AGAINST THE BOLSHEVIST SYSTEM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2449, 4 July 1922, Page 4

AGAINST THE BOLSHEVIST SYSTEM.

AMERICAN AND BRITISH LABOUR, “WHERE STANDS THE N.Z. LABOUR PARTY?” _• New. York Gable June 24th: — “Th'e convention of the American Federation of Labour at Cincinnati decisively rejected a resolution demanding that the United States should recognise the Russian Soviets, and afterwards adopted a resolution condemning the Bolsheviks and endorsing the policy of the United States Government,” The above clearly indicates where organised Labour in America stands in relation to the Russian Soviet Republic. It is viewed as being not a Republic but a Dictatorship. BRITISH LABOUR OPINION. (1) The British Labour Delegation, in its final report stated:— “Personal freedom, together with freedom of speech and of propoganda (including newspaper and issuing election literature and holding of meetings) is' severely suppressed in the case of all those whose activities are supposed to threaten the • Soviet regime.. The ‘Terror’ has left its traces behind it, in the form of pervading fear which is expressed on all hands, A fear sometimes more vague and sometimes more definite, that any expression of opinion adverse to the dominate Party will be treated as ‘counter revolutionary’ and will lead to imprisonment or some kind of penalisation. This fear is kept alive by the fact that arrests constantly take place for alleged political offences.

(2) MRS PHILLIP SNOWDEN says: —

“What I hated most in the regime was the suppression of liberty.”

“I am a Socialist, a Democrat and a Christian. I oppose Bolshevism because it is pot socialism, it is not Democratic, it is not Christianity. The Bolshevists have suppressed God as a counter revolutionary and have raised up Karl Marx in his place.” “The Soviet is not democratic, and make no pretence of being so. Speaking politically, they think/democracy is an outworn theory. They believe, of-course, in what they call the dictatorship of the proletariat, but they have not even got that. They have only got the dictatorship of the Communist Party. As the Communist Party in Russia numbers at the most 600,000, it is obvious that the dictatorship is the dictatorship of a small section. It does not stop there. The Communist Party is dictated by a handful of people inside the party. Then you get down to the bottom, the dictatorship of the proletariat means the dictatorship of about six men, aided by an Extraordinary Collision.” NO INDUSTRIAL FREEDOM. (3) “The conditions are closely approximate to those of some phases of slavery. Before the Bolshevist regime people could at least move about from town to town and leave their work if they wanted. Now they cannot. They must stay where they are. If, on the other hand, they are ordered to go to another part of the country and refuse they are sent to prison.” (4) ALDERMAN TURNER says : “Work is compulsory. There is no right to strike. A man may not change his job without the permission of his trade union. In fact, compulsion is one of the Bolshevik gods.”"') (5) Tbe Government ration provides for the following dietary:— Breakfast. —Coffee or tea substi-

tute, black bread. Afternoon.—Tbin soup with kasha (millet seed meal which is palatable and nourishing when properly cooked) and occasionally have a dried herring or small portion of meat^"' Supper.—Bread and coffee. N.Z. LABOUR PARTY’S ATTITUDE. We have read many speeches and articles from the leaders of the above party but have never seen one which condemned the Russian Soviet Rule, as the American and British pronouncements do, and in the face of that we are justified in asking where does this party stand? If it is in favour of the tyranny of the Russian system then clearly it is the greatest enemy the workers of this Dominion have ever met with. A definite statement —for or against —should be presented, as has been done in Britain and America. (Contributed by the 1 ' N.Z. Welfare League.)