NO PACT WITH COMMUNISTS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24904, 18 June 1946, Page 3

NO PACT WITH COMMUNISTS

LABOUR PARTY IN N.S.W. CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT ACTIVITIES (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY. June 17. An eight-point recommendation rejecting “without hesitation or qualification any pact, working agreement or association with the Communist Party,” and planning a campaign to combat Communist activities, was adopted by 300 votes to 40 -at the annual New South Wales conference of the Labour Party last night.* The conference decided that it should become Labour policy to declare illegal the Eureka Youth League, the Ryde and Gladesville Citizens’ Committee, the Friends of the Soviet Union, the Friendship with Russia League, and the Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R. The debate on the recommendation was very lively, and once the debate was held up while, the credentials of a delegate were examined and the man was removed.

“We reject without hesitation or qualification any pact, working agreement or. association with the Communist Party,” said the recommendation. “Between the Communist Party and the Labour Party are differences of philosophy and organisation that cannot be reconciled. We declare the Communist Party to be a danger to Australian democracy and the permanent foe of the Australian Labour Party. We congratulate the British' Labour Party on its decision to eradicate affiliation with. the Communist Party and urge the executive immediately to send a cable of congratulations to the British Labour Party Conference.

“Australia does not need any assistance from the Communist Party in the coming elections. Any demand by the Communist Party to attach itself to Labour is detrimental to the cause of Labour and is typical of the treacherous methods being pursued by the Communists throughout the world. “We declare the Communist Party to be a- body foreign to the history and spirit of the Australian Labour movement and to be concerned solely with pursuing the foreign policies of Soviet Russia.

“We desire the preservation of world peace, but we deny emphatically that there exists any threat to Soviet Russia from the policy or aims of the British or Australian Labour Party. We believe that the prospects of solving international difficulties are being jeopardised by the behaviour of the Communist Party.” The plan of campaign against Communism approved by the conference includes provision for warning members against the activities of anti-La-bour bodies which arise periodically, the banning of such organisations, the provision of Labour groups throughout the workshops, the preparation of a series of leaflets on the history and policy of the Communist Party and the encouragement of younger sets. In the election of members to the State executive of the party the ticket of declared anti-Communist leaders was successful. The inclusion of these Right-wing members followed secret discussions last week of steps to purge the executive of men who were not uncompromisingly anti - Communist. The Leftist ticket was defeated by a three to one majority.