INDUSTRIAL UNIONS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 823, 6 May 1955, Page 12

INDUSTRIAL UNIONS

MAGNIFICENT JOURNEY, by Francis Williams; Odhams Press, through Whitcombe and Tombs, 18/9. ‘THIS is a very able, sympathetic history. It gives a lively picture of the rise of the great industrial unions, The power of the dnions has been evidenced and confirmed by many _ successful strikes, and by the mauling which the employers have received in the unsuccessful strikes. This being so it is no surprise to find a great part of this history devoted to these struggles, but one would like to find some expression by the author of the principles which, in his opinion, govern the question whether a potential strike is just or unjust. Whether the cause is just is (one supposes) usually a question of fact. No one any longer denies the right of man to combine to cease work to achieve

a lawful end. But what if the ill-effects the community will probably exceed the good obtained for the strikers? Suppose a general strike which has for its real object ‘the abolition of private property? We are not told by Mr. Williams. One so able and well qualified to speak on these matters could have told ts more of the well-directed efforts of the Communist Party to gain control of important unions. This is of vital importance. It has happened in Britain, in ‘Australia, in New Zealand. If enough important. unions are so captured a gen- | eral strike can be instigated, and a general strike can just as easily be directed to the seizure of political power or to the overthrow of the constitution as to gaining an increase in wages. If, for instance, in New Zealand all transport and industrial production and distribution of food ceased and could start again only if permitted by a group of union leaders whom we shall suppose to be Communist, then we have a state of affairs in which the Government of the country has been taken over by Moscow. If we don’t know this by now so much the worse for us in the future. Once a strike commences the individual unionist is helpless. He has it, however, in his power in times of industrial peace to prevent people getting control of his union whose real object is not his welfare but the Party Line. | A third criticism is that this is a partisan account. The author frankly confesses at the outset an "emotional involvement." There is also the absence of all references and sources. These could easily have been included in an appendix. Nevertheless, this is a worth-

while job well done.

F. J.

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