Must labour lose?

Mar 29, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,

I am in the labour movement because I know that down through the ages in one form or another it has represented the organised effort of the victims of tyranny and oppression to liberate themselves.

It provides the most practical means for the realisation of the ethical aim in the scriptural commandment that is the key to sound social progress – “Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.” I am in the labour movement because it places human dignity and personal worth above private profit in the scale of social values and because it tends to bring out and apply the nobler instincts of workers. It provides an affirmative answer to the scriptural question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” I am in the labour movement because it is an instrumentality which enables those who work for a livelihood to have voice in determining the terms and conditions of their employment.

I am in the movement because I have deep-seated convictions about the “rights of workers” and the virtues of democracy. I am in the labour movement because it is a humanitarian movement and provides a means for extending the democratic ideal and process, thus enabling the most numerous group of human beings in society to develop and perfect the instrumentalities of self- government. I am in labour movement because I fully realise that the freedom I enjoy, the educational and other opportunities that are available to me were made possible for my use thought the struggles and sacrifices of those of earlier generations who placed human worth and values above all else.

I am in the movement because it provides a practical means of passing on an enhanced heritage of freedom, liberty, and democratic and human values which we have received from those who struggled before us to improve the lot of the common people. I am in the labour movement because of my faith in and reciprocal in unions has enabled us to join and direct our efforts towards the attainment of social justice for mankind. I am in the labour movement because modern technology has been primarily concerned with material rewards rather than spiritual values and it enables me to join with my fellows in tempering this with concern about human lives and values. I am in the labour movement because it offers a means of achieving human brotherhood.

I agree with Philip Wylie that today “human brotherhood is not a dream but man’s last passionate necessity.”

Sherwood Clarke

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Must labour lose?

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