WHY INDIAN LABOUR IS DETERMINED TO WIN THE WAR 37
security through legislation. It has obtained the right to safety, care and attention, through the conditions of welfare which have been enforced by the Central Government upon the Employers for the benefit of Labour. But, if Labour is determined to do its utmost to accelerate the war effort, it is not simply because of the lure of these immediate gains. There arc other and stronger reasons which are at the base of this determination. Labour is not content with securing merely fair conditions of work. What Labour wants is fair conditions of life. Let me explain what Labour means by fair conditions of life.
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Labour wants liberty. There is perhaps nothing new in this. What is new is Labour’s conception of liberty. Labour’s conception of liberty is not merely the negative conception of absence of restraint. Nor is Labour’s conception of liberty confined to the mere recognition of the right of the people to vote. Labour’s conception of liberty is very positive. It involves the idea of Government by the people. Government by the people, in the opinion of Labour, does not mean Parliamentary Democracy.
Parliamentary Democracy is a form of Government in which the function of the people has come to be to vote for their masters and leave them to rule. Such a scheme of Government, in the opinion of Labour, is a travesty of Government by the people. Labour wants Government which is Government by the people in name as well as in fact. Secondly, liberty as conceived by Labour includes the right to equal opportunity and the duty of the State to provide the fullest facilities for growth to every individual according to his needs.
Labour wants equality. By equality Labour means abolition of privileges of every kind in law, in the civil service, in the Army, in taxation, in trade and in industry : in fact the abolition of all processes which lead to inequality.
Labour wants fraternity. By fraternity it means an allpervading sense of human brotherhood, unifying all classes and all nations, with “peace on earth and goodwill towards man” as its motto.
The Nazi New Order
These are Labour’s ideals. They constitute the New Order, the establishment of which alone can save humanity from destruction. How