Pioneer

Swansea Valley Socialists BIC PONTARDAWE DEMONSTRATION. Great! That. was the rank and file sum- ming up of the Labour demonstration at Pontar- dawe on Saturday. From the Midland Railway station the procession passed by the Cross) along High-street and Grove-road and to the Public Hall. Conspicuous amongst the banners was the Workers' Union flag and another (de- signed by Miss Ceinwen Davies, Trebanos) bear- ing the legend, "Hail! the Social Revolution," on the one side and "The Worker is King!" on the other. The town band played on the march. The Public Hall was full. Councillor T. Jeremiah presided over a splendid meeting. He first read a telegram from Mr. Frank Ro- berts, the police-stalwart of Trebanos, regret- ting his inability to attend the demonstration. AN ARMY OFFICER ON I.L.P. The first speaker was Lieut. J. Goulding (Blackburn) who dealt with intervention in Rus- sia, conscription, and the land question. His statement that he, after enlisting in 1914 and fighting in France for the principles of Liberty and Justice and Democracy, had now joined the 1.1.. P.. he]ieving that it was the only party which would really establish those principles, was loudly cheered. The second speaker was Mr. P. C. Hoffman (organiser, Shop Assistants' Union). He delivered a magnificent address, touching mainly on the significance of May-Day and on the Russian situation. The audience was roused to enthusiasm by his scathing denuncia- tion of the action of the British Coalition Gov- ernment in conjunction with the Allied capitalis- tic governments in attempting to destroy the newiy-oorn Socialist republics of Russia, Hun- gary and Germany. With reference to Russia, he gave some very useful facts concerning the constructive policy of the Soviet Government, and lie concluded with a strong appeal to La- bour to support our comrades on the Continent bv political, and, if necessary, industrial action. M). Nun Nicholas' appearance was greeted with applause. He said that the attitude he and others had taken up at the beginning of the war had been fully justified. He had not done one thing and then found out his mistake. Then he went on to deal with Bolshevism. He gave a very lucid exposition of the Soviet Regime in Russia., and gave a brief history of the strug- gles of the Russian Revolutionaries before and during the war. The were atrocities in Rus- sia under the Tsar," lie said, and he gave in- stances such as "Bloody Sunday," when 10,000 harmless men and women were shot down like dogs. But the British Government did not wantto intervene then." All omnibus resolution moved by Mr. Charles Williams, and seconded by Councillor J. M. Da- vies referred to the Labour attitude on the Triple Alliance, soldiers' pensions, etc., Russian inter- vention, conscription, and release of C.O.'s and was carried without dissent. Labour and Social- ist literature was sold out."

I Security and Order. PETROCRAD UNDER THE BOLSHEVIKI. At the present time, when news is being wide- ly circulated of the efforts of reactionaries to restore order in Petrograd, the facts we now quote are of the utmost importance. Le Populaire" of May 21tli Jean Lon- guet gives an interview which he had ii I t,ii "a distinguished personage belong- ing to the Entente countries." just arrived from Petrograd, where she lwd been on an offi- cial mission for her Government. These are some of her impressions of Petrograd under Bol- shevik rule :— In the of Europe there is not at the present time a single capital where order is so perfect, and security so complete, as in Petro- grad. For months past not a rifle or revolver- shot has been heard in the streets. I saw the Nevsky Prospect filled with thousands of pedes- tria n s. of whom many w ere evidently people of leisure, covered with furs. On a sunny after- noon it was a very pleasant sight. The tele- phone works well: much better than in Paris. The electric light is 011 every night. Carriages and motor-cars are running—but I suppose they belong to the Government." In the Xevsky Prospect most of the grocers' and butchers' shops are closed, because they have been replaced by the Soviet and Co-opera- tive shops. Hut a number of shops containing objects of art, pictures, copper goods, and Ja- panese articles are open, and the bazaars, where one can buy everything, are crowded with people." The report that the population of Petrograd was formerly, 2.,0()0,000 inhabitants and has fallen to 5,000, is absolutely false. First of all the population of Petrograd has never reached tN%-o millions, except with war refugees. Ac- cording to the food tickets distributed by the Government the present population is 1,200,000." And the socialisation of women," Jean Lon- guet asked. She burst out, laughing. "As a matter of fact," she said. there are no prosti- tutes in the Petrograd streets. Formerly, in the blessed times of Tsarism, it was one of the towns where there was the largest number. During the three weeks I was there I did not see a single one of these poor girls. Other for- eigners who have lived in Russia. for months tell me that the Bolshevik regime has practically eliminated this hideous sore of the capitalist re- gime. You do not see any police in the streets, oil I*v members of the Red Guard, who hardly ever have occasion to intervene." When questioned on the food situation, she accused the Allied blockade of eailsing cruel suffering to millions of innocent people. Yet the excellent organisation of the Soviets and Co- operative Societies was doing much to relieve the situation.

Scavengers' Strike. I MERTHYR CORPORATION DECLINE TO I SUBSIDISE CONTRACTORS. AND WHY. I Though the scavenging contractors to the Merthyr Corporation are receiving to-day 150 per cent. above the pre-war contracts they in turn have only conceded their workmen advances amounting, at a generous estimate, to 45 per cent. This astonishing fact came to light at Tues- day's meeting of the Merthyr Public Works Committee to which a deputation of the con- tractors came with a request to the Corporation to increase the existing contract prices such that the wages* advances demanded by the scavengers now on strike should be defrayed by the muni- cipal authority. They gave the average weekly earnings of that class of workmen as t42 and the amount claimed by the scavenging carters is £2 18s. 9d. a week of 47 hours—the rate paid to Corporation la bourers under the "Stoker" award. This would mean an additional cost of £1,800 a year, little short of a twopenny rate. There are 37 refuse collectors working the bor- ough, and the present cost per cart is about ] 8/ and taking f-2 a week as the average wage, there is left to the contractor 11/4 per day for the hire of each of his horses and carts. This is how the expenditure on scavenging has been soaring upwards since 1914: In 1913-14 tenders aggregated £ 3,723: 1914-1.5, t4,970 1915-16 £ 5,727; 1916-17, £ 6,950; 1917-18, £ 9,067- 1918-19, £ 10,059. In the pre-war contract there was a clause sti- pulating a minimum wage of 28/- for scavengers. That clause, unfortunately, remained unaltered in the subsequent agreements. The discussion on the situation was marked by opposition from the Labour benches to the application of the contractors, and a remark that was met by general agreement was a state- ment by Mr. David Jones that the committee had made a. blunder in not fixing the minimum wage figure when the 1918-19 increased tenders were accepted. To this Mr. David Parry added the opinion that sufficient was paid by the Cor- poration under that agreement to allow of the payment of no less than 10/- a day to the scav- engers and to leave, at that, a fair margin of profit to the contractors. Mr. Ll. M. Francis interposed on another as- pect. It should be remembered, he said, that the refuse carters did not work a full day for the Corporation. They did other duties in the course of their employment solely for their em- ployers. Mr. John Williams: Is it not a fact that some of these hauliers are working at the collieries at night ? The Chairman (Mr. W. T. G. Marsh) replied that the only such cast1 to his knowledge was one of temporary labour procured by Mrs. Davies, of Dowlais, during the shortage of men. Mr. Henry Owen dwelt at length upon the present fabulous prices of horseflesh, and ven- tured the concluding opinion that the contrac- tors had "a good case." He raised some tit- ters with a. remark that many horses in the scavenging carts were worth as much as P,120 each. Mr. L. M. Jones took up the point put for- ward earlier by Mr. Francis. Was it fair, he asked, that the Corporation should be asked to pay the wages difference requested when the contractors put the workmen's labour to private use in addition to Corporation work? He an- swered the question with, Certainly not." CONTRACTORS BOND. I j lie case or the contractors was that with a few and rare exceptions their men were entirely engaged on scavenging: for the Corporation, and they attempted to justify the contract increases already received by the advances in the cost of horses, feeding stuffs and materials. "They I don't earn a shilling for us other than by scav- enging," said one. Here followed a piquant criticism by several of the councillors upon the manner in which the scavenging of the borough is carried on. Mr. E. Williams declaring, Merthyr Yale has not been in such a disgraceful state in its history as now." Mr. Wm. Jones was picturesque in his comment. He was "quite willing" to "look aft-er such considerations as horses, fodder and conveyances, but they should not take it out of the blood of the hauliers." Several mem bers raised doubts as to wages accorded to and hours worked by the scavengers, and as a means of arriving at the correct figures Mr. Parry succeeded in carrying a motion (se- conded by Mr. L. M. Jones) to request tli,, workmen and their employers, to give evidence on those points before the committee on Thurs- day evening. Mr. Francis, thereupon, insisted that the dis- pute was no concern of the Corporation, but lay entirely between the scavengers and the contrac- tors, and suggested that the onus of paying the men's demands should fall upon the contractors. Their contract is binding," lie said, so why not instruct the contractors to carry on the work ? Mr. T. A. Rees (Town Clerk) was of opinion that the Corporation by law were entitled to compel the contractors to abide thus by their contracts. Theirs and not the Corporation's was the business of getting men to do the scavenging. Mr. Francis's suggestion was embodied later in a resolution adopted by the committee by whom the contractors were told they must make preparations to resume scavenging at once, and they were advised also to pay their workmen the wages rate demanded. Informed of this decision, however, they inti- mated that they could not agree to do the scavenging upon these conditions. An attempt to raise the case of the scavengers at a meeting of the general purposes committee, which followed, by Mr. R. Llewellyn (organiser for the municipal employees) failed, the Chair- man (Mr. Marsh) reminding him that the matter was closed until Thursday's meeting of the pub- lice works committee. Mr. Llewellyn said that although some men were paid t2 4s. a week others received as little as 30 and 3.5/ CORPORATION'S CONCESSIONS. I When Mr. Llewellyn came before the general purposes committee he asked that workmen not included in the Stoker" award should be paid an increase in wages of 10/- a week (and in re- spect to the museinum attendant 15/-) on their present earnings, the men to work the same hours as at present and under the same condi- tions of labour, it being considered owing to the nature of their employment difficult for the ap- plication of 47 hours only to some of them. He further requested that- three turncocks in the Merthyr waterworks district now paid l/3 £ an hour should be advanced to 1/5 as semi-skilled tradesmen. The committee eventually decided to grant increases all round of 5/9 a week from January 1st, and the borough controller (Mr. W. R. Harris) was instructed to report on the hours worked by each man.

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Notes from London (From our London Correspondent). THE CIRCULAR DEBATE. Excitement prevailed in the House of Com- mons on Thursday last when the notorious Cir- cular had to be defended by the notorious War Minister. Members crowded the House to hear Mr. Churchill make the best of a, good job-and he made the best of it. He spoke with energy. He spoke with cleverness. But when his speech is considered away from the antagonisms in the atmosphere of the House it does not meet the issue. It gives no satisfaction. Indeed, how could it give satisfaction ? Is satisfaction to be expected from the Imperialists, who are the Gov- ernment of the country? Is satisfaction to be expected from Mr. Churchill, the militarist? Blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed! COL. WEDGWOOD & MR. CHURCHILL.  I- Kussia occupied a large part of the debate. It arose out of one of the questions in the Circular: Will troops parade for draft to overseas, es- pecially to Russia?" There were some warm passages between the War Secretary and Col. Wedgwood, who has, in superb courage, fought in the House consistently for the right of the Bolsheviks to face their own countrymen with- out interference from outside governments. One moment was dramatic. Mr. Churchill, taunting Col. Wedgwood, said: "Really, the lion. and gallant gentleman ought to go out to help the Bolsheviks." The sneer was greeted with loud shouts of approval from the tightly-packed ranks of reactionaries, and in the midst of the commotion, Col. Wedgwood was seen literally to leap to his feet. With his face set—he has a strong face—and speaking obviously with in- tense feeling, he retorted: If it is to be a class war, that is my side." It came out un- reservedly in support of the International move- ment of the workers. TRADE UNIONISTS AND SOLDIERS. To put events in their order, Mr. Adamson led off, voicing the concern of Labour over the attitude of mind revealed in the circular; but Mr. Adamson might have expressed it more strongly and, indeed, the Labour Party itself might, with groat advantage to the Labour movement, take a much stronger line in the House in opposition to the Government's im- perialistic and militarist and capitalist policy on all occasions. So far as Trade Unionism in the army is concerned, Mr. Adamson asked the Secretary for War what did he expect? The Army was largely composed of trade unionists, and did he suppose they were willing to be used against their fellow trade unionists struggling for better conditions? THE REALI- QUESTION. I Occasionally a man on the other side speaks frankly, and then we get a useful admission. Mr. Inskip, the Tory mem ber for Central Bristol, had one of those open-minded moments on Thursday. He followed Mr. Adamson, arguing that it must be obvious to anyone that the main- tenance of discipline in the fighting forces is not easily to be reconciled with loyal allegiance to another authority. How are you going to re- concile the old ideas of discipline with the new ideas which permeate Trade Unionism?" We echo How?" The question for us is not how to reconcile them, but which is to go? The old discipline, which means subservience to a ruling class, or the new Trade Unionism, which means independent and self-reliant action by the workers on their own behalf ? WHAT THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE MEANS. I Mr. Davison took up the debate for the La- bour Party, and Commander Ken worthy, the Free Liberal, made a strong speech. When it was suggested by the Government that it would use the whole force of-the State against the Triple Alliance. Commander Kenworthy was curious to know whether the Government was quite fully aware exactly what the Triple Alli- ance want—and in case of doubt he reduced it to ifgures. "That Alliance consists of 1,100,000 miners. These are the men who volunteered as well as any other section of the community at the beginning of the war. There are 600,000 railwaymen, and on every station in the country there is a roll of honour of the men who laid down their lives or gained decorations. The Transport Workers number 350,000. So that you have a little over 2,000,000 men with their families representing in all 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 people. These are the people concerned in the Triple Alliance. Are you deliberately going to use the State against them, because that only means that you are using the army against them." ATROCITIES FOR ATROCITIES. I Col. Wedgwood devoted his speech almost wholly to the Russian situation, and as the de- fenders of the attack on the Russian Revolution are always quoting alleged atrocities against the Bolsheviks, Col. Wedgwood gave them some against Koltchak's men, Denekin's followers and the "White" Flniis--allegetions of the most ferocious cruelty. The difference was in the fact that the anti-Bolshevik atrocities are generally alleged on very feeble authority. whereas Wedgwood was quoting the report of a gentleman actually sent out by the Government to investigate. Wedgwood protested against the use of our armies as the allies of the people who commit these atrocities. He did not propose that the British Army should be used as the allies of the Bolsheviks. He wants our Govern- ment to leave Russia alone to develop herself. A HINT TO LABOUR. 'LL u-_l I ulitireiiiii, or course, was piausioie. iie reveis in the narrative of war. One gets the impres- sion from his speeches that the more war there is the happier is Churchill. It gives him some- thing to do. And on this occasion one of the passages in which he seemed to be enjoying him- self most was that in which he told of the land- ing of our troops in Archangel, "seasoned fighters of the Great War, the most experienced veteran troops in Europe." He did not seem to have a thought for the death and suffering, for the sadness in the hearts of the relatives of these seasoned fighters of the Great War." who feel they have had too much seasoning al- ready, that arc the consequence of his aggressive policy. And that apart from the crime of making war upon a people struggling to be free. About the circular itself, lie gave us to understand that if it had been drawn up by a politician it would not have been so clumsily framed, but "we must have no Trade Unionism in the Army." It was the duty of the authorities to know exactly what their troops would do and also to know what they would not do in the cir- cumstances that existed when the circular was sent out. From his speech it seems that when- ever Labour decides to take concerted mass ac- tion it may depend upon the Government throw- ing its weight in with the capitalists. It is a hint to Labour. The workers must vote Labour as solidly as they organise in Trade Unions to protect themselves from the use of police and troops against them by the capitalists' fiends in the Government. I NEIL MCLEAN GETS THERE." I .? lowards the end of the debate, Neil McLean got in an excellent speech. He .,probed to the heart of the Russian business. The real cause for the presence of our troops in Russia," he said, "is because there is so much British capi- tal invested in Russia and because we want to be sure that there is a. Government in Russia which would safeguard the capital invested. Somehow members did not exactly like that and there were cries of No, No," and counter- cheers. I have here the names of 1,500 Bri- tish shareholders yi Russia," lie said, and cruelly suggested that they were not amongst the volunteers who were to go and fight for the investments! Among them lie declared were three gentlemen who sit on the Front Govern- ment Bench." I SOLDIERS' COUNCILS. 1 here must be no Trade Unionism in the Army," says Mr. Churchill, but events do not always work out according to programme, and Churchill's reactionary policy is more likely to encourage organisation among soldiers who are sick of soldiering than to discourage it. Strong rumours of such action among the Expeditionary Force come from Egypt, where, according to in- formation, the troops, Iwing thoroughly dissatis- fied with the slow demobilisation, have formed soldiers' councils. Mr. Lunn, the Labour mem- ber for Rothwell, had a question on the paper on Tuesday, but Mr. Churchill asked him to wait until Thursday. Then we shall probably hear the official version. In the meantime things look rather serious, a general strike is even hinted at. General Headquarters has prohibited the Councils, but that does not put an end to them if the men are in a very restive mood. The policy of the heavy hand would be a very dan- gerous one for the Government to lend itself to just now.

EDUCATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL. Uie decision of the Workers Educational As- sociation to consider the proposal of linking up with similar organisations throughout the world is of very great importance, and should have far-reaching results. The W. E.A. movement has been established in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada for some time, and America is now taking a- very keen interest in the matter, and has proposed an international conference on education. There is no douht that this would create one of the best channels for the interchange of ideas and the promotion of good fellowship and better understanding be- tween the countries of the world, and it is evi- dent that the promoters of the scheme have this in view. An Interna.tior.al League of Workers' Educational Associations would do far more to eliminate wars than a League of Capitalist Na- tions, and we hope that the bodies concerned will lose no time 1Il carrying out their sugges- tion.

THE LABOUR WOMEN'S CONFERENCE. In connection with the annual conference of the Labour Party in Southport, a special con- ference of the work of women in the Labour Party will be held at the Cambridge Hall, South- port, on June 24th. At the morning session the chair will be taken by Miss Susan Lawrence, L.C.C., and in the afternoon Mr. Arthur Hen- derson presides. A full statement of the work of the past year, in so far as it deals with the special interests of women, will be placed before the delegates as the subject for discussion. The "< Xational Executive of the Labour Party recog- nises the great need for developing the full strength of the women's side of the working- class movement, and expects by this conference to gain much useful knowledge by a free inter- change of opinion as to the methods to be em- ployed in organisation and propaganda,.

GREECE AND THE SOVIETS. L Humanite (May 22nd) says it is a well- known fact that Greek troops constituted a large part of the Entente forces in Odessa and in' the Crimea. A Russian wireless of May 19th announces the refusal of Greece to continue to fight against Soviet Russia as follows: The Greek Admiral in Sebastopol has assured the re- presentative of the Red Army that henceforth Greece will not participate in the operations against Bolshevik Russia. Previous to his de- parture he called with other diplomatic repre- sentatives on the President of the Revolutionary Committee and repeated his assurances of Greek sympathy for Soviet Russia. In their private conversations the Greek representatives condemned in strong terms the Entente's action of forcing the Greeks to participate in opera- tions against the Red Army.

are facing at the present moment ought to have been avoided. If the Government had any double scheme to put into operation when the war ceased, the attitude of the Minister was that of Micawber, waiting for something to turn up. In his reply the Minister of Labour defended the Government on the ground that 81 per cent. of discharged soldiers had already been re-absorbed in civil employment, and that of the 19 per cent. still unplaced many of them were physically in- capable of carrying on civil employment. Though the Minister promised nothing definate with re- gard to this matter, the tone of his reply was quite sympathetic. There is reason to believe, however, that the matter of unemployed dis- charged soldiers is being tackled by him per- sonally at the Ministry of Labour. Check-Weighing in Various Industries Bill. The Labour Party's Check-Weighing in Various Industries Bill has passed through Com- mittee without any amendment. It is probable, therefore, it will shortly pass through its amend- ment stages as an agreed measure and be placed on the Statute Book in the course of the next few weeks.