The Worker January 1916
Source: The Worker no. 4, 29 January 1916 p.4, By Anon;
Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
Mr. Ben Tillet, speaking at a demonstration in Liverpool against the latest drink regulations, stated that the workers on the Clyde “were in a state of seething unrest directly due to the poke-nosed: interference of the Liquor Control Board. He was firmly convinced that the root cause of the labour trouble throughout the country was due to the irritating order of the Board; which insulted every working man and woman.”
The men on the Clyde may like their “bucket,” but it is not all they live for. They have bigger problems than that facing them, and they are tackling them. It looks very like as if this matter of the drink restrictions was a personal grievance of Tillett’s. We do not know if he indulges, but it seems curious that a man of his experience, and a Labour “leader” to boot, should swallow all the insults of the Munitions Act, the abuses of the Defence of the Realm Act, and the great conspiracy against Labour and then threaten, as he did in London, to stir up “red revolution” in England, unless the drink restrictions were withdrawn.
The Clyde workers are not being drawn off on any side issues, and they know that the drink restriction is a mere detail in the struggle that lies ahead of them.
“Let us preserve what rights still remain and refuse steadfastly to surrender another inch to our allied foes – the capitalists and politicians. The liberty and freedom of the organized worker is the one thing; our fight is the fight that matters, and now is the time to act.” – Trade Union Rights Committee’s Manifesto.