The daily worker., 1924-11-07


cause it is possible that nominal waeh
reckoned in money will rise. They
tend to rise, in fact, at the present
moment"
The industrial correspondent Of the
Morning Post" writing on September
20, of the iron and steel position, says,
"a reduction in production costs would
appear to be the only way in which
to get the industry back onto a sound
basis, and prevent the blowing out OF
further furnaces in the near future"
Demand Wage Cut.
The Financial Times" Of the same
date declares in reviewing the coal
situation created by German compe-
tition, There is only one way left to
combat German competition and that
is to get the costs of production in this
country down to the German level.
Under the seven-hour working day and
the new wage agreement that may be
regarded as sheer impossibility, for
the miners will sacrifice neither one
nor the other of these conditions
Sir George Hunter, a prominent ship.
builder, declared also Improvement in
the shipbuilding industry would not
come unless the shipbuiIders could
induce the leaders of trade unions to
help them reduce their costs and to
cooperate with them" These quota.
tions could be multiplied ad lib. but
there is here sufficient to reveal the
fact most clearly that the defeat OF
the Russian Treaty at this juncture
is part of the general economic Of
fensive against the working class of
Britain bound up with the operation
of the Dawes report. The coincidence
OF the two features accounts for the
ferocity of the anti-Bolshevik cam.
paign far more than the growing i'm
portance of Communism in Britain
While the fact that the labor party
is bound to the Russian Treaty more
positively and intellectually than to
the Dawes plan made it imperative
that the labor government. should be
Immediately displaced altho the con.
servative party tactics had not come
to full fruition
Served The Purpose.
The calling into being of the labor
government was therefore, determined
primarily by the need to secure the
acceptance of the Dawes report by
the working class movement. The
end of the labor government was caus-
ed by the historic association Of the
British working class movement with
the Workers Republic of Russia ano
these associations cutting clean across
the fulfllment of the plans Of the
imperialists in spite of the willingness
of the labor leaders to serve. The
treaty of negotiations were conducted
on approved bourgeois lines. The
compromises forced upon the Russian
workers were bourgeois compromises.
But the objective situation ruled that
the operation of the treaty interfered
with the major plans of imperialism
involving the intensification of imper
ialist competition thruout the world
and the deeper enslavement of the
workers. Hence the defeat of the
labor government. Hence the new
coalition of conservatives and liberals.
But the plans are not complete and
the sequel is destined to prove as in
teresting and important as the Incl
dent of the labor government. The
defeat Of the Russian Treaty is bound
to make it the first plank of all labor
agitation dealing with unemployment
and whether Macdonald and his
friends like it or not, draw the work.
ing class of Britain closer to the work.
ers and peasants of Russia. The fail.
ure of the. capitalist plan to split the
labor party before driving it out of
office is destined to deepen the work.
ing class development. within 1t; to
strengthen the class conscious forces
and give a leftward impetus to the
whole movement. The speeding uu
of the forces of competitive struggle
of imperialism has thus DESTROYED the
labor government, but how deeply the
country is being ploughed for Bolshev.
ism!