LABOUR MANIFESTO.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9030, 22 February 1908, Page 3

LABOUR MANIFESTO.

The following manifesto of the Labour Representation Committee has been issued to the various trades councils:—"Fellow workers, The trades unionists and labour organisations of Wellington have formed a Labour Representation Committee for the purpose of securing the return of members pledged to support and ca r ry out the policy of the Committee. "The objective decided upon is the Socialisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the method at present adoptt d towards that end is the return of members pledged to support a Labour group, which shall be quite distinct from any other political party, all members returned to be controlled by the Labourßepresentation Committee^ "Some 35 bodies are represented on the Committee, including 32 trades unions, the Socialist party, Political Labour League, and Fabain Society. Candidates put forward at any election will be selected in the most democratic manner possible, that being the chief characteristics of the Committe, as expressed by its title —viz., Labour Representation. The delegates who have been elected by the various affiliated bodies to the Committee are, in the majority of cases, men wh« have spent many years in the consideration of various schemes and Dolitics calculated to

benefit the wealth-producers of the dominion, and the objective which jjtehas been decided upon is not held lightly as a means merely of votecatching. "Ihe attitude towards any other political party or towards the Government in power will be that of independence, unless that party or the Government is engaged upon measures likely to affect the interests of the workers or the objective of the Committee, when, of. course, the measure will be supported or opposed •accordingly. "We' recommend to the Trades Councils throughout New Zealand that similar action be entered upon immediately, in order that a party worthy of the name of the Labour party shall be .returned at the next general election to the House of Representatives. "On behalf of the Committee, Charles H. Chapman, secretary."