COMMUNISTS OUTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 112, 14 May 1927, Page 11

COMMUNISTS OUTED.

"SPIES AND INFORMERS." ENEMIES OF TRADES UNIONISM DEXOUXCED BY MR. SEMPLE. "THE OXLY THIXG TO DO." A-,ked for his opinion of the condemnation of Communists by the Metal Workers Assistants Union and the Wellington branch of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, as reported recently, Mr. K. Scmple, president of the Labour party, said to a "Post"' reporter that in view of the tactics adopted by the Communists in the last municipal election and their avowed hostility towards the industrial and political movement of the working class, the organisations in question had done the only thing they could do in order to protect the first principal of trades' unionism. '"The communists the world over," he continued, "are carrying out a policy of disruption against the Labour movement and in order to tie more effective they sought to sneak into Labour party branches and other organisations by disguising their real intentions. They hope by their policy of white-anting to bring about the collapse of the existing Labour party and Trade Union organisations, so as to exploit the resultant suspicion and ill-will in favour of desperate policies of sabotage and civil war. In this they are following instructions definitely received from Moscow, and formulated by the Third International and its leaders, which instructions explicitly oblige them to go the whole length of any deceit if needs be, and to resort to strategy, adroitness, illegal proceedings, reticence and subterfuge— in fact anything to penetrate into the trades union and remain in them to carry on communist work, and experience has proved that this policy has been pursued even to the point of disrupting and smashing the organisations concerned to the detriment of the workers they represented.

'The following instruction, which is ?igned by the members of the Communist Tarty Branch in Wellington, is an evidence that not only do communists violate the confidential business of the bodies into which they- worm themselves, but subordinate the interests of these bodies to the Communist Party:— Wellington Group C.P. of New Zealand. "A committee responsible for the assisting and directing members in the coordination of work within trades unions and other organisations was set up at last meeting, in accordance with the decision of the Christchurch conference. This committee requires the following information, and members will assist by returning this form, fully filled up, as soon as possible. Name Address Occupation Name of Trade Union Other organisations ,• Bodies to which union or other organisation is affiliated Oflicial or delegated position held by meml her in either of above

Members are requested to hand to one of the members of the responsible committee, before the 20th of each mouth, starting from May next, a report or individual activities for the month, containing, briefly, information of the principal business of the. organisations to which they i belong, and a brief account of their actions anrl opinions on these matters. This will allow the committee to become acquainted with trade union matters generally, and i to make a report to the monthly meeting . of the group (on the last .Saturday of the month) for consideration. (Signed) J. LOUGHItAX, It. GRIFFIN, committee. "Xo construction can be placed on this," said Mr. Semple, "other than that the Communists act as spies and informers upon trade union business on behalf of an outside body which unscrupulously misrepresents and opposes the policy of both trades unions and the Labour party." "False, Scurrilous and Cowardly." "The Communists," Mr. Semple went on, "have a perfect right to form their own parties and to propagate their own ideas on political, industrial and social questions, but when they resort to methods which are false, scurrilous, hypocritical and cowardly, it is time working-class organisation made a firm and determined stand against this group of disrupters, who are pursuing a policy altogether foreign to our national traditions and circumstances. If they think they can destroy organisations it has taken generations to build up by tlie faithful services of the pioneers of our movement, and which have won concessions and reforms too numerous to mention—organistions which bear the hallmark of devotion and self-sacrifice — they are hugely mistaken. The Labour movement owes the men and ■women who have done this pioneering work a deep debt of graitude, and it would not be worthy of the efforts they have made if it allowed this policy of disrupiton and vilification to continue. 1 am certain it lias no intern ion of doing so." Intrigue, Lying and Slander. Mr. Semple said that the Communists, by their methods of intrigue, lying and slander, had challenged "the bona-tide Labour movement of tiiis country, and the only self-respecting thing for the movement to do was to accept the challenge and purge its ranks of them whenever they showed themselves. The Labour movement had nothing in common with the tactics and policy pursued by them. They stood for violence and force, and were prepared to use any weapon, no matter how foul it might be. They believed in dictatorship, and they aimed to bring all existing institutions to chaos and confusion in the hope that from the. disorder, misery and tumult, their dictatorship would be established. In the process all democratic principles would be destroyed. In a society like ours in New Zealand, where the democratic tradition prevails, and where the franchise is wide enough to enable a constitutional remedy for all grievances, the policy of tiie Communists wawidely absurd, as well as dangerous, a,id it was only necessary to expose their methods to show that the construction of a new society along these lines was impossible. Aims of Genuine Labour, "In contrnsD with the Communist-,'' concluded Mr. Semple, "the Lalxntr movement in New Zealand is the avowed enemy of dictatorship of any kind. It •' believes in democratic control both ] within its own organisation and as a ( matter of public policy. Dictatorship £ meant tlie dominance of a clique, and to this the Labour Party was wholeheartedly opposed, beeaus'ed it believed that tlie people had the right to govern | themselves. The Labour Party also believed that the evils of society could only he removed by a steady educational process, and ii, is doing its utmost to ( reach its idtals through the minds and | I

hearts of the masse? of the people. This process, whatever might be said against it, "was sure. The Labour movement, moreover, held that each country should guide its own destiny, according to the traditions of its people and their economic and social environment and habits, and it firmly held to the belief that Xtw Zealand with its wealth and potentialities can be made an object lesson in socialism for the rest of the world ns soon as the people will it so. It was therefore against policies of hate and bloodshed, which not only menace its existence, but unfit men and women for the patient work essential to the'building of a new order of society.''