WORKMEN AGAINST BOLSHEVIKS.

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 15 August 1919, Page 4

WORKMEN AGAINST BOLSHEVIKS.

The peasants have been fighting the Bolsheviks for a long time. But now there are more and more frequent news of the discontent of workmen against the Bolsheviks. In the “Izvcstia,” March 2, 1919, there is an article by the President of the Central Commission for fighting Counter-Revolution — the well-known blood-thirsty Peters — in which he quotes the following letter from the Menshevik-Internationalist Bogdanov, the letter having been taken during a search in the offices of the Menshevik-Internalist paper, “Vsegda Vperiod” (“Ever Forward”). This paper w*as closed by the Bolsheviks for ever. —“Izvcstia,” February 27, 1919.

“Since yesterday wo have finally started party work. I shall have some work, mostly in the way of organisation. But I shall still have to attend meetings, as in the good old times. , In fact, I have ulredy begun doing so, and, I must confess, very successfully. I never had such a triumph. Of course, this is due not so much fo my oratorical talents as to the mood of the workmen. There is great animosity towards the Bolshevik. As soon as a Bolshevik mounts the platform, cries of “Clear out!” greet him. But when a Menshevik appears, before lie has time to open his mouth the audience begins to applaud. Of course, all this is very nice, but it is not pleasant to realise that this mood can easily be used for purely progrom and counter-revolu-toinary purposes, and there is no guarantee that it will be possible to rally the working classes round the watchwords of the Social-Democrats. ” In the “Pravda” (February 25) the

“Central Soviet of till the All-Russian Printers’ Union, i.e., the central organisation of the trade, is called a 1 “White Guard” organisation, and the * Bolsheviks arc forming a Red Printers’ J Union in opposition. In spite of the rapidly growing discontent of the workmen. the Bolsheviks are still in the

majority in the Soviets. If the workmen dare to elect a non-Bolshevik, they are at once dubbed counter-revolu-

tionaries, with all the consequences to follow, such as the deprivation of

ration privileges, or even being shot.