Back of the great upheaval is the economic fact of | the Trust. Out of the social conditions begotten of | monopolised industry has arisen the combination of | circumstances culminating in the greatest strike | Australia has ever known.
|The advent of monopoly in the Commonwealth involved | sooner or later a series of aggressive acts against | Unionism. For the Trust postulates mastership of the | job, and there can be no capitalist supremacy in an | industry where Unionism is a strengthening force. | Complete control over the meat industry is an essential | aim of the American Meat Vampire. That control | expresses itself not only in the capacity to fix prices | for cattle bought and sold, but in the capacity to | position Labor in the meat industry as the Trust | wills.
|And wherever the meat vampire carries on its | operations, it seeks all manner of means to reduce Labor | to a condition of subservience. In the Chicago | canneries, Unionism is a spent force. On the great | cattle ranches of North and South America it does not | exist even as a name. Absolute domination over the | workers is not only a goal deliberately sought, but an | end actually attained.
|Had the meat hog not entered Australia it is probable | our economic history would be not quite what it is. But | economic pressure drove the greatest monopoly in the | world round the earth seeking new areas for cattle- | raising. Growth of population and settlement in the USA | was gradually lessening the land available for pastoral | requirements. Enormous increases in the demand for meat | were being made coincidental with a diminution in the | future supplies. If the Trust was to meet its problems | it had to find a new country with vast tracts suitable | for ranching on the grand scale; for preference that | country should be one with a comparatively small | population, yet with railroad and other transport | facilities to deep-sea harbors. Thus the Trust picked | on Australia. For the best part of five years its | agents have been selecting and acquiring leases, buying | herds, erecting canneries, and generally making | provisions for stupendous operations.
|It, however, was not the only great corporation that | was planning its future. In the Commonwealth itself | other associations of capitalists were busily engaged | adding to their resources, widening control, | amalgamating and linking up the chain of complete | sovereignty in the industry they were exploiting. And | the Trusts locally evolved knew even better than did the | agents of the importation that Unionism would have to be | fought and beaten if the monopoly was to ensure itself | security of tenure.
|For Unionism is the very life of the Labor Movement. | With Unionism strong and alert the Trust policy could be | defeated by economic organisation in the places of | employment, and by the political influence of Labor in | the Legislatures. Ever since Labor became a force in | Australian politics the Coal Barons have lived in fear | of nationalisation. The same can be said of the Sugar, | Tobacco, and Shipping Cartels. Each industry subjected | to trustification was affected by the Labor program in | respect to national resumption.
| And the war on Unionism
Thus organisation was initiated to destroy the Labor | Movement. By forcing strike issues to a climax and | generally involving the unions in apparently anti-social | entanglements, the associated coteries of capitalism | hoped to stampede the public support given to Labor. In | 1913 the first gleam of success exhibited itself in the | Fusion capture of the House of Representatives. The | legislative control thus secured was far too meagre to | be satisfactory. A more substantial coup was calculated | for. To accomplish this constitutionally, if possible, | Sir Wm Irvine was sent to the office of Commonwealth law | adviser. That he was a corporation lawyer was proved by | his retention of the Marconi brief despite its | litigation with the Government whose servant he was.
|How the double dissolution which was the expedient | hit upon by him failed in 1914 is a matter of history. | Beaten in politics, the Trusts were forced into the open | in their desperate struggle to overcome the fear of | nationalisation. The war added to the critical | character of their position. In every belligerent | country the public outcry against profiteering, the | demand for national control of the great public | utilities, all contributed to the urgency of their | position. Once resumed by the Nation, it was highly | improbable any reversion to monopoly-control would ever | take place. Thus the Trusts had no alternative but ~~ war | or no war ~~ proceed with their self-preservation policy of | demoralising the movement of Labor.
|How everything was seized upon which lent itself to | their purpose is easily demonstrated: Prices have been | forced to the sky. Tremendous profits won in the fields | of commerce have been employed to further a passionate | propaganda against Labor. The Conscription Campaign was | financed by them. Vast sums of money flowed in every | centre, newspapers were subsidised, and press bureaux | established to further their campaign. Whether | conscription would have secured more men for the front | or not, was not the point they labored. Conscription | would have meant the legal subjection of Unionism. It | would have made the Boss all-authoritative on the job. | Any worker who challenged the Boss's will in the places | of employment would be brought under military law. Had | the referendum succeeded, the Trust objective would have | been realised. After the war no rehabilitation would | have been possible for decades. Capitalism would go on | in the interim building and perfecting its control, | Unionism would be shattered, and so enfeebled that | reconstruction would be extremely difficult if not | impossible.
|But what the people's plebiscite would not help to | accomplish, economic convulsion functioned to make | possible. For twelve months the community has been in | the throes of social conflict. Dismissals from the | places of employment have been extensive. All kinds of | innovation and change have been introduced into the | workshops. A thousand and one grievances have clamored | for adjustment. In the homes of the workers subsistence | slackened because of the increase in living cost. In | the workshops dissension grew apace because of the | lashing practices of Moloch's agents.
|Thus the situation developed out of which a titanic | struggle became inevitable. At the hour it would appear | that Unionism has had to accept the resumption terms | fixed by Capitalism. The Trusts have succeeded in the | first of the moves in the great conflict. But the end | is not yet. The structure of organisation must be | reshaped and the weaknesses repaired. We can face the | future wiser for the experience. If only it has knitted | Unionism more closely, strengthened the spirit of | fraternity within the ranks and induced the recognition | of the need for better and sounder organisation, we | shall not have lost.
|The struggle between the Trusts and the Unions has | not ceased. It will never cease until the places where | the workers toil are the possession of they who labor | within.
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