WARNING TO N.Z. TRADE UNIONS BY MINISTERS

Grey River Argus, 6 April 1948, Page 5

WARNING TO N.Z. TRADE UNIONS BY MINISTERS

Against White-anting Of Communists Addresses to Workers At Mangakino [Special to “Argus”] ’■Ti 1. IUnWMS MANGAKINO. April 5. On Sunday addresses were given here to a public meeting organised .by the Mangakino Branch of the N.Z. Labour Party by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, and the Minister of Works, Hon. R. Semple, whom the Party invited to attend. There were between five and six hundred present at the meeting. Earlier in the day the Mangakino branch of the New Zealand Workers’ Union was addressed by the president of the national union, Mr W. Wallace, the secretary, Mr Carl Hair, and the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, Mr K. Baxter. The Mangakino Hall, which accommodates 400 persons, was crowded for each meeting, and many stood outside to hear the addresses. The Prime Minister arrived by plane an hour and a-half before the public meeting began. An attack on Communists, and a warning of their infiltration into the trade union movement was made by the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Works. At the conclusion of the meeting those present were invited to express a vote of confidence in the Government. There were 12 dissentients. Mr Fraser, in a preliminary address, said he was sorry the dispute had arisen, and felt that those present, before judging the issue, should hear what the Government’s representatives had to say.

Mr Semple said he was not present, to apologise for his existence. He had no charges to answer. “I have a case to make, and I claim the right to make it here”, he said. The trouble was not of his making. In his opinion the strike should never have developed. He was in Australia when it began, but if he had been in New Zealand he would have gene straight to Mangakino in an attempt to settle it. Declaring that some sections wished to turn “this place into another Brisbane”, the Minister went on tc; discuss developments in public works conditions since the Government had been in office. “Conditions have been revolutionised, and this camp will be a model for the British Commonwealth when the Government has done with it”, he said. The newspaper, The Spark, published in Mangakino, had said the village could be compared with a German prison camp. Who could make such a comparison when the horror, suffering and large-scale deaths that had occurred in the prison camps were considered ? he asked.

HISTORY OF DISPUTE Describing events leading un to the dispute, he said the branch secretary of the union, Mr V. L. Clapham, was among the men who were put off at Karapiro several months ago. Be-

cause, however, there was a suggestion that Mr Clapham had been victimised, he had been given the benefit of the doubt, and been reinstated. A few weeks later Mr Clapham came to Mangakino and began to throw his weight around, said the Minister. “I saw him privately, and he said he was an avowed Communist”, Mr Semple added. “I explained that I didn’t mind this if he pulled his weight on the job”. Mr Semple said that Mr Clapham became secretary of the union, and later grievances arose. With a member of his Department, and a representative of the union, he came to Mangakino, * and while negotiations were being carried out Mr Clapham was reported to have given an interview to a Rotorua newspaper. Mr Clapham denied it, and was a°ain given the benefit of the doubt, said the Minister. A deputation from the job latermet him in Wellington for a day and a-half, said Mr Semple. “I asked them for no further silly stoppages, but yet only a few days after their return an ultimatum was given the engineers over a further dispute. “These people are bent on destruction; that is their object the world over; they are out to smash the Labour Government, and, because they have no chance of getting into Parliament, they are infiltrating into the trade unions. It is for you to say whether you will permit these wreckers to destroy our country”, he said.

A mixed reception greeted Mr Semple’s next statement that the executive was “Communist-control-led”. The Government wanted the workers to govern their own affairs and take an interest in their unions to see that “the rat-bags and enemies of the nation don’t get anywhere”. Mr Semple said. PRIME MINISTER’S ADDRESS Mr Fraser said that no union in the country had worked more wholeheartedly with a Government department than the New Zealand Workers’ Union. Referring to Communism, he said the present policy of the Communist Party was to fight the Labour Government in every way possible, and particularly through the trade unions. When Communists were in office in any union there would be trouble. “Russia can do what it likes, but I do object to its satellites interfering in this country”, said Mr Fraser. He added that orders came to the New Zealand Communists from Moscow in 1935 that the Court of Arbitration must be attacked, and the Labour Party—termed Social-Fascist —should be attacked. “That was the Communists’ attitude till war broke out, when, for only three days, they abandoned that country”, said Mr Fraser. “They were wrapped over the knuckles, however, and opposed the war till Russia was attacked bv Germany. Now they are back again on the same old policy”, said Mr Fraser. Answering a charge that the Dominion was under British and American imperialism, Mr Fraser said no country in the world had adopted n more independent world policy than New Zealand. “We meet our problems in Wellington—not in London, Washington or Moscow”, he said. The Communists wanted te sav that because of Labour’s policy an illusion had been created that the people were better off. Wages were 32 ner cent, higher, and the bulk of wages and salaries had increased three times over. If the Labour Movement was weakened there was a danger that reactionary forces would come into office. “The battle of the working people has been too hard, and it was too important to let Communists gnaw at the piles of Labour's building", he said. Part of the Labour Movement were the trade unions, said the Prime Minister. If the Communists continued to get into them there would

be no co-operation or continuity—which the Government wanted—but there would be disruption and suffering in a country which provided its people with more than, any other. “It will not suit the Communists if our prosperity continues”, he added. “They are traitors to our country and to the trade unions and Labour Movement of this country. The people should bid them goodbye and a long farewell”, he said.

Mangakino Men Will Work If Tribunal Granted AUCKLAND, April 5. Eight hundred and eighty workers who have been on strike at Mangakino since March 12 will go back to work if a tribunal is set up to settle the dispute, but only if Mr L. Clapham. tne Communist secretary of the local branch of the Workers Union can return to work with them, pending the tribunal’s decision. The Public Works Department’s decision to transfer Mr Clapham to Auckland led to the strike. The recommendation that the men should accept a tribunal came from the Federation of Labour. It was put Io them at a general meeting of the union tnis morning. The meeting ended shortly before the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, and the Minister of Works, Hon. R. Semple, began to address a public meeting at the camp. The men have agreed to return to work as soon as advice is received from Wellington that a tribunal will be established, but no indication could be given in Mangakino as to whether the stipulation that Mr Clapham should return with them would be accepted. An outspoken attack on the Communist mbvement in New Zealand and particularly its tactics in trade union affairs, was delivered by Mr Fraser and Mr Semple when they addressed the public meeting in a hall this afternoon. About 400 men and women packed the hall, and some stood outside to hear the address through a public address system. Interjections and concerted heckling occurred, but most of the audience listened attentively.

Support From Canterbury P.A. TIMARU, April 5. Workers at the Pukaki and Tekapo hydro electric works resolved, bv overwhelming majorities, at mass meetings at the week-end, to contribute from their weekly wages to the support of the workers involved in the Mangakino dispute. WEST COAST TRADES COUNCIL SUPPORTS STRIKERS At its meeting on Friday last, the West Coast Trades Council had before it the full details of the Mangakino strike, together with the views of the national executive of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, which has now taken charge of thp dispute, it was unanimously decided to' endorse the appeal of the Federation of Labour for funds for the support of the strikers, and to reauest affiliations of the Trades Council to contribute as quickly and as liberally as possible to the strike fund. Mr F. Rudkin has been delegated by the Trades Council to present the obiections of the council to the Proposed amendments to the constitution of the Federation of Labour at the forthcoming annual conference of the ff leration.