LABOUR AND POLITICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8349, 8 February 1913, Page 13

LABOUR AND POLITICS

PLAN OF UNITY PARTY TO PROSECUTE DUAL ACTIVITIES. The following is the plan of unity adopted by the Trades Union Conference and now submitted to the organisations concerned; INDUSTRIAL. That this conference recommends the following outline as indicating the lines along which a constitution should be drawn up by the 'sub-committee set up to draft a constitution to be considered, amended if necessary, and adopted by the joint congress of unions to be held in Wellington, commencing on the first Tuesday in July, 1913. Your committee also recommends that the Preposed conference to bo held in July shall forthwith inaugurate the nerw body as a going concern. NAME. United Federation of Labour. COMPOSITION. The organisation shall bo composed of actual wage-workers brought together in an organisation embodying industrial departments, each department to cover some industry, such as mining, transportation, building trades, eto. PREAMBLE. The working-class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are to be found among millions of working people, and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production and abolish the wago system. . Wo find that the centreing of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes tho trade unions unable to cope with the ever-growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. . These conditions can be changed and the interest of tho working class upheld only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members, m any one industry, or in all industries, if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lock-out is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all. Instead of the conservative _ motto i “ A fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work,” our watchword is: ‘‘Abolition of the wago system.” _ ' It is tho historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must bo organised, not only for the everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when 1 capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organising industrially we are forming the structure of the now society within tho shell of the old. Knowing, therefore, that such an organisation is absolutely necessary for our emancipation, we unite under the following constitution: OBJECTS:; 1. To secure employment of our members in preference to : non-union-ists; to maintain a spirit of fraternal sympathy with tho workers of this and other countries by assisting them when necessary. 2. To lise our united efforts to discourage the contract labour and bonus systems, and as soon as possible to abolish these, believing the said systems to be detrimental to the best interests of organised Labour. 8. To enable and provide for tho federation to own, publish, and control a newspaper or newspapers. 4. To ensure to members who are proved to have been unjustly treated the support of, the federation. 5. To link up with the industrial organisations of all other countries for the achievement of international solidarity and also for more effective work-ing-class action in time of international conflict. 6. Tho United Federation will always act with the end in view of securing to the workers the full product of their labour. MANAGEMENT. Tho national executive shall consist of general officers and of representatives from each industrial-department, the officers to be elected by ballot of the whole organisation and the other executive officers/ to be elected by referendum of their respective industrial departments. ARBITRATION. Tho United Federation of Laboui leaves the matter of registration, or of not registering, or of cancelling registration under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act entirely with each union; but in any case it will oppose registration_ of any new union to succeed any union which may have, cancelled its registration, and will seek for legisla. tion to that effect. STRIKES. / Each union shall have power of internal government, but no union shall involve another in any strike without first placing the matter unreservedly in tho hands of its department for decision, and no department shall involve the national organisation in any strike without first placing the matter unreservedly in the hands of the national executive for decision. In the event of the national executive deciding in favour of a strike it shall give the whole power of tho United Federation of Labour in support, EXISTENT PARTIES. s That the respective executives of the New Zealand Federation of Labour and the United Labour Party be invited, while not in any way abating their own activities, to utilise their existing machinery, and organisers to push forward the work of organisation on the lines agreed upon at this conference. POLITICAL That this conference recommends the following outline as indicating the lines along imch a constitution should be drawn up by the sub-committee set up to draft a constitution to be considered, amended if necessary, and adopted by the joint congress of unions to be held in Wellington, commencing on the first Tuesday in July, 1913. Your committee also recommends that the proposed conference to bo held in July shall forthwith inaugurate tho new body as a going concern. NAME. Social Democratic Party. OBJECTIVE. Tho socialisation of tho collectivelyused means of production, distribution, and exchange. COMPOSITION. The party shall consist of unions, local branches, and Individual members

repared to endorse the foregoing and ■edge their support. This party shall bo distinct from any ;ther party or parties, and its attitude towards any other party or parties shall be that of indejiendence. PRINCIPLES. That the subcommittee be instructed to draft a declaration of principles. PLATFORM. Tho subcommittee shall prepare a platform which shall the usual legislative proposals or organised labour in this country, including a consideration of wages and together -with such matters as land, industrial, and commercial monopolies, the initiative and referendum, the recall and proportional representation. EXISTENT PARTIES. That , the respective executives of tho Now Zealand Federation of Labour, the United Labour Party, and tho Socialist party be invited, while not in any way abating their own activities, to utilise their existing machinery and organisers to push forward the work of organisation on the lines agreed upon at this conference.