The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 23, 1927, Page 6

The British Anti-Strike Bill The introduction of the tory anti-trade union bill in the British parliament is not only of interest to British labor but to the workers of all lands. Tho the heads of the General Council and officials of the British Trade Union Congress have expressed opposition to it, yet it remained for the Communist Party to analyse it and organize a united fight against it. While alleged revolutionists like George Lansbury and the leaders of the Independent Labor Party are cursing the Communists for trying to influence the masses from inside their class organ- izations the Communist Party is busy rallying the workers for the struggle against the capitalists and against their most efficient lieutenants in the trade union movement and in the Labor Party. The following clause-by-clause analysis of this anti-union bill ig taken from “Workers’ Life” of- ficial organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain: ° * * Clause 1 of the bill prohibits strikes “having any object besides the furtherance of a trade dis- pute within the trade or industry in which the strikes are engaged” if they are “designed or calculated” to coerce the government, or intimi- date the community, “or any substantial portion of the community.” Agitation for or organiza- tion of such strikes can be punished up to two years’ imprisonment. No money can be spent “in furtherance or support of” such strikes. This means that (1) a General Strike in defense of common working class interests against the capi- talists would be illegal; (2) solidarity strikes would be illegal; (8) sympathetic strikes within the same industry would be illegal, if the capitalist law courts liked to declare them “designed or calculated,” ete.; (4) a strike against war would be illegal; (5) any “substantial portion of the community” is protected against the workers, whereas there is no protection for “any substantial portion” of the workers against lock-outs, such as that of the mine-owners last year; (6) spending money on a campaign for trade union solidarity in the event of a FUTURE conflict would be illegal. Clause 2 states that there shall be no “expulsion or fine or deprivation of right to benefit” or any other “disability” enforced against a man who re- fuses to take part in an “illegal strike.” If he is punished in any such way, the courts can order him. to be compensated from the union funds, instead of being reinstated. And this clause is retrospec- tive, ie¢., it applies to past disputes. This means that (1) blacklegging would be en- couraged and protected, the scab himself having the power to decide what is and what is not an “illegal strike,” with the moral certainty that he will be backed by the capitalist courts; (2) the capitalists would have the legal power to bankrupt a union (no amount of “compensation” is stated) for en- forcing class discipline; (3) unions which enforced discipline for blacklegging during the General Strike would be menaced with numerous actions and bank- ruptcy immediately, as an alternative to withdraw- ing the penalties inflicted. Clause 8 makes it unlawful for “one or more persons” to attend “at or near a house or place where a person resides or works or happens to be,” for the purpose of “obtaining or communicating information’’ or inducing anyone to leave work; if they attend “in such numbers or otherwise” as to be “calculated to intimidate” any person. To “intimidate,” the bill gays, is to cause “apprehen- sion of injury”: and “injury” is defined as mean- ing, apart from physical or material injury, “boy- cott, or loss of any kind, or exposure to hatred, , ridicule or contempt.” The penalty is £20 or three months’ imprisonment. This means that (1) all picketing, whether at a man’s home or his workplace, would be rendered im- possible, since all he has to do is to say that it. is “calculated to inflict” injury; (2) a public meet- ing to “communicate information” in the neighbor- hood of a factory where blacklegs are working, at which they are exposed to “hatred, ridicule, or con- tempt,” would be illegal; (3) any public meeting anywhere, e.g., outside council offices, factory gates, ete., QUITE UNCONNECTED WITH A TRADE DISPUTE, can be made illegal if it brings into “hatred, ridicule, or contempt,” esr causes apprehen- sion of “loss of any kind,” to anyone “happening to be” in the vicinity. It is for the capitalist courts to decide, ‘ Clause 4 alters the method of collecting the political levy. Instead of a man sending in a writ- ten declaration of his unwillingness to contribute (after aeballot majority has declared in favor of the levy), a man who wants to contribute will have to send in a special form. He can withdraw his declaration at any time, by posting a notice to the head or branch office: the mere fact of posting will be considered sufficient. No assets apart from the poliiteal fund “shall be directly or indirectly applied or charged in furtherance” of any po- litical subject. This means that (1) the capitalists who raise political funds by exploitation and corruption are making it more difficult for the workers to raise political funds out of their pennies earned by honest labor; (2) a man who enjoys the benefit of any A Scotch Hero Takes Gas F is said that Aberdeen, Scotland, is the only place in the world the Jew can’t make a living. We are now able to tell the reason why. The natives are expected to live on five shillings (one dollar and a quarter) per week. From what is to follow, you will see that the authorities of the Granite City are trying much the same experiment as the old Aberdeen farmer who had just succeeded in getting his horse to work without feeding, when it died. According to the Glasgow “Sunday Post” of March 27th, “the action of Aberdeen Parish Council in connection with the relief of an elderly woman who lost her son in the war is causing indignation among ex-service men in the city. “The case has come under the notice of the Bri- tish Legion. Mr. A. B. McLeod, the secretary, has explained to his branch of the legion that the woman, who is sixty-eight years of age, had no pension for her son. e “She received five shillings a week from the Parish Council, and the legion thought this was not enough to maintain her. They pointed out the whole circumstances to the Ministry of Pensions, and prevailed upon them to give her a “need” pen- sion of six shillings and a penny (a dollar and a half). As soon as the Parish Council learned of this, they withdrew their relief of five shillings. The legion protested, but the council have decided to adhere to their decision, “As the attitude of the Parish Council in regard to war pensions and relief is that adopted by other Parish Councils in Scotland, the Aberdeen branch are to raise the matter at the annual conference of the legion at Dundee.” h It seems to me that everyone on that Parish Souncil is like the Scotch Highlandman’s wife—“no -man at all.” No wonder we are “mean,” it is enough to make us Bolsheviks, I wouldn’t object to the experiment so much if they would try it first on those with whom it is likelier to succeed, that is, on those who have been living on the fat of the land, and are apt to have a strong constitution as a result, Seeing that Bal- moral Castle, the Highland home of the royal fam- ily, is, with Aberdeen, “On The Banks 0’ The Sil- very Dee,” why not start with King George when next he comes to stay there. If he can survive on a dollar and a quarter a week, I am quite sure the Aberdeen workers will submit, for they are a dour, determined crowd, and will never say die in an endurance test. We will also advise the Jews that it is possible for them to live there, pointing out that, since the king is living on a level with the workers, it would be good policy to keep him company at Balmoral, where there are plenty beautiful rooms unoccupied, in preference to the “wee but an’ ben” of the workers: Poor Aberdeen! How your sons are being driven from pillar to post. Here is the case of one of them that came to New York, hoping to make a better living than was possible in the British em- pire. He came to stay next room to me, in this rooming house, a little more than a month ago. One couldn’t fail to notice that he was different from any other lodger in this cosmopolitan house. I noticed it right away—in accent, dress, and his mode of addressing one. With the exception of myself, everyone seemed to be defferential towards him, because, as one of them temarked, “he seemed to be a person who had come down in the world.” He had come down all right, for he, who had been known during the war as Lieutenant Colonel John Hector Innes Brown, D. 8. 0., N. R. O., was now working as a night watchman. , The military life had not given him much that was ps in civil life, and being up in years, he found it devilish hard to make a living, even in Calvin Coolidge’s prosperous America. ' Despite the fact of us being “brither Scots,” and living next room to one another, we had little con- versation. You see I couldn’t forget that I was only a private during the war; nor could I forgive him for boasting he was “British to the backbone,” especially when he been forced to come here because the empire which hq was so mighty proud, didn’t give a damn whether he lived or died, It was rumored that he wrote articles and poetry for magazines, them, or he would have stayed elsewhere because he wasn’t in love with hfs quarters. Occasionally I would hear him moving about through the thin Say Be parliamentary victories won by the trade uniong through the Labor Party (which they organized and maintain for the purpose), and wants to get out of his obligations, would be able to do so more easily; (3) contributions to the Trades Union Congress, which necessarily passes political resolutions and works for political objects, or special levies for the “Daily Herald,” the official organ of the movement, could be prohibited (e.g., the Forster case). ; Clause 5 prohibits Civil Servants from being members of any trade union unless its member- ship “is confined to persons employed by or under _ the Crown,” it is not affiliated to any organiza- tion or federation with a different kind of mem- bership, its objects do not include political objects, and “it is not associated directly or indirectly with any political party or organization.” If Civil Ser vants are engaged in some other employment, they can continue to be members of an organization catering for that employment. This means that (1) government employes of all kinds, including postal workers, dock-yard employes, , etc., as well as clerks, could not affiliate to the T. U. C. or Labor Party; (2) they would not be able to send delegates to amy international congress or organization with political objects, e.g., the emanci- pation of the working class,’in its constitution; (3) Civil Servants who are members of an Employers’ Federation could continue their membership, becanse it is against the workers, ani that is not a “political’ object. Similarly that would be no bar to mempber- ship of the O. M. 8S. Clause 6 makes it unlawful for a local authority to make it a condition» of employment that man “shall or shall not be a member of a trade union,” or to discriminate between trade unionists and “nons.” Public employes who “break a contract. of service,” when they have “reasonable cause to believe” that this will “hinder or prevent the dis- charge of the functions of the authority,” are liable to £10 fine or three months’ imprisonment. This means that (1) Dustmen or other municipal employes who strike without notice would be liable to imprisonment, while capitalists who take advan- tage of their monopoly hold on industry to fleece the people are untouched; (2) a labor majority, representing -the mass of local opinion, and itself enforcing a fair wage clause, cannot enforce the trade union membership which is reasonably asso- ciated with trade union rates; (3) the workers get another illustration of how their conquest of the local machinery of capitalist “democracy” is met with the withdrawal of all powers from that ma- chinery by the capitalists, By DONALD McKILLOP partition; but tonight his room is as still as the grave, and I will never hear him anymore. Two weeks ago, on Saturday afternoon, I re- turned from work to find the landlord and police in possession of my room. In apologizing, they informed me that “the colonel took the gas.” I stepped into his room, and there he was, as dead as a doornail, I heard him begin the deed but didn’t know. At two a. m. on Saturday morning, while reading, I , was startled by a sound like an explosion quite close. Being unable to account for it, I went to bed. Now I know what it was. His gas tube was full of gas, and when he pulled it off the st@¥e, an explosion occurred, The poor devil must have been pretty hard up for several pawn tickets were found in his clothes, and he hadn’t paid anything for his room for three weeks, The British Great War Veterans of America As- sociation, seeing the suicide in the papers, took pos- session of the body, and arranged for the colonel to be buried with full military honors, the honors being done by the regiment with which he served— Canadian Black Watch, A woman who had known him, called to see his abode, and on seeing the house remarked, “No ppg he committed suicide, staying in a place like is Those who could have helped in life, at least, saw to it that he had full military honors on his way — pie in the sky, or a swig in hell from Gunga ee HE WHO EXPLOITS He who lives on others’ toil Is an exploiter, hated by the mass Of workers in the shops and soil. To them he is an enemy who'll pass Into oblivion, before the rise Of a social order now in birth; Which ‘will banish Gods from skies And exploiters from the earth.