"RED" TENDENCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 21, 26 January 1933, Page 9

"RED" TENDENCY.

NJS.W. LABOUR PARTY.

SOCIALISATION MOVEMENT.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS OPENING-.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, January 20.

The "Socialisation" unit of the Stat© Labour party, which still professes allegiance to Mr. Lang, has taken a step which renders it more difficult than ever for either its supporters or its enemies to distinguish it from the Communist movement. It is opening Sunday schools at various suburban centres, starting with the Glebe; and if the Lang A.L.P. refuses to endorse this new departure the "Socialisation" group will nevertheless persist with it. Of course, it is hardly possible even now to draw a clear line between the objectives of the Communists and the "Socialisation" unit, and_ the fact that the Glebe Sunday School is to be started in a hall used till recently bythe Workers' Defence Corps—a body affiliated to the Communist party—lends colour to the resemblance.

Well-known Communists are interestin"' themselves actively in this experiment, thereby still further confusing the issues between the different sections of the Lang party. Control of Movement. And all the time behind the Langites, and nominally hostile to the "socialisation" unit, is the Graves-Garden coterie, which —as readers of the "Red, Road" should know —is more deeply committed to Communism than any other fraction of the Labour party here. Of course, it would not suit Graves and Garden for Communism to control the State Labour movement actively and alertly. But the Communists are confident that they can gain their ends, either through the "socialisation" units which are disintegrating and capturing the Lang party, or by more direct means. They still believe, in the words of a recent manifesto, that they have found the means

for "converting tie Anstlwdi&n Communist party into i mass Bolshevik party—which, will be able to prepare the working class for a revolution in Australia."

No doubt the nevr Sunday schools are a step in that direction; and no doubt if the revolution becomes an accomplished fact, the first duty of our new rulers 'will be to deal with Messrs. Garden and Lang. Langitea Not Ready. But it must further be borne in mind that the rank and file of the Langite party are by no means ready as yet for any such drastic change. A few days back a large meeting of the unemployed at Lithgow, one of the strongest Langite centres, resolved to break away from • the Unemployed Workers' Movement on the grounds that this movement is "dominated by Communistic . influences" and that "tfie time lias • arrived when the local unemployed should assert their own rights." ,In even stronger terms the leading delegates at a Labour women's conference held in Sydney a few weeks ago carried a resolution to the effect that thd members of the party should pledge themselves "to protect home life from the inroads of Communism and Bed propaganda." This is decidedly a healthy sign, and so long as the Langites realise that, as one of the speakers said at this conference, "Communism is the worst enemy that Labour ever had," the "white-anting 3 ' of the unions on which the "Reds" so pride themselves is not likely to produce very serious results.