alternatehistory.com

The Current Social Unrest - Ramsay Macdonald, 1914

Someone in authority is punishing men for the offence of being active Trade Unionists. A day porter is degraded permanently because some luggage is delayed, though it has been proved he is not responsible; another is suspended because he cannot perform duties given to him by two independent foremen at the same time and because he asked for his usual supper hour; men interfered with in their usual work are accused of trivial offences against those who interfere with them, and are dismissed; in violation of the terms which ended the strike, unionists are not advanced when vacancies take place, and non-unionists are promoted over their heads; accusations of theft, proved to have been false, are made and the accused dismissed; certain men have not been paid their usual advances in wages and others are being paid less than colleagues employed at exactly the same work and having exactly the same qualifications; unexplained dismissals and degradations are taking place. In every case the victims of this policy are members of their Union. Who can wonder that unrest is spreading and that there are rumours of fresh troubles passing up and down the railways? Men are being goaded into revolt. When they seek to defend themselves they are thrown into jail.

This is more than the usual attempts to keep down the working class. There is a developing conspiracy to suppress the Trades Unions. The increasing, brazen parading by the so called Civilian Force in England and the Ulster Volunteer Force in Ireland are bad enough. Now they seek to combine and bring the the worst of both to bear on the working men of these islands. The spectacle of the so-called Convention is just that. It is a spectacle designed to divert attention from the ever-tightening grip of those in power on the windpipe of the working class.