To our Fellow-workers
in the Mines of South Wales.
Cardiff Conference on
Saturday next, May 27th, 1911.
COMRADES
We issue this Manifesto in the form of an
Appeal: but it will probably be a bitter
appeal, because it issues from sore hearts.
On Saturday next, you will be expected to
send a Delegate from every Lodge in the
Coalfield to the Conference at Cardiff. You
will further be asked to authorise your
Delegate to vote at that Conference in
favour of recommending the Cambrian Workmen
to accept the proffered terms.
Fellow-workers, for our sakes, for your own
sakes, for the sakes of all those who are
dear to you, we ask you NOT TO DO THIS,
and we will try to give you SOME REASONS
WHY YOU SHOULD NOT.
We confidently hope that when you have
considered the matter, you will agree with
us that THE TERMS OFFERED ARE WORSE THAN
DEFEAT. Remember, that we have fought a
hard fight against tremendous odds, and we
would like to impress upon you that THE
METHOD OF FIGHTING WAS NOT OF OUR SEEKING.
You decided that for us, for by your ballot
vote you told us that MID-RHONDDA WAS TO
BE THE COCKPIT OF THE FIGHT. We accepted
the position with misgivings, but manfully
entered on the fight, and we think you will
give us the credit for having fought well,
and we are not beaten - far from it! With
your assistance (and we ask you to look at
the position fairly and dispassionately), we
will not only win out, but win something
substantial for you as well.
We have been deliberately and FOULLY
MISREPRESENTED by a large section of the
public Press. We have been BLUDGEONED BY
THE POLICE. ONE OF OUR COMRADES LOST HIS
LIFE in contending with the police. TWO
COMRADES, in the stress of the struggle
through illness and privation, COMMITTED
SUICIDE. Many of our fellows have
suffered IMPRISONMENT. Some are now in
prison who have foully had their liberty
sworn away, and are as innocent of any crime
as any reader of this Appeal. If we could
only tabulate even a part of the SUFFERING
AND MISERY ENDURED BY OUR WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
we feel sure that you will agree with us
that the fight has gone too far and the
suffering too great, that we should now be
handed over to the mercy of the D. A. Thomas
Combine.
We ask you to say, friends, that the time
has arrived when the surrender policy of our
apologetic leaders must stop. They have not
realised what it means to us in suffering.
We know what questionable use Mr. F.L. Davis
and other employers have made of the fact
that Mabon and Mr. D. Watts Morgan
recommended the terms rather than face the
rigours of winter. But this is no excuse for
the childlike way that Mabon and Mr. Tom
Richards have allowed Mr. Llewellyn (the
[sic.] General Manager of the Combine) for
the SECOND TIME TO FOOL THEM SO PALPABLY.
It is reported that Mr. Llewellyn seemed to
be the happiest man of the group on the
evening of May 15th, when the proposed
Settlement was arrived at. This might well
be so. Under this agreement he will get his
full pound of flesh; but we, after all our
suffering, get ABSOLUTELY NO SECURITY.
We, at some of the Cambrian Pits, know
something of the working of these precious
Boards. At Clydach Vale in 1901, after a
five and a half months' Strike, a
Conciliation Board was formed for the
Cambrian alone, with the late Judge Owen as
Independent Chairman. The working of that
Board was the worst thing the Clydach Vale
men ever knew. Under it the WORKING
CONDITIONS WERE WHITTLED DOWN WITH A
VENGEANCE. Mabon and Mr. Tom Richards
knew all about this, yet seemed to have
conveniently forgotten the matter in the
present negotiations. It was this Board that
made the reputation of Mr. Leonard W.
Llewellyn, and laid the foundation of the
present Combine. From 1901 to March, 1905,
the conditions of these men became SO
EVIL and the men SO DISORGANISED,
that the pits were NOT EXAMINED BY THE
WORKMEN in their own interests for some
18 months prior to the explosion that
occurred in the No. 1 Pit in March, 1905. We
have a bitter experience of these tying-up
Boards.
The terms now offered have been twice
rejected; once through a ballot, now they
are again offered with A MOST
OBJECTIONABLE ADDITION to them.
We ask you, fellow-workmen, to note that the
Executive Council are evenly divided on the
question of recommending these terms. 11
voted for the terms, 7 against: and 4 LEFT
THE ROOM rather than take part in the
recommendation.
When the Executive decided to confine the
fight to the Combine area, Mr. D. A. Thomas
said that this put him and his company on
velvet. In these negotiations Mr. Llewellyn
has undoubtedly had our leaders on toast.
The employers (represented by four of the
keenest men in the country, in the persons
of Messrs Davis, Griffiths, Heppel, and
Dalxiel) felt it incumbent upon them to call
in for consultation Messrs Callaghan, Pullin,
and Llewellyn. But our benighted
Representatives thought they were more than
a match for the seven, hence the present
debacle.
We ask you, fellow-workmen, to examine the
present terms offered. You will find there
is absolutely no bottom to these SPOOF
ASSURANCES. See Clause 3 of Agreement,
and you will find that the Independent
Chairman HAS ABSOLUTELY NO TANGIBLE BASIS
to work upon. Mr. F. L. Davis is very
anxious that nothing shall enter into the
Cambrian Settlement that will imperil the
Conciliation Board. Small wonder! The
present agreement under the Board is
admittedly 15 per cent worse than the worst
Sliding Scale we ever had.
We know something, too, of the difficulties
of the rest of the Coalfield. We have a
shrewd idea of what Mr. D. A. Thomas meant
when he said, "He would readily give an
undertaking to supplement low wages by
allowance as is customary throughout the
Coalfield"! We know also that your
position has not been better, but rather
worse, since we've been out. We know that
you find our levies burdensome. But are you
willing to have paid all these levies for
less than nothing, that we should be worse
off and you no better? Would you not far
rather that we should win out and you also
to get an assured wage when you've worked
for it?
Well! fellow-workmen, there is A SURE AND
A CERTAIN WAY, and that is not by voting
us back to work and STARVATION AND EVERY
INDIGNITY, as was and is unfortunately the
lot of the Aberdare men through no fault of
theirs, because we know they fought
valiantly.
For your manhood's sake, DO NOT SEEK TO
AVOID YOUR LEVIES BY THIS METHOD. See
rather that you send a mandate to Cardiff,
not to hound us back against our will, but
with a solid mandate that SOUTH WALES
SHOULD GO UNITEDLY TO THE CONFERENCE OF JUNE
14th AT LONDON, AND DEMAND THAT NATIONAL
ACTION be taken on the resolution now
before that Conference, for an 8s. Minimum
for all Colliers and 5s. for all unskilled
labourers below that point. By these means,
and these only, can you save us, save the
Aberdare men, and save yourselves.
If you send us back, then the national
minimum wage may be shelved for years. But
if, on the other hand (as we ask you in all
sincerity), you do not send us back, then
the Federation must take national action for
the 8s. minimum for Wales, England, and
Scotland, or they must put up the shutters.
A Federation that cannot or will not protect
us is not worth supporting.
Finally, avail yourselves of this
opportunity on Saturday next at Cardiff, or
it may be many years before we again get
such a golden opportunity.
Yours on behalf of the Cambrian Combine
Workmen,
WM. JOHN
N. REES
N. HARCOMBE
J. IVINS
J. HOPLA
T. SMITH