Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1923 LABOUR PARTY AND SOVIET RULE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2546, 22 February 1923, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1923 LABOUR PARTY AND SOVIET RULE.

MR, D. J. SULLIVAN, ALP., speaking in the House this Session said “Proportional representation could not be reconciled with Soviet Rule. The Labour Party does not stand for Soviet Rule in this country, or for class dictation. The Soviet system presupposes class dictatorship. The only people who exercise ,the franchise are those who are actually engaged in industry —the workers themselves. Other classes of the community are deprived of the vote. It is a proletariat dictatorship.”

ON this question Mr Sullivan may be reminded that the methods of Soviet rule in Russia have changed in various ways, and that what has to be considered is not any particular form that such rule has taken but what is the principle on which such rule is founded. It cannot be contended that the adoption of proportional representation is in itself a safeguard against class dictatorship. Proportional representation is but a method of electoral determination of the will of the electors. It does not say who shall be electors or what shall be the power of their votes. If Russia for instance on its present franchise, the right of voting being confirmed to working operatives, soldiers and Slate servants, were to adopt election of Soviets by proportional representation that would not alter the rule of class dictatorship.

MR SULLIVAN recognises that the essential principle of the Soviet system is class dictatorship when he says “f he Soviet system presupposes class dictatorship/’ We are pleased to liud the honourable member affirms that his party does not stand for Soviet Rule and repudiates the principle of class dictatorship—this is to the advantage of reason and common sense. Facts

compel us lo assert that even if the party attends as lie says there is little doubt that numbers attached to the party do believe in and affirm, as occasion suits, the doctrine of (‘lass dictatorship. There are men in the party, and taking a leading part, who are Marxian Socialists. We understand the party’s leader, Mr W. E. Holland, M.P., is such and these endorse the policy of class dictatorship up to the door of complete communism if not inside. Again we find the party’s organs continually preaching tiie class war and the coming of complete domination of society by the proletariat. We do not question Mr Sullivan’s sincerity in making the statement he does. What has to be considered, however, is that class dictatorship may obtain as a matter of degree —much more extreme in one place than another — the evil is in the idea of one class dominating all.

A CLOSER look at Soviet Russia will enlighten us to the fact that, the rule there is not so much of class as of party. It is domination of the Communits party that constitutes the real tyranny of the Soviet rule. It is officially stated that the Communist Party has only 600,000 members in a population of many millions yet it, aiid particularly its leaders, are the dictators who control. This brings home the question whether the present “N.Z. Labour Party” does not rely too much on party success and class direction to be entirely free from the motive of class dictatorship? It will be readily conceded that the party does not endorse all the excesses attached to the Russian Soviet system. Will its members at the same time deny that a movement may drift into extremes that were never first endorsed? The facts are to us indisputable that the present Labour Party is directed chiefly to class ends, that it is allied with an industrial organisation which seeks to force its will by threats of strikes, go-slow practice and' general business dislocation and that its attitude whenever opposed is one of class dictation instead of appeal to reason and citizenship.

IF Soviet rule then means class dictation not merely particular forms of its application, then we fear that Mr Sullivan’s statement, that his party does not stand, for Soviet Rule, cannot be taken as an absolute fact. There is far too much of class dictation exhibited in its pronouncements to leave the matter much in doubt. *