By Prof. Marc Somerhausen

Brussels University (Belgium)

CCORDING to Sidney and
Beatrice Webb, the first
use of the word “strike”

in the sense of a stoppage of
work dates back to the latter
part of the eighteenth century.
The Oxford Dictionary of 1768
refers to the hatters having

from the sailors’ term of “‘strik-
ing” the mast, thus bringing the
movement to a stop.

The French term “gréve” ap-
pears for the first time in the
Dictionaire de l’Académie Fran-
caise of 1877. The jobless work-
ers used to meet in a Paris
square called “Place de Gréve.”

“struck” for a rise in wages.

The derivation appears to be One could find dozens of dif-

“side” by side

J. $. Wallace

Kiny Solomn and King David
Led various kinds of lives
They cut up various didoes
With various kinds of wives _
And when their time was over
With various kinds of qualms
King Solomon wrote the Proverbs
And David wrote the Psalms.
(AUTHOR?)

F YOU are thinking of cancelling your subscription to a
journal that would publish such a disrespectful verse
retract your ballpoint pen: I was taught it by a priest

at St. F. X. College in Antigonish. And I now think of
King Solomon almost with reverence because of two. of
his Proverbs I have just found in the dedication to a book:

(I can’t make out my own writing so I'll have to skip one
and settle for the second.)

He that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging
not to him is like one who taketh a dog by the ears. Pro-
verbs, XXVI-17. That would be a good one for my friend
the Rev. James G. Endicott to revive and circulate. You
might do a little with it yourself, say in a letter to a local
paper.

* * *

I was one of a protest delegation that called on Premier
R. B. Bennett at a time when leaders of the Communist
Party were in Kingston Penitentiary. I'll try to come back
to this later on; just now I have only one point here and
must stick to it. That's about the protests that were com-
ing in to support our delegation. There was a stack of them
on Bennett’s desk where he sat with Hugh Guthrie, minister
of justice, on his right hand side. And all during the inter-
view others came streaming in brought by messengers:
telegrams, letters, postcards. Bennett was infuriated: all
others present, including reporters, were deeply impressed.

*« *« *

FOR CHILDREN
Three bears broke into a nudist camp
To see what they could find
They hurried out when they heard a sho:
But they left one bear behind
O, more than one bear behind.

a: ree ee “ee a <a 4~ eS @io~™ vo,

ferent definitions, in textbooks
and court rulings, of what con-
stitutes a strike. Lawyers and
sociologists distinguish many
species: industrial and political
strikes, general and local strikes,
legal and illegal strikes; official
and wildcat strikes; there are
lightning strikes, sit-down
strikes, guerrilla strikes.

A strike need not involve a
large number of people. A
French court has decided that

two servants—husband and wife -

—who stopped their domestic
services in order to get a wage
raise were making use of their
constitutional right to strike!

The “right to strike” is a re-
cent notion. In fact, up to the
middle of the last century, any
strike was a criminal offense,
both in the private and in the
public sector.

The classic example of legis- .

lation is the famous Le Chape-
lier law of 1791, adopted at the
beginning of the French Revolu-
tion. Section 4 of this law said:

“If, in defiance of the prin-
ciples of liberty and of the con-
stitution,, citizens belonging to
the same profession, craft or
trade, decide or agree to refuse
concertedly, or to give-only at a
certain price, the help of their
industry or labor, such decisions
or agreements are declared un-
constitutional, contrary to free-
dom and to the Declaration of
Human Rights and_ without
effect . . . The authors, leaders
or instigators who have pro--
voked, written or presided over
them shall be sentenced ‘each
to a fine (of almost $1,500), and
suspended for one year from the
exercise of their rights as active
citizens and excluded from the
primary assemblies.” ;

The French penal code of 1810
went further and inflicted prison
sentences of from one to three
months on persons who stopped
work in order to raise wages,
while the leaders of such groups
were punished with from two to
five years’ imprisonment.

The clause of the French penal
code remained in force in Italy,
Holland, Belgium and western
Germany after the fall of the
French empire, and when na-
tional codes were enacted the
same penal clauses were insert-
ed against workers’ coalitions.

In Great Britain, under com-
mon law, trade unions and their
members were prosecuted for
criminal conspiracy on the mere
ground that the purpose of the
strike was in restraint of trade.

In the United States, journey-

History sho

it has heen a long a

men who combined to secure
higher wages or to demand a
10-hour day were sentenced for
conspiracy.

In Sweden, also, conspiracies
of journeymen with a view to
forcing up wages were consider-
ed serious crimes. The legal
course of action was to submit
humble petitions to the proper
authorities.

Gradually, however, the work-
ers’ right to-withhold their labor
began to be conceded in Europe,
though still with severe restric-
tions.

In Great Britain, the Combi-
nation Laws Repeal Act of 1824

was passed to legalize trade~

unions. This act provided that
workmen entering into combina-
tions for the purpose of regula-
ting wages and conditions of
employment should not be sub-

jected to proceedings for con-

spiracy or otherwise. After the
passage of the Trade Union Act
of 1871, unions were no longer
illegal at common law because
of their purpose in restraint of
trade.

The right to strike was grant-
ed in France by Napoleon III in
1864. The Belgian penal code of
1867 no longer punished coali-
tions, but provided for up to two
years’ imprisonment for strikers
who insulted, threatened or in-
jured those who continued work-
ing, as well as pickets who were
guilty of intimidation.

The German labor law of 1869

included guarantees of the free-

dom of association and the right
to strike but these disappeared
with the introduction of the Nazi
labor code in 1934.

In Italy the penal code of 1890
removed the legal obstacles in
the way of strike action. In

Sweden the earlier prohibition
of assemblies of workmen was

removed with the introduction

“SOME CF THESE MACHINES BRE.
ALMOST HUMAN !*

hitter struggi

of the Freedom of Trade de

-in 1864.

It was implicit in the princ?
of the free contract of empl
ment that a stoppage of W
was permissible where it
not a breach of contract. Nev
theless, even liberals otherW”
friendly to the workers’ cal®
remained very critical of ™
strike weapon, and the idea th!
it was unlawful survived fo
some time. .

The first and most sweepllt
proclamation of the right
strike is contained in the Mé
can constitution which reads

“The law shall recognize tl!
right of workers and employe”
to strike and lockout .
Strikes shall be lawful wh
they aim to bring about tt
balancing of the various facto!
of production, harmonizing tt
rights of labor with those
capital. In the case of pub
Services, workers shall be 0.
ged to give notice to the boa
of conciliation and arbitrati
10 days in advance of the d
set for the sioppage of wo
Strikes shall be considered
lawful when the majority of th?
workers resort ta acts of vi0
lence against persons and pro’
perty, and in case of war, whe
the strikers belong to establisl’
ments dependent on the govert
ment.”

This constitution was far i?
advance of the rest of the world.)
Thirty years elapsed before)
other countries wrote the right
to strike into their constitu
tions. . .

x * *

In 1961 a step forward was
taken in the international field
when the countries signed thé
European Social Charter which)
says: *

“In order to vouchsafe thé
effective exercise of the right of
collective bargaining the con-
tracting power recognize thé
right of workers and employ-
ees to collective action in thé

case of conflicting interests, in- |

cluding the right to strike, sub-
ject to such obligations as may |
result from collective agree- |
ments in force.”

Such, in broad outline, is the §

law relating to the right to =

strike in a fairly wide range of

countries. No doubt- there is 4 |
wide gulf between written law |

and actual practice. The greatest

amount of freedom is not neces-

sarily enjoyed by the citizens
those nations which have the
most liberal constitutions.

(Abridged from the
RSDWU Record)

- January 14, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8 a