A PLAIN ISSUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 71, 29 March 1921, Page 4

A PLAIN ISSUE.

By a majority, the Conference o£ the. Independent Labour party in Britain has j refused to affiliate with the Third InterI national at Moscow. The decision is interesting a≤ further proof that naked I ■Bolshevism docs not commend itself to i the mass of Briton Labour. It id aLso J interesting for the reason that is given lin our cable message, that affiliation would mean acceptance of the ideal ot I I'ivil war as opposed to constitutional action. The. terms which Moscow has • drawn up as conditions of entry are well worth a little consideration. They display Russian Communism in it* most uncompromising form. The Moscow extremists inform the Labour organisations of the world that Kiev can affiliate only through subject inn. Independence ■must bo aurrPTidercd, and the dictator[ship of Moscow must Li: supreme. An\- organisation wish' Tig to join t.io Moscow International must regularly and methodically remove all moderates •in office, and replace them with "trust--1 worthy communists. AJI Press organs .of the extremists in all countries must ■ lie conducted by proven communists, and I be under the complete control of a communist committee. The, pronouncement • not only declared that* the world must be regenerated by force, but chows . hatred an<| contempt, for ail those Socialists who will not subscribe to the 1 doctrines of .Moscow. The Independent ! Labour party had an interesting eneounj txr with Moscow last year. 'I v a eer.o.-. ]of questions put by the party, a reply was sent imbued throughout by a spirit of the utmost intolerance towards all forms of Socialism other than Com- ■ munism, and declaring categorically for ' a bitter struggle by violent, revolution, with the help of Asia, against all the capitalistic countries of Europe. The British worker was told rhat he .should prepare "not for an easy Parliamentary victory, but for victory by a heavy civil war."'" Mr. Ramsay Macdonald was horrified. "The Moscow leaders are men of definite opinions,' , he said in reply. "They lire the product of a hard ' materialistic logic, and an outcast, hunted life. They are no fireside revolutionist.*, no sloshy universal love poseurs. When they say dictatorship, they mean dictatorship; when they say revolution, they mean bloodshed and violence; when they speak of universal laws, they mean that CJroat Britain is included in the universe.' . This frank avowal of its aims by Moscow did a good deal to clear the air. After this there could be no mistake as to what I.enin and his comrades meant to do if they could. With this pronouncement before him every man who supports "Moscow supports revolution by violence. The British branches who votpd for affiliation at. the present conference •write themselves down as prepared to ; wade through slaughter to a Communist throne. Every Labour leader in NewZealand who supports Lenin or the Third International enrols in the same company.