And if you wish the interests of the working class to be attended to, you will take to heart the lesson contained in those examples, and will form a working-class party. Liberals will declare, and do declare, in most pathetic tones, that they have done more, and will do more, for the workers than the Tories have done or will do. And Liberals will assure you that they are really more anxious to help the workers than we Socialists believe. But those are side issues. The main thing to remember is, that even if the Liberals are all they claim to be, they will never do as much for Labour as Labour could do for itself. Is not self-interest the ruling passion in the human heart? Then how should _any_ party be so true to Labour and so diligent in Labour's service as a Labour Party would be? What is a Trade Union? It is a combination of workers to defend their own interests from the encroachments of the employers. Well, a Labour Party is a combination of workers to defend their own interests from the encroachments of the employers, or their representatives in Parliament and on Municipal bodies. Do you elect your employers as officials of your Trade Unions? Do you send employers as delegates to your Trade Union Congress? You would laugh at the suggestion. You know that the employer _could_ not attend to your interests in the Trade Union, which is formed as a defence against him. Do you think the employer is likely to be more useful or more disinterested in Parliament or the County Council than in the Trade Union? Whether he be in Parliament or in his own office, he is an employer, and he puts his own interest first and the interests of Labour behind. Yet these men whom as Trade Unionists you mistrust, you actually send as politicians to "represent" you. A Labour Party is a kind of political Trade Union, and to defend Trade Unionism is to defend Labour representation. If a Liberal or a Tory can be trusted as a parliamentary representative, why cannot he be trusted as an employer? If an employer's interests are opposed to your interests in business, what reason have you for supposing that his interests and yours are not opposed in politics? Am I to persuade you to join a Labour Party? Then why should I not persuade you to join a Trade Union? Trade Union and Labour Party are both class defences against class aggression. If you oppose a man as an employer, why do you vote for him as a Member of Parliament? His calling himself a Liberal or a Tory does not alter the fact that he is an employer. To be a Trade Unionist and fight for your class during a strike, and to be a Tory or a Liberal and fight against your class at an election, is folly. During a strike there are no Tories or Liberals amongst the strikers; they are all workers. At election times there are no workers; only Liberals and Tories.