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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 302, 18 June 1912, Page 4

SYNDICALISM.

The propaganda of the Hon. Geo. Fowlds is somewhat different to that preached by the New Zealand Federation of Labor. The one is evolutionary; the other revolutionary. We have a manifestation of the anarc'hial activity of the Federation in Waihi at present. The Federation has adopted the measures used by the French Syndicalists. The aim of Syndicalism is to hand over the means of production and distribution to the trade unions, whose members now operate them, so that each union will control its own mean§ of livelihood in the common interest and the workmen will become their own employers, thus securing the whole product for themselves. To some Syndicalists this is a final and sufficient purpose; to others it is only a step towards the complete "emancipation" of the workman; but all pursue it as the present objective. Different means are proposed for accomplishing the economic revolution thus contemplated. Tho question is, How to get rid of the present owners? The method hitherto favored in France is the general strike. The general strike is an old proposal revived; but it is understood by French Syndicalism in quite a different sense from that in which it is generally used, and unless the difference is clearly comprehended the expression is the source of endless confusion (wrote the London Times recently). The general strike of Syndicalism is not a means of securing higher wages. It is a revolutionary act, having no relation to wages at all. It aims at the complete overthrow of the existing order by the cessation of all activity. The manual workors stop at home, society comes to a standstill, food is soon exhausted, there is no public lighting or conveyance, plundering and disorder begin, the soldiers are called out but re- < fuse to turn against the rioters, and lo! : the revolution is accomplished. Then the trade unions step in, take over the economic assets of the nation, reorganise them, and there you are! Everything, it is to be noted, turns on the behaviour of the soldiers; and hence the campaign for seducing the army. That is one way of securing possession on a wholesale scale. The plan recently unfolded among Welsh miners is quite different and much less bold. It is to render the mines unprofitable and therefore worthless as property by bad work, lessening output, higher wages, and incessant friction. When these proceedings have done their work, and the mines have, been rendered worthless, the unions will step in and take them over. But how this is to be done or what good it will be when ! the trade has been destroyed, or how the miners, after being debauched by prolonged and systematic shamming, can be got to work again—these and the like j problems are left to solve themselves. Syndicalism, of which there are several variants, has other methods, some milder, j some more violent than those described; j but enpugh has been said to make the aims clear. ,We pass on to consider the relation of the movement to Socialism and the other forms of economic revolution.