THE NEW UNIONISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1921, Page 8

THE NEW UNIONISM.

A CAUSE OF INDUSTRIAL UNREST. LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY. In discussing industrial matters with many people we have been struck witli the fact that there are some who look upon the existing temper of revolt as being due to»the hard circumstances the workers are living under. Now with every desire to ju ge fairly, we fail to see how this factor can be regarded as the chief cause of the prevailing unrest. The wage earners on the average today, even with the high prices ruling, are not worse off, but rather better oil than in times when there was much less labor discontent than obtains now. After careful study we have come to the conclusion that much of the trouble we have now to meet is due to the introduction of a new philosophy into the field of industry. Labor Unionism ha; largely passed from the form of trades unionism into what is euphemistically called “industrial unionism.” Trades unionism is organisation for the protection and advancement of the workers’ interests within their trade or occupation. The new unionism substitutes class interest for trade or craft interest. The idea at the root of it/ is syndicalism, and its elaboration has found its oppression in the I.W.W. move-' meet. This is the new unionism with which unfortunately a good many of the labor bodies in New Zealand is saturated. It stands for the advancement of the wage earners’ interests as a class, ami takes up the position that everything is justified which may in any way advance the power of the -class. That root thought of class makes the movement essentially anarchic and revolutionary i If it is a section of work ers against any established authority, the now unionism is for “no authority, our class first,” which .is anarchism purely. If the conflict is one between the nation and the class, the new unionism is for class interests against the State. This is revolution beyond question. This class interest finds its first conception and its logical outcome in the form of Government established in Russia, and its full expression in the dictatorship of the proletariat over all others.

ANARCHIC METHODS USED. The new unionism follows the rules of the I.W.W. school that “the end justifies the means” and that “right and wrong does not concern them.” We see these tactics applied where a union has an “agreement’’ with the employers, and the ipembers of the union individ-s ually ignore the agreement, stop work, go slow, or strike on the job; the union meanwhile taking no responsibility. The new unionism on occasions uses its industrial powei’ of hindering output for political ends against the State. Under the new unionism the unions seek to acquire power, but refuse to take responsibility for the acts of their members, and that is anarchism, because it is destructive of all sense of responsibility and authority except such as may be secretly exercised, whicli is treacherous and dangerous. The transport Worker” of January 1, 1921, Isays in plain terms, “we set out to make the industry (waterside industry) bur own.” This in plain terms means that they deliberately set out to take an industry which belongs to the whole com-' munity; which is the new unionism of anarchy, NO PEACE WITH A LIE. The difficulty of dealing with this insiduously treacherous movement of anarchism. which is creating constant disturbances within our industries is that, like an octopus, it has wound itself about the body of legitimate trades unionism. People do not wish to injure trades unionism,- and therefore refrain from striking the snake of anarchism because it presents ftself as unionism. There is one thing we can be sure of; there can be no peace with the lie of class despotism and the meanness of a movement that brazenly says “all foi ourselves, nobody else counts.” This new unionism, being truly anarchism, masquerading as unionism, must be fought in order to secure industrial stability. We want peace, but no ‘■peace with dishonor.” There can be no peace with an enemy of the public who will stab the community in the back and is ready to rob and destroy in order to enhance its own power as an organised incarnation of utter selfishness. It is time thal the Legislature of this Dominion, whilst protecting loyal and legitimate labor unionism, took active steps to crush out of existence the socially criminal movement of anarchism such as is masquerading here as a new kind of unionism, but is in effect nothing else than a form of organised conspiracy for the hampering of industry as may suit the vicious wills of scheming syndicalists who have the effrontery to say plainly that their object is to confiscate both private and publicly-owned industries. The direct aotipnism of this school being a direct danger to industry should be outlawed. As it cares nothing for society it is time that it was suppressed in its activities. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League,)