CLASS CONFLICT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17691, 31 July 1919, Page 6

CLASS CONFLICT.

ITS GROWTH IN NEW

ZEALAND

HOW ITS BITTERNESS MAY BE MITIGATED. ADDRESS BY ME W. D. STEWART, M.P. Mr \V. Downia Stewart, M.P., delivered iui addreas last evening before the New Zealand Society of Accountants on tho subject of " Must Class Conflict Grow in -New Zealand." Mr J. U. Patterson occupied the chair. Mr Stowaxt, in the course of his address, said, the apparent or real conilict of interest between tho employing and wageearning class liad given nso to tho terms, class instinct, olass consciousness, class conflict, and tho class war. • This class conflict might produce morely a more or Ices fnundly disputq about wages or hours of labour, or it might load to a general stoppage of industry with riots and bloodshed such as we saw in so many countries at the present time. There wero other conflicts of class such as those between Freetraders or" Protectionists, Prohibitioniste and Publicans, which found means of adjusting their grievances by political action or otherwise. But no sufficient means had yet been discovered of obviating tho present acute form of conilict between rich and poor. The famous manifesto of the Communist Party of 1848 declared that the wholo history of mankind had been a history of class struggles, contests between exploiters and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes. It predicted that as capital became more concentrated the gulf between the exploiters and exploited must become wider and deeper; that the condition of the wage earners would bo one of increasing misery until class wax reached its maximum of violence, resulting in the ovsrthrow of capitalism, and the enthronement of the proletariat. This theory, which was expounded by Carl Mars with amazing brilliance and force, had had enormous influence in all industrial countries of the world. It was this theory which gave rise to Syndicalism in Francs, 1.W.W.-ism in America and Australasia, and other activities arising from these movements. In 1804, when Dr Siegfried, the famous French writer, visited New Zealand, he found very little evidence of class consciousness among tho wage earners. In his book, entitled. "Democracy- in New Zealand," he aid: "We have now seen enough of the New Zealand working man to guess his attitude of mind. There are three phaass which sharply distinguish him from the worker of tile European Continent. He has scarcely any or no class hatred, ho is not revolutionary, he is only vaguely socialistic Class hatred is a thing that can bo found in Australia. It is very rare in Now Zealand, where the working man has retained a certain curious innate admiration for money and for the man who lives in the grand stylo, nor has he any greater passion than to bo like the middle class man, and in his private life, in his dress, in his habits to imitate those who are more fortunate than himself. Jealousy is a feeling which among Anglo-Saxons is a very restricted growth, and the public life of New Zealand rarely givias occasion to notice it. The absence of revolutionary ideas is striking." That was, no doubt, a fairly accurate picture of what existed in 1904, but four years later, in 1903,, the revolutionary ideas, which Dr Siegfried found conspicuously absent, suddenly appeared as in a night. When Dr Siegfried visited New Zealand recently with the French Mission, one of the first questions he had asked him (Mr Stewart) was for an explanation of this sudden change. He was anxious to know -where these revolutionary ideas had come frorn, who had imported them, and how far they had taken hold.

To answer this question, which was one of deep interest to the student of our social and eeonomio life, it was necessary to go to the West Coast where the great mining centres flourished. The miners lived in isolated communities, had little contact with the rest of New Zealand, and their unions had always been singularly self-contained virile, and militant. In. 1908 occurred the Blackball strike. Some of the leaders and organisers among the miners had recently arrived from America where they had been greatly impressed by the I.W.W. movement in that country. Indeed, prior to the strike a great deal of literature had been purchased from America and distributed among the miners, and tho Coast had been visited by Tom Mann and Ben Tillett, both ardent leaders among the industrial unionists. Mr P. H. Hicky had not long returned from America, and he also was deeply imbued £jr, the , LW - W - movement. Mr Semple, M..±\, had recently arrived from Australia, in which country he had got into difficulties in connection with a strike. As showing how rapidly the movement known as the Industrial Workers of tho World or I.W.W. spread from one country to another it was interesting to note that its organisation was only formed in America in 1905, and yet within three years it had reached New Zealand. Its object was to establish what was known as industrial unionism, as opposed to craft unionism; it believed that no progress could be made whilst separate craft unions wer e each fighting for their own end, and its aim was to unite all the workers of the nation into an industrial union which would be able simultaneously to cease working in one, several, or even all industries. It advocated the theory of t-he class war in its full intensity, as 'laid down by the manifesto already quoted He regarded the year 1908 as a turning 'point in New Zealand industrial history,' because of tins sudden wholesale importation of a new school of thought from abroad. There was no other instance he lenew of in which it was so easy to ti-ace tho origin of a new idea, its manner of importation and the clear, and decisive results flowing therefrom. He supposed our scheme of local option in licensing questions came from America and also clearly the single tax theory, which had had some influence on our system of land taxation. But neither of these movements showed the same clearcut cause and effect as tho movement he was about to describe. However, to return to the story, tho miners disgusted with the results of arbitration in the Blackball strike decided to abandon the Arbitration Court and , founded a Federation of Labour That federation was later called the Federation of Miners, and again in 1909 it changed its name to the New Zealand Federation of Labour. In adopting that name it forestalled the activities of tho old trade unions, which were at that very time seeking to join up an organisation under the same name. The important thing to remember was that tho Federation of Labour, popularly known as tho "Red Feds., ' definitely introduced into New Zealand for the first time the full doctrine of the class war. In 1912 it adopted a preamble taken almost word for word from tlu? constitution of tho 1.W.W., which in its turn was almost a literal transcript from o?o r Sl <3w communit manifesto of 1848. Ihis preamble was as follows-— "Tho working _ class and tho employingclass havo nothing- in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of workingpeople, and the few, who make up the em°ploving class, have all the good things of life. So far as ho was aware it was not possiblo to find any such absolute and final statement of the doctrine of the class war at any earlier stage of New Zealand history i*y 1912 the new movement had attained a membership oE 15,000. It was extremely aotiye, and srcurod certain successes in obtaining concessions from employers in different parts of New Zealand, many of which concessions had been refused bv tho Arbitration Court. As a natural consequence the confidence of tho old trado unions in their peaceable methods was sorely shaken. Meanwhile these old trade unions, which ho , would call arbitration unions, were busy organising throughout Now Zealand, and delegates had several conferences with the Federation of Labour with a view to seeing if they could find common ground upon which to unite. Tho federation, however, steadily refused to consider any modification of its constitution, and insisted on tho class war idea, as an essential element in its creed. Soon after tho Federation of Labour met its first serious reverse in the great Waihi strike. The Trades and Labour Councils, representing tho old arbitration unions for the most part, when appealed to, refused to raise any financial support for the strikers. The Wellington Council declared that "the American system of warfare was not suitable in a country whore the working man's voto was of the same value as that of the managing- director of the Waihi mines." They also advised tho Australian Labour Councils, who had been appealed to for assistance, to a similar effect, and this was regarded by tho Federation of Labour as a criminal betrayal of tho Labour cause. Perhaps in consequence of the Waihi strike, tho federation at last decided to confer with tho United I*ibour Party, composed of tno old trado unions, and at a preliminary conforenco early in 1913 a draft scheme of union was agrood on. Thereafter- a vigorous campaign wiia carried on throughout tho country, and in July, 1913, a grcat con-

g-ross, known aa the Unity Congress was held, at which over 60,000 unionists were represented. Tim congress sought to hoiil tho broach botweon thoso two schools of thought by constructing two organisations— ono tho industrial branch, known as tho 'United Federation of Labour," to roprosent tho industrial aide of tho Labour movement; and another organisation, called tho 'bocial Democratio Party," to represent tho political sido of tho movement. But, although tho meetings were full of enthusiasm and fervent protests of unity were indulged in, the ascendancy of tho Federation of Labour was too marked to lead to a satisfactory union. It was true that, after a long light, tho federation's preamblo proclaiming the class war was cut out, but the clauses in tho industrial constitution dealing with strike policy woro still too closely modelled on I.W.W. tactics to bo satisfactory to the arbitration unions, and soon attcr the conference they broke away. Then caino tho second defeat of tho Federation of Labour in tho waterside workers' striko in 1913. This striko ruined the federation for tho time being, and both parties had sine© boon trying- to build up their organisations again on their own lines. It was interesting to note that sinoo 1913 the minors, who started tho United Federation of Labour had not been members of it, although ono or two unions did retain their membership until 1914. Later on the miners deoidod that their ends could be better served by Unking up with the Australian miners, and they became a branch of "The Australian Coal and Shale Miners' Federation." The Social Democratic Party also disappeared except in Wellington, and its place had nov, been taken by tho New Zealand Labour Party. But a now movement wa9 on foot to create a National Industrial Alliance of Labour," comprising apparently the «to unions that originally were in the Federation of Labour. I'hat' brief and imperfect review would, continued the speaker, give them a rough idea of the answer to Dr Siegfried's questions as to what had taken placo in tho last decade, and paved the way for some general observations as to how far class cc-i*nxrt was likely to grow in New /.eaiaad. It wouiti be seen that tho more extreme philosophy of class conflict as represented by tho Minors' Federation had not met so far with conspicuous success, and that the great b«»dy of trade unionists, while they had cone {u'eat lengths to try and reach ujity, tu.d on tho whole refused to enlist lht> banner of this new school of thought. One must not bo misled, however, by the :-jmparatively small number belonging to this new school of industrial unionists. People wore apt to say that after all their numbers were small in comparison with tho wnole community, and oven in comparison with the rest of the wage earners. But most cf tiese industrial unions occupied a position of peculiar and strategio importance in the industrial life of the comnvanity. The miners, the watersiders, and the tra?isport workers _ operated fundamental industries, and thoir influence was far greater than their numbers. They had only to look at the action of tho coal miners in England or the watcrsiders in New Zealand to see how much more quickly they could bring pressure to bear than the employees hi other industries. That was ono reason why theso unions were constantly tempted to adopt what were called American methods of lighting, and why many of their mimuor regarded political action with more or less contempt. Another factor tending to keep on foot class conflict in .New Zealand was a belief in the minds of the workers that opportunities for promotion eeemed to be becoming fewer. It was a common saying among tuo workers: " Once a wage earner always a wage'earner," and they pointed to the fact that as businesses grew in size it became more.and' more difficult and exponsivo for a man to start business on his own account. That difficulty waa accentuated by the increasing scarcity of cheap land, which always furnished a door of escape to the ambitions and the discontented. This point 1 was emphasised by Professor Ross. But cheap land in New Zealand had gone, and this must be counted as a factor in estimating the.growth of class consciousness in New Zealand. Again, it was probable that the absence of any large body of immigrants helped the wage earners to maintain their class solidarity. In America the most serious difficulty the wage earners had to face was. to organise the immigrants who wero constantly coming in with lower standards and threatening- to undermine their position. The workers wlio did come to New Zealand from Australia, such as minerg and shearers, belonged to the most class-conscious unions, and most ot the leaders in the revolutionary school in Now Zealand had been educated, in tho extreme labour groups of Australia. The, speaker then went on to refer to the Labour paper, tho Maoriland Worker, which, he stated, was a factor constantly at work in accentuating class bitterness, in Now Zealand. It was also worthy of note, continued Mr Stewart, that there had lately been founded_ in New Zealand a Society for the study and propagation of the doctrines of Karl Marx, one of whose main doctrines was the inevitability of class war ■ leading to revolution.

Mr Stewart next drew attention to a few factors which seemed to operate in mitigation of class conflict in New Zealand. In the first place, though the balance of population was shifting from rural to urban centres yet agricultural and pastoral pursuits were the outstanding feature of New Zealand life. It was a commonplace to say that the more highly industrialised a country became the more the ciass struggle accentuated itself. Owing to the geographical formation of New Zealand there had been no massing of population in huge metropolitan centres, and it was these overgrown cities that formed such potent centres of organised discontent. This led naturally to the inference that if class conflict was to grow it would do so more quickly in other countries than in New Zealand, and we might learn from their experience the way of solution. Another interesting factor to be considered was that while industrial unionists in most countries looked upon political action as of more than doubtful value, and relied more readily on strikes and direct action, it was noteworthy that nearly all thra prominent leaders of this movement in New Zealand had recently found their way into Parliament. The Continental industrialists bitterly complained that the Socialist M.P. always became a mere hanger-on of the Liberal and Radical Parties—that he lost his passion for the class warfare and was imperceptibly lulled into drowsiness. Ho beame absorbed in parliamentary work and tended to become reformist instead of revolutionist. Buring a groat national crisis, such as that of the late war, class conflicts had been largely in abeyance in New Zealand, so that it was not easy to say what developments might have taken place in the Syndicalist movement had normal times prevailed. The extent to which patriotism excluded class interest was borne witness to by the fact that the first body of men to- ask Sir James Allen to impose conscription were the Hillside workers in Duncdin, and also by the eager enlistment of all classes of the community for service abroad. The speaker went on to refer to the effect of rising prices, and continuing, said he did not think ii was unduly optimistic to say that the average wags-earner in New Zealand etill held In the main to constitutional methods and to the hope of gradual amelioration of his grievances by parliamentary action and the activities of his union. There were great movoments for reform on foqt in England which would be tested and tried by the peculiar English, method of compromise a method which irritated Continental theorists, but which had so far kept England safe. Just as England was the &r*b to load the world' towards constitutional government might we not hope that she would also lead in solving our industrial problems? Already the cry was in England that just as they had democratised politics, so they must no democratise industry, and a dim if somewhat distant ideal of industrial democracy was beginning to be outlined in.-publio opinion. At this stage he had no desire to attempt to estimate either the strength or weakness of theso proposaJs which were being eagerly discussed in all directions. It was significant that the New Zealand La bour press, notwithstanding its strong class consciousness and bitter tone, was dreadv devoting much space to it. And while he pointed to Jimgland with hope and confid enco in her long political experience and tho great sagacity of her industrial leaders (both masters and men), he did not suggest that we in New Zealand should be idle It was natural that the attempts at solution should reach fruition earlier in England than in; New Zealand owing to her more highly industrialised economic development But on the other hand -the conditions in isew Zealand wcro less complex, and it should be easier hero to try experiments without piuttinir eo much at stake What was essential was that all sections of the community should recognise their oblication to participate in the study and in vestigation of these problems, not rest content merely because they found that they had a sunny room in the world. Only thus could wo hope to face successfully th o class conflict which hod increased in 'New Zealand in recent years and would bo more and more influenced by similar movements elsewhere, oven though it was not likelv 'to reacli th P same intensity or bitterness as in more niffhly lndustriab'sed countries — (Loud applause.) After some slight discussion n. hearty rote of thanks was tendered Mr Stewart for his address.