Pioneer

I Hail, Nottingham No Labour or Socialist paper with the barest pretensions to anything beyond the most re- sti-ictoed of parochial outlooks could do other, in its current issue, than address the weight of its editorial intelligence to Nottingham, or rather to the Labour Party Conference that is meeting there as this is written. At the moment of writing the delegates have not got beyond the stage of welcoming the fraternal delegates, but as we are not concerned at the moment with what is happening at Nottingham, much less the proportion of votes that will be cast this way or that—though these have their own significance that may not be ignored-we may ignore the Agenda in any special senser and look at the real significance that the Nottingham Confer- ence has for Democracy. Why is it that the I.L.P.er who twelve months ago and less shook his head in despair when the Labour Party was the topic of conversation, now waxes enthusias- tice in his story of the days that are to be in Labour politics ? How is it that the Lib-Laoour- ite of the old school, and they seemed to be common a year ago to-day, has changed from an attitude of vituperation and mistrust towards the Socialist which was his special mark and characteristic a year back, to one of toleration, if not of agreement, with the very things that he then condemned F It is in the explanation of this changed spirit that the significance of Not- tingham is to be found. And the significance of Nottingham lies in the fact that Nottingham considered in this light is not a. Conference, but an index to the psychology of the organised De- mocracy of a nation. Nottingham means a new influx of the Socialist philosophy into the politics of Labour; a new Socialist inspiration of the Leaders of Labour; and a democratisation of Labour's war aims into a peace settlement pro- gramme compatible with international prole- tarian organisation and emancipation in a broad sense, because two factors have been at work during the past twelve months to change, not the attitude of the maligned Socialist inside the Labour Party, but to an acceleration of the crawl of the Lib-Labourite into a headlong rush that we never anticipated. Those two factors are really only two facets of the same economic pressure, a pressure that the Socialist knew to be inevitable, and therefore preached, a pressure that the Lib-Labourite regarded as a chimera until he became its victim, and was startled into panic, and wakefulness. Man's industrial evo- lution, always pretty accurately reflected so far as the class in power is concerned in its political machinery, had brought us to a stage of co-oper- ative combination that had as the necessary corollary of its highly specialised production an international inter-dependency of man upon man that balanced the supplies of the world's neces- I sities of life on a razor-edge; and that, on the field of international politics could not leave us in the days of Agincourt, but had brought us to the stage of co-operation for destruction by the combination of military engineering, allied to applied science, that, given any approximation to equality on either side in a contest of arms on a large scale, rendered military success in the sense of decisive victory an improbability, and that made for the protraction of war to a dura- tion only measured by the ultimate bankruptcy of the belligerent nations. Those things were known to the Socialist more than to his oppo- nent, or his pseudo friend of the Labour Party, for two reasons..First, he knew more of inter- national politics than either, because his faith alone secured -him as an Internationalist, and secondly because Socialism implies study, and study directed aright in industry and history had taught him the mutual dependence of Interna- tional Capitalism, the necessary wide-spread participotion of grouped nations in an European conflagration; and this anticipation of an in- evitable Armaggedon had been conceived years ago, and had led to a study of its probable course and outcome that by Christ-mas 1914 had conso- lidated the Socialist opinion in England into a practically solid nucleus, a-round which the forces of Pacifism grouped; and against which the Lib-Lab erstwhile friend, deceived by the poison of a press he has not yet learned to evaluate aright, gnashed his teeth and mouthed his rancour. But the time is the tesit of theories of criticism, and time has vindicated the Social- ist. The Lib-Lab whose intellect has not been touched by the theories and criticism of the Socialist, has been converted by the economic and psychic pressures that those theories and that criticism had named as nece.ssarv stages in the unfolding drama. War-weariness is the un- satisfactory name that we have given to the psychological transformation that has marked the last few months in particular, and war- weariness may be-accepted as differentiating be- tween the conscious Socialist pacifism militant, and the somewhat vague desire for peace that is still in the stage of crystalisation at Notting- ham this week. But weariness is not as a rule constructive, whereas the new alertness of La- bour as represented in tbo consolidation of forces; the revision of the constitution, and in particular the reconstruction proposals that are to be put forward and which will be accepted, and which in the main follow the lines of Social- Democracy, shows us that out of the bitter ex- perience of the material conditions of three and a-half years of war has come an intellec- tual renascence that has led to a conversion to Socialist theory and practice such as we had never expected; and such as was little hoped for twelve months ago. It iq. in this conversion to the new thought that the significance of Not- tingham lies Nottingham is pregnant with the new world order. labour has sloughed off its sloth of apathy, and is girding on the armour that will give the world to man in co-operative industrial relationship, and not division the globe between grasping landthiefs and money- graobers, whose insane competition for more and more of the wealth of the world develops strife and struggle and misery for the few. Hail, Nottingham!

An Interlude with Whitley. -1 BY W. N. EWER. I want, as they say at Westminster, to move the adjournment of the debate on Oligarchy in order to call attention to a matter of urgent public importance—the Whitley Report. And I want to do this particularly because the writer of Trade Union Notes in his comments on the Report a few weeks ago, seems to me entirely to have missed the point of much of the criticism that has been brought to bear upon it. The most important of the objections urged against the Whitley proposals are, he tells us, that they would recognise and sanction the wage system and would delay the nationalisation of industry demanded by Labour." And OIl this he comments that if the workers really want the nation's industries nationalised, the securing by them of a share in the actual control and management of those industries would acceler- ate rather than retard such a consummation." Now this curious fear. that the gaining of con- trol by the organised workers is in any way, inconsistent with or likely to impede nationali- sation, may exist. But I have never met it. And the chief definite criticism of the Report has so far come from the National Guilds League, whose whole policy is based upon a twin programme of nationalisation by the State and capture of control by the Unions. The criticisms of the League are entirely dif- ferent, and seem to have been entirely over- looked by the writer of Trade Union Notes. "JUST WINDOW DRESSING." In a nutshell they are: That the Report pos- tulates a fundamental identity of interest be- tween employers and employed. That, though it toys with the idea of giving the workers a share in control, it actually gives nothing of the kind, but only suggests piously that this may be a subject for discussion by Industrial Councils. That, in effect, the Whitley Councils are little more than an extended type of conciliation machinery. And that a machinery of this kind though neither good nor bad in itself, will be very definitely dangerous to Trade Unionism un- less the Unions are very careful as to the spirit and the conditions of its adoption. So that, on this particular matter of control, the charge is, not that the Whitley proposals by giving too much share in control to the workers will endanger Nationalisation; but that they do not give any such share at all. How well based that charge is, and how justi- fied the National Guilds League suspicion that the remarks about the means for securing to the workpeople a greater'share in and responsibility for the determination and observance of the conditions under which they work were mere window dressing, events are now showing. For the first Whitley Council has been formed —for the Pottery Industry. And—if the "Man- chester Guardian's" report of the inaugural meeting be accurate, the objects of the new Council are pretty much those suggested by the Report—with two exceptions. There is no re- ference whatever to giving the workers a share in the determination of the conditions of their work, let alone a share in the control of industry. And there is included among the purposes of the Council a quite new one The maintenance of selling prices that will afford reasonable remu- neration to employers and employed. H TTlNG OUT THE CAT." I The oat is out ot the bag. Whatever the in- tentions of Mr. Whitley and his colleagues— and no one suggests that they were other than honest-the intention of the employers is quite clear. They are not out for joint control or any other kind of control by the workers. They are very decidedly out for loot. They do not look on the councils as Industrial Parliaments, but as the Industrial Trusts. And they intend to use them to secure the co-operation of their employees in the establishment of big monopolies for the fleecing of the consumer. Apart from this cheery proposal, they are mainly concerned with uncontroversial matters like technical education, or with the "settle- ment of all kinds of disputes and the mainten- ance of industrial peace. The employers' reconstruction programme in a word is industrial peace and the trustification of industry. They hope to use the Whitley ma- chinery for these ends, and for the further pur- pose of destroying the solidarity of Labour by creating a solidarity of industries—by substitut- ing for the alliance of, all workers against the each industry against the consumer-who are also mainly the workers. And they are doing this openly and in the light of day. The trap is nakedly visible; and if Labour walks into it, it will only have itself to thank for the consequences. What, then, is our right policy? Not neces- sarily to refuse to have anything whatever to do with Whitley Cbuncils and Committees. After all, negotiation between employers and the unions is necessary. Our war is largely a war of negotiation. And it is just as well to have an efficient machinery for negotiation. But we must lay down certain conditions which are es- sential if a machinery- of Councils is not to be dangerous to Labour, and is not to undermine the independence or the solidarity of Trade Unionism. LABOUR'S ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS. In the first place there must be full and com- plete recognition of Trade Unionism both na- tionally and locally and in the workshop. Secondly Labour can only with safety enter into close relations with solidly organised bodies of employers if its own organisation is solid. That is to say. the Whitley machinery should only be accepted in industries in which effeetive Indus- .trial Unionism exists. Thirdly: the La b our side of a Council must preserve complete independence and liberty of action, a.nd must meet the employers as dele- gates of Labour not as fellow members of a single Council; for negotiation not for co-opera- tion. Fourthly: Labour representatives must em- phatically refuse to have anything to do with schemes for rigging prices or creating monopo- li; their business is to fight the employer, not to aid him in fighting the consumer. Fifthly: they must equally refuse to have anything to do with proposals for compulsory arbitration or for long-term agrgeements which would shackle and cripple the fighting strength of Trade Unionism. If these conditions are observed, there will be little danger in adopting the "machinery of the Whitley Report. But whether on these condi- tions the employers will see any advantage in that machinery-whether indeed they will be prepared to adopt it at all, is another matter. Finally, and to come back to my starting point: the essential thing to realise is that the Whitley machinery is nothing revolutionary; that it does not in any way satisfy the demand for a share in the control of industry; and that the employers who are so enthusiastically wel- coming it have not at all changed their views or their attitude towards Labour. They may have raised the white flag; but their rifles are still loaded. They "prate of the blessings of peace," but their war-aims remain unchanged. They are still out for power and plunder. And it in still the business of Labour to deprive them of both. That, alter all, is the important matter. That industrial war still exists, and must continue to exist until Labour has either won a decisive vic- tory or has surrendered at discretion. No patched-up peace is possible. We must either give up or go on. And if we go into the Whit- ley Councils we must go, not in the belief that the millenium has arrived, but in the knowledge that the fight is still on. We must regard the Councils as a battlefield, not as a peace confer- ence. Of course, as I have said, that is not what the employers or the Government want or expect from us. They want us to help them but our job is to help ourselves.

Merthyr Trades Council. N.U.R. BRANCH APOLOGISES. FOR UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTION. The annual meeting of the Merthyr Trades Council, held at Bent ley's on Thursday last week, was, like all annual meetings, more of a butsiness than an exciting gathering, though it had a special interest in that the unfortunate action of the ltailwnynicn in breaking the can. stitution of the Party by their deputation to the Town Council on the question of the Town Ward vacancy was amicably settled by an apology being tendered by the delegates of the N. U .R. local branch present. It is pleasing to record that the year has be<'n a most excellent*.one from the point of view of increasing affiliation and loyalty, and of financial progression while the utility of the Council to the workers has been over and over again proved in ways that it is not easy to compute in terms of money. For instance, as the Secretary, Mr. W. Harris, in his report said: Not thirty times the amount paid as affiliation fees would cover the amount saved to the people of Merthyr by the Council's vigil- ance under the Rent's Act. That vigilance has represented thousands of pounds owing to the fact that the Trades Council has nipped this .tiling in the bud." And the Rents' Act has been one of its widespread activities in defence of the people as a whole, and of trades unionists in particular. ADAMANT. An interesting passage occurred in an omnibus letter from the Secretary of the National La- bour Party (Mr. Middleton) wherein it was stated that Mr. Geo. Barker, our stalwart Aber- tillery comrade, had been before the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the S.W.M..F. on the ques- tion of Income Tax, but Mr. Bonar Law was ob- durate, and the only concession .he would make was one of t25 for wives. A CPNDEMNATION. .1 J: <cL n1e 4 •_ >• 1 C i. l n ic 1 il. coinniunieaLion was jtrau hohi iue DellaST, Trades and Labour Council dealing with the strike which is being engaged in by the em- ployees of Messrs. Robinson and Cleaver, and a resolution was passed condemmiing in the strongest terms the firm in its endeavour to perpetuate the low wage system. Three delegates were appointed to represent the Council in the conference to initiate the Merthyr campaign for combating venereal dis- eases, convened by the local Health Committee. THE N.U.R. APOLOGIES. Mr. A. Jfi. wtevens and Mr. D. Jones, tne N. U .R. delegates expressed their branch's apolo- gies for its recent action contravening the con- stitution of the Council in sending a deputation to wait upon the Town Council for the purpose of securing their nominee's co-option in the Town Ward vacancy, after he had been defeated in a property constituted selection conference of the Trades Council. Undoubtedly, at the time," said Mr. Stevens, the N.U.R. branch had acted under a very strong feeling of provo- cation, and the deputation to the Town Coun- cil was the outlet for the bad feeling." But now the Branch recognised that it had done wrong, which it regretted; and it only trusted that th8 lapse would be forgotten and the firm friendship would be re-established. The one desire of the Branch was to work in complete harmony and accord with its fellow unions through the Trades Council, for therein, it recognised, alone lay the strength of the workers. One or two delegates feared that the ease with which the matter was being settled might form a bad precedent in inducing other organisations in the future to adopt a similar course, but they were isolated, the general feeling being one of relief that the corner was being turned with no more unpleasant consequences. As Mr. Barr put it, they agreed to let the N.U.R. off with a warning under the First Offenders Act. NEW OFFICERS. There were no nominations for Secretary and Treasurer in opposition to the retiring officers, Mr. W. Harris and Mr. T. J. Evans, and they were therefore declared re-elected. The position of Vice-President fell to Mr. J. Adkins (Plas- terers') out of five candidates, and Mr. T. Price (I.L.P.) was elected auditor by 21 votes in a list of nine candidatm.