RED HAND IN DOCK STRIKE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2636, 22 September 1923, Page 4

RED HAND IN DOCK STRIKE.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISTS BEHIND IT. The people in New Zealand who are talking of internationalism might consider for a little the unofficial Dock Strike in England, which has just closed. It is an industrial event unparalleled in British history. To find 60,000 workers called out and held under control for some time by an unofficial strike committee against the wish of their own proper organisation and against the earnest protest of their own elected leaders, Messrs Bevin and Gosling, is indeed startling. Wihat is more sinister is to discover what, was behind this movement. The English Press discloses that the Red International of Labour Unions (attached to Moscow) operated through a body called the National Unemployed Workers’ Committee movement. That committee published the following appeal. A VIOLENT MANIFESTO. Strike one! Strike all! Dockers out —Now for the big transport fight. Miners, railmen, must walk off the job! To Hell with peace talk! is reply to officials’ arguments. Fine lead to all workers. . . Organised unemployed have entered the fray to beat, Blacklegs; strikers must gc to the Guardians. Now for the general transport strike! All out together! Dockers, miners, railwaymen, seamen, and river workers! To Hell with your agreements! We will fight! is the reply of the striking dockers to leaders who advise ‘peace’ and acceptance of 1/- per day wage-cut. Faced with a 2/- per day cut in wages, railwaymen should come out. Miners, groaning under a pernicious agreement forced on them after Black Friday, must walk off the job, too! . , . The bosses are thinking that the workers are too apathetic and timorous to put up a fight. The unofficial strike of the dockers has shown them that they are wrong. Let other workers follow' the lead given by the dockworkers. Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike One! Strike All! “Bevan and Gosling must go.” In London, -where the Communists were most active, Messrs Bevin and Gosling were howled down by the strikers. The unofficial leader was a man named Fred Thompson w T ho lied about the position in the following statement: —“I should like to make it clear that we officials do not accept the statement that this is a “Red-liand” strike. The men who are leading it are not Communists. It will not help to bring the strike to an end to make unfair suggestions about them.” It was then shown that he was an active Communist who had openly incited to the holding up of all transport and was chairman at a conference of the Red Internal of Labour Unions attended by 316 delegates. STRENGTH OF THE COMMUNISTS.

There is ample proof that what is being aimed at by the Communists, under the advice of the Communist International at Moscow, is a general strike of all the workers . in Britain. What strength is in this movement of Bolshevism is shown here:—The Communists of the R.I.L.U. have organised a series of conferences. The first series took place in September and October of last year, and were held in London Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Barrow, Birmingham and Sheffield. The official report states that the total number of delegates attending these conferences was 905, representing 1,018,600 workers. The actual membership of the R.I.KU. in Great Britain is reported at Moscow as being 300,000 (see “Labour Monthly” for January, 1923). Further conferences were held during May in London, Glasgow, and Cardiff. The chairman of the R.I.L.U. (British section), Mr Tom Mann, describing in “All Power” (June) a tour he has made recently of the provinces, says that at every meeting he got a resolution carried in favour of a general strike. FOOD FOR THOUGHT. These matters do not merely concern the people in Britain—the growth of this Red Internationalism affects the whole Empire. If Britain’s trade is crippled, New Zealand will suffer loss. The lesson for all of us is to oppose in every way we can the spread of communist thought under cover of being just “Labour.” The loss of this one strike has been very great but we may look for much greater upheaval and loss unless we take steps to combat this growing evil. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)