THE PLOT AGAINST TRADE UNIONISM.
FOR the third time since the beginning of the year the public are the victims of a transport dispute. First there was the railway strike ; then there was the tranivgay Strike supported by the omnibus drivers ; and now there is the strike on the Underground Railway.
Apart from these three strikes, the public in their comings and goings were affected by the dock strike. What Mr. Shaw, the Minister of Labour, did not in the least seem to recognize when he spoke in the House of Conunons last week about the latest strike was that in -a real sense it is the gravest of them all—not the gravest as measured by the inconvenience it causes, but the gravest because of the extremely perverse and dangerous challenge it issues to an established principle. It is a threat to Trade Unionism. And the worst of it is that this threat is offered by men who call themselves Trade Unionists.
Mr. Shaw spoke with a certain indifference, either assumed or real. He lightly pretended that the Govern- ment could not do a great deal to bring the strike to an end or to prevent the victimization of the public because the railways were not yet national property. "What can be done," he seemed to ask' sardonically, -" in an absurd country which will not put the control of the railways in the hands of the Government, and yet demands that the Government should exercise control ? " Of course, if Mr. Shaw thinks that the nationalization of private companies will stop strikes, he need not look further for a discouraging answer than the countries where many more industries than here are in the hands of the State. He would have done much better and have preached a true social principle (which should not, one would think, be foreign to a Socialist) if he had insisted that the public means of transport is one of the "essential services" which the Government admit they are bound to maintain. He was much too airy, also, about the sufferings of London. "Why call attention," he exclaimed in effect, "to these wretched Communists who are said to have organized the strike, but probably did not ! We shall only puff them out with pride and courage if we take any notice of them. It is only because this thing has happened in London that such a fuss is being made. If it had happened in some city in the North we should have heard little about it."
This was very poor stuff, whether it was intended teriously or as a joke. Even if London traffic, being the traffic of the capital and of the clearing-house of the nation, were not much more- important than that of any other city—which it certainly would still be notorious that by far the greatest number of Uncon- stitutional, unofficial, or subversive plots are hatched in London. London is not only much the most im- portant but much the most promising field for such experiments. - In fine, Mr.- Shaw quite failed to appre- ciate the significance of the contest.: Here are two or three hundred men in the electrical power stations who are discontented with their treatment—quite reasonably, let us suppose—and who form a small committee and proclaim a strike without reference to the executive of- the Union to which they belong. This is Direct Action, which is an outrage on constitutionalism, whether political or industrial, in any democratic .State. The comparatively small number of aggrieved men are joined lzer about seven thousand uniformed men working the underground trains "in sympathy." , The whole thing comes upon the publie with a shock. 'No notice has been given. - The* chief sufferers 'ale the poorest people who spend their holidays within the fringe of outer London.
It may or may not be true that the leaders of this unauthorized strike are Communists. Some of them. expressly say that they are not, but it is an undoubted fact that the professed Communists are very well pleased' with what has happened and applaud it in all their papers. When there is a disorderly unrest, a refusal to abide by any rules, it is almost impossible to label the movement with any accuracy. It is certain, hotv.. ever, that the Communists are urging the movement on ; in that sense it is Communistic. On the other hand, there are, of course, a considerable number of strikers, as happens in all strikes, who have no very strong political principles, but adhere to whichever side frightens them less. They are terrified, not un- naturally, at the cry of " blackleg " They may be terrified into withholding their labour one day, and they may be emboldened by the visibly growing strength of the other party into returning to work on the next day. - The strike was more successful at first than anybody had expected. The power at the Lots Road generating station was reduced by about 60 per cent. In vain the Executive of the National Union of Railwaymen appealed to the unauthorized strike leaders to hold their hand. The unauthorized leaders replied that they were not rebelling, as had been said, but were in reality the most loyal members of their much respected Union. They were only gingering it up ! In much the same way the pugnacious member of the village cricket eleven who had disputed every decision of the umpire announced that he had done the umpire a very good service by keeping .him up to the mark and insisting on the immense' importance of his services in the interests of the game.
It is a tragic madness that such things should happen: By slow and painful degrees Trade 'Unionism has fought its way upwards. From being originally an illegal combination, it won legal recognition ; it won the recognition of the employers so that the vast majority of them now find collective bargaining with the Execu- tives of the Unions an advantage rather than an impediment and an impertinence ; and it won recog- nition from the public, who see that Trade Unionism on the whole has made for the efficiency and the self- respect of the manual workers as well as for immensely improved conditions. The permanence of Trade Union- ism as an institution, however, must obviously depend upon the loyalty with which the members of the Unions stand by the bargains made in their name by their Executives. The members have the power to vote their leaders into office and out of office. They have- no excuse of any sort or kind for setting up an Executive to make bargains, ratifying those bargains in a general ballot, and then throwing_ the bargains over without notice.
If this policy, or rather no-policy, is to continue, Trade Unionism will crash. It is satisfactory that the Executive of the National Union of Railwaymen' has - milled the strike a "colossal blunder," but it will not have done enough until it has made it much clearer still that Trade Unionism, which democratically ascer- tains and then gives effect to the- wishes of the majority, does not mean to be sand-bagged by any minority. This is a very simple issue, easy to s and easy to state, and we hope that no sound Trade Unionist leader will be afraid to express his opinion. We are not fancying dangers which do not exist. This strike, following' rapidly upon the unauthorized strikes at Southampton. and Wembley, Shows that real 'attempts are being made to unSet Trade Unionism from within.
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