The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1920. IS IT BOLSHEVISM?

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 197, 18 August 1920, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1920. IS IT BOLSHEVISM?

For the cause that lacks cutistaroe, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And tlie good tha* we <m« 43.

When Mr. Frank Hodges, secretary oi ! the Miners' Federation, toM the worid j through the columns of the "Sunday! Express" that the establishment of the j Labour Council of Action is "the most significant development since the birth of the Labour movement in Britain,' , he was certainly not exaggerating the importance of this startling incident, for, in spite of the disclaimers by which -Mr. Hodges himself .tries to avert suspicion from the movement, the new Council of Action represents by far t.he , closest approach to Bolshevism that | Britain has yet seen. Here we have a I body which can certainly not claim to ' represent in a political or constitutional 1 sense even the majority of the wageearners; claiming for itself the right to prescribe to the Government of the country t.he course that it imist follo-v^, not in industrial or economic matters, but in the. sphere of international polities. Allowing for all the faults of our system of Parliamentary election, it is manifest that in a general sense the House of Commons and the Government do represent the .people of Britain, while t.he Council of Action, which haa entered into direct and. open competition with the Cabinet, even if it represents, for economic purposes, the majority of the wage-earners—a very doubtful supposition—can certainly not claim the right to speak for the nation as a whole, or to impose its will upon the majority. Here, then, we 'have a situation very closely analogous to that created in Russia by the Bolshevik leaders, who proclaim the right of a "class-coscious" minority to seize "the dictatorship of the proletariat)," and once installed in power to establish an indi.strial tyranny over every other class anl section of' the people. Segarded from this standpoint, it seems to us that the sudden emergence of the Council of Action is the most "significant" event in British history of recent years. In facing such a situation as this there is certainly nothing to be gained 'by speaking in metaphors or in cherishng delusions. We arc aware that Mr. Hodges, in his defence of the Council of Action, maintains thut it Is to be regarded ac only a temporary expedient. Further, he has sad definitely that "it is not a challenge to Parliamentary government," and that "there is no question of establishing Soviet government in Britain." But what ie the real meaning or value of these smooth phrases when we read the resolution carried "with acclamation" by the Labour Convention that, -the Council shall secure from Government among other things "recognition of the Soviet Government and the establishment of unrestricted commercial relations between Britain and Ruasia." Here we have in plain and unmistakable terms set forth the > determination of the Council of Action—l a small minority which itself claims 10, speak for not more than one section of the people—to compel Government to accept ita dictation-on matters of foreign policy. And if, as is extremely probable. Government declines to submit to the authority of this self-appointed Autocracy, what are we to make of 'Mr. Hodges' enigmatic but sinister words: "If Government challenges the people's r ! (gh* to express its will in this form, it will mean civil war"? Who gave Mr. Hodges and his friende the rig-ht to declare that tlhey exprcee or represent the will of the .people? Certainly not the people of England themselves, and we take some consolation from the knowledge that the people of England are not likely to he so easily dragooned into submission to a selfconstituted tyranny ac the ignorant and down-trodden masses of Ruesia. But under all the circumstances we find even more comfort in the reply which Air. Lloyd George has already made to the; Council's insolent attempt to dictate policy to the Government or Parliament by industrial action etruck at the root of t/he democratic constitution of Britain, and -would bei resisted with all the force at the Government's disposal." The plea put forward by some of the members of the Council of Action that they are only striving to secure peace or prevent war ie not the whole truth, for the Government has already given z positive! assurance that it will not go to war with the Soviet Government unleee and until the Bolsheviks threaten the destruction of [Poland. Many of tihe men behind the Council of Action are sin-.

i cerely devoted to peace, but to come of them what matter., more than anything I else in the world is the 'vlaas war." ] Hatred of Capitalism always tendi to j become a ferocious and unreasoning obocsfiion, and though the leaders of the anti-Capitalist movement in Britain still in so ma-ny words repudiate Bolshevism, they, a minority of the people, have in effect already set up a Soviet armed with irresponsible authority : threatening to impose its will upon the I whole nation, and ready, in the name of \ peace, to plunge the country into all the horrors of civil war.