A.B.C. OF ANARCHISM rnal but. for all the other necessities of life, because together with the price of coal 1:hegeneral cost of living will go up. Reflect, then, how stupid is the present union policy to permit · the other mines to operate while your mine is on strike.' The other5 remain at work and give financial support to your strike, but don't you see that their aid only helps to break your strike, because they have to keep bn working, really scabbing on you, in or-der to contribute to your strike fund? Can anything be more senseless and criminal? This holds true of every industry and every strike. Can you wonder that most strikes are lost? That is the case in America as well as in other countries. I have before· me the Blue Book just published in England under the title of Labour Statistics. The data prove that strikes do not lead to labour victories. The figures for the last eight years are as follows : • · Results in f wour of Res~lts in favour of Working People. Employers. I 920 390 . 507 192 I "152 315 1922 III 222 1923 187 183 1924 163 235 1925 154 189 1926 67 I 26 1927 61 II8 Actually, then, almost 60% of the strikes were lost. Incidentally, consider also the loss of working days resulting .from strikes, which means no wages. The total number of workdays lost by English labour in 1912 was 40,890,000, which is almost equal to the lives of 2,000 men, allotting to each 60 years. In 1919 the number of work- -days lost was 34,969,000; in 1920, 26,568,000; in 1921, 85,872,000; in 1926, as a result of the general strike, 162,233,000 days. The~e figures do not include time and wages lost through unemployment. It doesn't tai<e much arithmetic to see that strikes as at present ,conducted don't pay, that the labour unions are not 1:hewinners in industrial disputes. This does not mean, however, that strikes serve no purpose. On the contrary, they are of great value : they teach the worker the vital need of co-operation, of standing shoulder to shoulder with his fellows and unitedly fighting in the common cause. Strikes train him in the class struggle and develop his spirit of joint effort, of resistance to the masters, of solidarity and responsibility. In this sense even an unsuccessful strike is not a complete los~. Through 68 Biblloteca G no Bianco
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