Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 5, June 8th, 1949.
Scabs—1913 and 1949
Scabs—1913 and 1949
When dragged in to hold up the Federation of Labour Conference. Angus McLagan had said: 1949 meant the labour movement at the crossroads. So it did. For although long speeches from cabinet ministers and other extraneous individuals prevented 1949 conference from ever discussing conscription and other important issues, yet on the one issue that was discussed—the carpenters' dispute—the Federation came down on the opposite side of the fence from the government.
"Crossroads—and the parting of the ways," said Mr. Richards. "Perhaps the biggest issue, standing out above all the others, was that of whether the industrial labour movement stood on its own feet, or was merely an appendage of the political Labour Party." They decided. Despite pleas from Peter's Cabal, that the fact of a Labour Government altered the situation, and that scabs now were different things from scabs under the Massey Government, industrial labour shook its head. The government has recognized scabs. The federation refuses to, Where next?