WHITE-ANTING THE UNIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 October 1921, Page 3

WHITE-ANTING THE UNIONS.

A SECRET MOVEMENT. SYDNEY. Sep! . g|. When Mr Howie ; president of the New South Wales Labour Council) and Mr W. Eursman, secretary of the Labour College, which is affiliated with the council, left Sydney early ibis tear in the guise of seamen, the officials of the council denied Hot either id tL-m «a . pin, ucdiiig to Russia. It non transpires that they were delegates to the Congress of the Third Moscow International. Mr Katsman, in a letter which wan received by the council yesterday, enclosed a paper wliie.li he read at the congress concerning the progress of communism in Australia. In it lie described how revolutionaries had set about to capture the trade union movement in Australia. In the course of this paper .Mr Katsman said; — "In 1920 a small group of revolutionaries decided to establish the Communist party of Australia, which they did as a secret organisation. ’ We set to work among the trade unions and formed a number of groups, whose main object was the spreading of Communist principles and the white-anting of the unions. “From time to time we issued leaflets to the workers advising them and -instructing them in their everyday struggles with the master class. Then we sent out a manifesto and programme in keeping with the principles of the Third Communist International, and a call to form a legal Communist party. The Communist party of Australia is tinnly established in every State in the Commonwealth. with

branches in all industrial centres. ••Our main o|H'iations have been con centralcd oil the trade unions, where the mass of the workers are, ami when I left Australia our influence was growing every day. “Needless to say the economic depression which exists tlrroiighout the world is la-ginning to be felt by the workers in Australia. There were open conflicts in the streets between the unemployed and the police, the latter acting under instructions from the Labour Government. This position is being fully utilised by the Communist partv ami its members operating in the unions, and by the time I return to Australia I expect to find a wellorganised and disciplined party acting as the vanguard and lender of the masses. This is the first time that Australian workers have been directly represented in industrial allairs, and Me hope that the experience, knowledge, and the close connection which shall he established with the active assistance of the Third ( ominunist International will he the means of assisting the Australian proletariat to take part in the world movement to overthrow capitalism and to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.”