THE LABOUR PARTY AND COMMUNIST.
CONVERSION OR WHAT?
A Mr. N. J'effries, Organiser for the Communist party reported that he attended the Annual Conference of (he New Zealand Labour Party at Wanganui, for the purpose of asking the Labour Party to allow the Communist Party to become affiliated. “I was turned down with a thud,” he said. He then added the “The Labour Party would have nothing to do with revolutionary methods or direct action; the party was endeavouring to live down its past and it is the first time the New Zealand Labour Party has definitely denounced revolutionary methods or direct action.” This certainly reads like a clear case of conversion. Whether the penitent was moved by the results of the General Election or how the change of heart has .come about the Communist Organiser does not attempt to explain. For our part we can remember several occasions when the party has repudiated direct action and soon after given the practice its blessing by such endorsement as its leaders gave to the British Seamen’s non-Unioit strike. As for re-
volutionary methods it probably differs only with the Communist Party in defining just what these mean.. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand, there have been occasions when the play “repudiating the Communists” has been carefully staged and carried through for the benefit of admiring audiences. “Labour” in these instances becoming converted for the political advantage of converting others and thereby winning votes,. Not wishing to do the party an injustice we here quote from the Annual Report presented Iby the Executive to the Conference above mentioned. “The Communist Party is regarded by the Executive as a political party and, according to the decisions of the Annual Conference, no member of that party is eligible to act as a delegate to a Labour Representation Committee.” That is the first door closed. -Then we read: —“Members of the Communist Party are not eligible to remain as members of any branch of the New Zealand Labour Party.” There is a clear intimation to quit. In face of such evidence can anyone doubt that the New Zealand Labour Party has done with the Communist Party forever? ON ITS FACE VALUE. -
Still, in spite of these earnest professions of the party and the mighty “thud” heard by Mr. Jeffries there are people who doubt if the party is so free from the taint of communism as appearanco seem to indicate. It is noted that individual communists are still “in with the Labour Party.” The Plebs League, and other bodies with communist members, meet at Trades halls and have close associations with Labour Party members.
\\lhen any of the Communists get into trouble over such little matters as circulating seditious literature, or in advocacy of their party tactics, which spell violence, it is observed that the Labour Party is ever ready to act the part of “big brother’’ and come to the rescue of the communists. In Britain where the Labour Party has similarly instructed its branches to “exclude t lie Communists” the branches have declined to comply. It would be interesting to learn how many individual communists have been turned out of the branches in New Zealand. As Labour Unions and Federations are affiliated to the party it would be enlightening to learn if the Executive of the New Zealand Labour Party seriously meant thdt workers who are members of the Communist Party are not to be allowed to remain as members of these industrial Unions and Federations. One of the leaders of the Communist Party in Britain, Mr. H. Pollitt, said “in spite of all resolutions of the Labour Party they could not exclude the Communists.” Communists are in the Unions and the Unions attached to the Labour Party. This applies to New Zealand as Avell as at Home. On the face of it, then, the party cannot exclude all the Communists. All it can do is to pass pious resolutions. It has done this, but so far as we can learn it has left the resolutions on paper only. Writing on “The Communist Movement” Dr. A. Shadwell says: “In any case the Communists will go on boring away at the trade unions nor will it be possible to keep them out of the Labour Party. They may be officially turned down, but actually they will be there, and their influence will lie in proportion to their strength in the trade unions.” We believe the position is just the same in New Zealand — official denial, but actual association.
(Contributed by the New Zealand
Welfare League)
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19260417.2.18
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 0234, 17 April 1926, Page 4
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761THE LABOUR PARTY AND COMMUNIST. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 0234, 17 April 1926, Page 4
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