Oliver Spence/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
OLIVER SPENCE, DICTATOR.
On the first Monday after the issue of the General Strike Manifesto, a National Convention of delegates from all parts of Australia was held in the Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney. The delegates had been elected by meetings convened by local sections of the Brotherhood of the Poor, which had now ceased to be a secret organisation. Each delegate having solemnly declared his fidelity to the cause of the People, the Convention was declared open by Oliver Spence, who then addressed it as follows:—
"Fellow Men!"
"We are assembled here to-day as the delegates to a Convention which is probably the most important gathering which has ever taken place on Australian soil. We are the bearers of the mandates of an indignant and wrathful people who have chosen us to consider and devise for them a Constitution which shall be, for the first time in our history, a just one. Let us devote ourselves to that task with zeal yet discretion.
"We are, it is true, the appointed of a minority, and with that fact our enemies already taunt us, but, I would ask you, has it not always been minorities who have achieved anything worth achieving? who have brought about any unmistakably radical political or economic changes? And more, was it not a minority which plundered and oppressed us?
"If, then, we, being determined men who would not be obedient slaves, have preferred to risk death rather than endure enslavement, who DARES to question our right to rebel?
"We have disregarded the apathy of the majority, have attacked the ruling MINORITY, and overthrown it.
"I again say, who DARES to question our right?
"An old English aristocratic writer has said,
'Treason never conquers—
What's the reason?
If it conquers,
None dare call it Treason!'
And although we do not wish to ill-treat those whom it might please to call us traitors, yet the quotation substantially expresses our position.
"If we had waited for the majority to rebel, then we might have waited an eternity, for they were so brutalised by excessive toil, and dispirited by the evidences of the enormous power of wealth, that they had become ox-like in their lives, and suffered to continue that oppression which it had become well-nigh impossible to-remove by pacific methods.
If the majority has been apathetic, however, it cannot long remain so, but must soon range itself on our side, for, without speaking of the justice of our cause, we are the victorious party, and 'nothing succeeds like success.'
"Having therefore successfully rebelled against a most ignoble, degrading, and brutal tyranny, we now find ourselves in the position of men who will have to contend against the desperate energy of those who were formerly our rulers. If they again get the upper hand, they will be merciless and inexorably cruel in their revenge; the history of the past teaches us that.
"We must therefore be wary, yet swift and bold.
"We must hesitate at nothing which will render our triumph unquestionably complete and lasting.
"Let all our sympathisers carry arms, and as many as possible enrol themselves in companies of military volunteers.
"I recommend further that the resources of the new Government be used for the purpose of giving employment to all who are in need of it, and further, that it be made a criminal offence to employ men more than eight hours daily, except in case of special unforeseen emergency.
"It should be decreed by law that a minimum wage of not less than two pounds sterling weekly should be paid to adult workers in all industries.
"A Board should be selected to fix a minimum price for all the necessaries of life.
"All civil law must be abrogated, and the criminal law entirely remodelled.
"Only by the measures I have proposed, can we maintain the revolutionary enthusiasm, and guard against the possibility of reaction or counter revolution.
"When we have taken these steps, we can then proceed to gradually, but as speedily as possible, bring into existence the peaceful, harmonious social state, that Co-operative Commonwealth, which has been for generations the dream of poets, the ideal of philosophers, and the demand of revolutionists.
"I conclude with the words of the French 'man of action,' Danton—'We must have boldness, boldness, and always boldness!'"
Oliver Spence resumed, his seat amid a perfect hurricane of applause and exclamations of undying fidelity to the revolutionary cause. The old building fairly shook with the vociferations of the delegates, and so great was the excitement that the air seemed as though charged with electricity.
Spence had been listened to amidst a silence which seemed almost death-like in its stillness, but when he pointed out to the delegates the necessary steps to be taken in order to give practical effect to the aims of the revolutionists and to prevent the possibility of a return to the old order of things, all gave him their enthusiastic support, and a resolution to the effect that he should be appointed, for the period of one year, Dictator with plenary powers, was carried unanimously.
The speaker who proposed the resolution said that for centuries the people had been swindled, plundered, and oppressed by corrupt ruling gangs called parliaments. They would now see what could be done by the rule of one good wise, and capable man.
After the Convention had appointed committees for the purpose of re-modelling the criminal code and fixing a maximum price for foods and other necessaries of life, the delegates adjourned.
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