H. E. Holland
Published: 2015-07-06
Total Pages: 226
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Excerpt from The Tragic Story of the Waihi Strike "The Tragic Story of the Waihi Strike" is issued by the authority of the New Zealand Federation of Labor, and is written by H. E. Holland, "Ballot Box," and R. S. Ross. It is at once an exposition and a vindication. It is a record of occurrences, a statement of facts, a demand for an inquiry. It is an impeachment of the Class State and its Massey Government - is the strikers' case for that final jury which is the unconquerable people. In another place we have alluded to the wide ramifications and the many instructive aspects and sidelights of the strike. We find ourselves regretting that neither time nor space have permitted of the effective treatment of the whole of these. The "story" could with ease have been made twice the length, had such questions as agreements, mining finance, secessions, manifestoes, the exodus from Waihi, the reopening of the mines, the great lying press, Federation policy, and so on been adequately dealt with. Hero and now we cannot forbear making reference to the finely educative nature of strike propaganda and to the significant fact that associated in this responsible and necessary work was a group of Socialist and industrialist organisers of parts and prowess. It may be contended by some that what is said were better unsaid. We think not - for the workers have to learn to do by learning how not to do; and so the traitorous or ignorant conduct dissected in this book may verily make the volume a Beacon to the outraged working-class of Australasia. After this story had been designed and written, and while it was being printed, a notable conference of New Zealand Trade Unions was held in Wellington. As the outcome, a Basis of Unity was adopted, standing for one organisation in industry and one organisation in politics, and unambiguously endorsing the revolutionary foundations of the Labor movement. Parties to this Basis of Unity are organisations and persons attacked in this book, and under the new circumstances we have to ask that final judgment of those indicted be suspended until in the fulness of time they are viewed in proper perspective. However portions of the work be construed in the light, of altered relations, it is, we think, incontestable that the volume's chief value will be its interpretation or portraiture of the living spirit of the things and times with which it deals. Despite all its blemishes, it is at least delineatory of the stirring period and happenings covered by a strike - fierce, grim and notorious: in a sense, to those in the thick of the fray, a revolutionary atmosphere was there as distinctive as historical revolutionary epidemics. To have sacrificed what was felt and said in the fight would have been to surrender the realism of it entirely. Furthermore, to us much depends upon making understood a viewpoint. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.