenings in Waihi, a howl of fiendish glee arose from the editorial dens throughout, the land. Every act of violence, every criminal attack, every act of burglary and even death was greeted with applause, condoned, upheld. Innocent men, women and children aft tho mercy of a howling bunch of social degenerates, hacked by corrupted officialdom, was a glorious thing from the viewpoint of the dingo press. With but few exceptions, lengthy editorials upholding the breakers of "law and order" —nay, eulogising thorn for lawlessness —appeared. Tn no case was a word of condemnation Uttered. Tn not one instance, in the columns of the big dailies, was there other than rejoicing at what was hysterically proclaimed to bo "tho destruction of the Federation of Labor." So craftily-worded, however, were the reports, that the public wero led to believe that Rhodes' "dervishes" were so bitterly and brutally attacked that in self-defence was the crime, ending in death, committed. This to hide the truth and deceive the people. Crime is over thus: skulking behind the heels of the liar. And what greater liar than the daily press? What of tho dastardly deeds that have besmirched Waihi? What of Governmental inefficiency, to use a mild terra ? What of newspaper upholding of crime and slaughter ? What of all these things in "God's Own Country?" What of them? Just this: That beneath the thin veneer of master-class civilisation in New ' Zealand is the same brutal, heartless savagery characteristic of more highly industrially developed countries. The insistence of the employers upon the necessity of arbitration unionism is but a recognition of the impotence of that class of unionism from tho workers' point of view. Arbitration and scabbery J*re certain, inevitable results. The latter is the corollary of the former. Let us try to blind ourselves to the issue as we may, this is one of the results of arbitration. Arbitration denies the right of mass organisation and action. It denies the oneness of the working-class. When Labor seeks to put into, operation that unity or that plan of organisation which proclaims its oneness, the tenacity of the employ-ing-class in clinging to arbitration is undoubtedly educative. Arbitration is loved by the employers because of its usefulness to the employers. Indeed, it would appear as though arbitration was the "last refuge nf capitalism." Behind arbitration, with its scabs, tools, and other creatures, the employer stands entrenched, apparently immune from attack, driving back under the yoke of arbitration those who endeavor to escape. To dislodge the employer a united attack is necessary. Here again the evil influences of arbitration are manifest. That attack cannot be made because Labor is divided, tied here and tied there, inert, dead. Arbitration again. To uphold this form of union-hob-bling a creature, has arisen who. whilst supplanting the unionist at strike time by taking the striker's job, condones his crime on the score of being a believer in arbitration. A man who scabs under arbitration would scab under any circumstances. Whether he be a miserable wretch devoid of intelligence, sunk to the lowest depth of moral and social degradation; whether he be a member of an organised strike-breaking force, flying hither and thither to his dirty work as occasion demands, or whether he endeavors to mask his treachery by loudly proclaiming his belief in arbitration, the scab denotes all that is contemptible, base, anti-social and criminal. Fantastic and legal jargon may supplant the name, but* the scab is no less a detestable thing because called "arbitrationist" or "free laborer." Let us hammer that fact hpme with all our might. Deeds such as the iniquitous perfidy enacted at Waihi but serve to fan more fiercely the flames of revolt in the hearts and minds of the working-class. I Whilst we gaze upon the handiwork of the pliant tools of the master-class, witness the thugs and bludgers heaping indignity upon indignity on our noble men and women, where in the ranks of the Federation is there a man who does not swear by all his gods to wor£ more determinedly, whole-heartedly than ever before for the realisation of an industri-ally-organised working-class in New Zealand? Where is there the man or woman in the ranks of wage-slavery in New Zealand, knowing that crimes committed in Waihi are but indicative of the forces of oppression and repression that will be used a.gainst them if employerdom thinks fit, that will calmly sit down and take no part, industrially or politically, towards the ending of the power of those industrial tyrants who are truly the government of the country? To those who have fought so manfully, to those who have assisted so well, remember the words of Francis Adams: "Who is it speaka of defeat? . I tell you a cause like ours Is greater than defeat can know: It is the power of powers! As surely as the earth rolls round, As surely as the golden sun Brings the great sea-wave, Must our cause bo won"