Socialism and Democracy in Europe Part 43

(_k_) Matters arising between Conferences not provided for by the Const.i.tution, shall be dealt with by the N.A.C.

(_l_) A full report of all the meetings of the N.A.C. as held shall be forwarded to each branch.

6. _Auditor._--A Chartered or Incorporated Accountant shall be employed to audit the accounts of the Party.

II.--BRANCHES

1. _Branch._--An a.s.sociation which indorses the objects and policy of the Party, and affiliates in the prescribed manner.

2. _Local Autonomy._--Subject to the general const.i.tution of the Party, each Branch shall be perfectly autonomous.

III.--FINANCES

1. Branches shall pay one penny per member per month to the N.A.C.

2. The N.A.C. may strike off the list of branches any branch which is more than 6 months in arrears with its payments.

3. The N.A.C. may receive donations or subscriptions to the funds of the Party. It shall not receive moneys which are contributed upon terms which interfere in any way with its freedom of action as to their disburs.e.m.e.nt.

4. The financial year of the Party shall begin on March 1st, and end on the last day of February next succeeding.

IV.--ANNUAL CONFERENCE

1. The _Annual Conference_ is the ultimate authority of the Party, to which all final appeals shall be made.

2. _Date._--It shall be held at Easter.

3. _Special Conferences._--A Special Conference shall always be called prior to a General Election, for the purpose of determining the policy of the Party during the election. Other Special Conferences may be called by two-thirds of the whole of the members of the N.A.C, or by one-third of the branches of the Party.

4. _Conference Fee._--A Conference Fee per delegate (the amount to be fixed by the N.A.C.) shall be paid by all branches desiring representation, on or before the last day of February in each year.

5. No branch shall be represented which was not in existence on the December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Annual Conference.

6. Branches of the Party may send one delegate to Conference for each fifty members, or part thereof. Branches may appoint one delegate to represent their full voting strength. Should there be two or more branches which are unable separately to send delegates to Conference, they may jointly do so.

7. Delegates must have been members of the branch they represent from December 31st immediately preceding the date of the Conference.

8. Notices respecting resolutions shall be posted to branches not later than January 3d. Resolutions for the Agenda, and nominations for officers and N.A.C. shall be in the hands of the General Secretary eight weeks before the date of the Annual Conference, and issued to the branches a fortnight later. Amendments to resolutions on the Agenda and additional nominations may be sent to the Secretary four weeks before Conference, and they shall be arranged on the final Agenda, which shall be issued to branches two weeks before Conference.

A balance sheet shall be issued to branches two weeks before the Conference, showing the receipts and expenditure of the Party for the year, also the number of branches affiliated and the amount each branch has paid in affiliation fees during the year.

9. The Chairman of the Party for the preceding year shall preside over the Conference.

10. _Conference Officials._--The first business of the Conference shall be the appointment of tellers. It shall next elect a Standing Orders Committee, with power to examine the credentials of delegates, and to deal with special business which may be delegated to it by the Conference.

11. In case any vacancy occurs on the N.A.C. between Conferences, the unsuccessful candidate receiving the largest number of votes at the preceding election shall fill the vacancy. Vacancies in the list of officers shall be filled up by the vote of the branches.

12. The principle of the second ballot shall be observed in all elections.

13. The Conference shall choose in which Divisional Area the next Conference shall be held.

V.--PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES

1. The N.A.C. shall keep a list of members of the Party from which candidates may be selected by branches.

2. Any Branch at any time may nominate any eligible member of the Party to be placed upon that list.

3. The N.A.C. itself may place names on the list.

4. No person shall be placed upon this list unless he has been a member of the Party for at least twelve months.

5. Branches desiring to place a candidate in their const.i.tuencies must in the first instance communicate with the N.A.C., and have the candidate selected at a properly convened conference of representatives of the local branches of all societies affiliated with the Labor Party, so that the candidate may be chosen in accordance with the const.i.tution of the Labor Party. The N.A.C. shall have power to suspend this clause where local or other circ.u.mstances appear to justify such a course.

6. Before the N.A.C. sanctions any candidature it shall be ent.i.tled to secure guarantees of adequate local financial support.

7. No Branch shall take any action which affects prejudicially the position or prospects of a Parliamentary candidate, who has received the credentials of the Labor Party, without first laying the case before the N.A.C.

8. Each candidate must undertake that he will run his election in accordance with the principles and policy of the Party, and that if elected he will support the Party on all questions coming within the scope of the principles of the I.L.P.

_The Const.i.tution shall not be altered or amended except every third year, unless upon the requisition of two-thirds of the N.A.C. or one-third of the branches of the Party, when the proposed alterations or amendments shall be considered at the following Conference._--Resolution, Edinburgh, 1909.

BASIS OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY

The Fabian Society consists of Socialists.

It therefore aims at the re-organization of society by the emanc.i.p.ation of land and industrial capital from individual and cla.s.s ownership, and the vesting of them in the community for the general benefit. In this way only can the natural and acquired advantages of the country be equitably shared by the whole people.

The Society accordingly works for the extinction of private property in land and of the consequent individual appropriation, in the form of rent, of the price paid for permission to use the earth, as well as for the advantages of superior soils and sites.

The Society, further, works for the transfer to the community of the administration of such industrial capital as can conveniently be managed socially. For, owing to the monopoly of the means of production in the past, industrial inventions and the transformation of surplus income into capital have mainly enriched the proprietary cla.s.s, the worker being now dependent on that cla.s.s for leave to earn a living.

If these measures be carried out, without compensation (though not without such relief to expropriated individuals as may seem fit to the community), rent and interest will be added to the reward of labor, the idle cla.s.s now living on the labor of others will necessarily disappear, and practical equality of opportunity will be maintained by the spontaneous action of economic forces with much less interference with personal liberty than the present system entails.

For the attainment of these ends the Fabian Society looks to the spread of Socialist opinions, and the social and political changes consequent thereon. It seeks to promote these by the general dissemination of knowledge as to the relation between the individual and society in its economic, ethical, and political aspects.

The following questions are addressed to Parliamentary candidates by the Fabians:

Will you press at the first opportunity for the following reforms:--

I.--_A Labor Program_

1. The extension of the Workmen's Compensation Act to seamen, and to all other cla.s.ses of wage earners?

2. Compulsory arbitration, as in New Zealand, to prevent strikes and lockouts?

3. A statutory minimum wage, as in Victoria, especially for sweated trades?