HELD TOGETHER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 11

HELD TOGETHER.

N.S.W. LABOUR PARTY.

LANG, WILLIS AND GARDEN.

MANOEUVRES AT CONFERENCE

(From 9ur Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, April 22.

A conference which will certainly prove to be the most important of the many convocations held by the State Labour party since the downfall of Langism last year, opened on Friday, April 14, at the Trades Hall.

Readers will remember that the Socialisation groups -which liave been endeavouring to undermine the authority of Lang and to commit the party to an extremist policy have grown powerful of late, and right up to the end of the conference there was some douut whether Lang, backed by the "inner group" at the Trades Hall, would be able to hold his own.

However,. Graves, Keller and Garden, who form the Trades Hall junta, laiow too much about "machine politics" for their opponents. They boldly carried the war into the enemy camp and by bluff and misrepresentation _ their opponents claim, by direct manipulation of the ballots, they secured a strong majority of delegates for this conference. The retiring president, Mr. P. J. Keller, opened proceedings with a vehement attack on the Socialisation forces who, lie 6aid, are controlled by Communists, and the Trades Hall party earned the conference with them from start to finish. Triumph For Lang. A remarkable diversion cieated by Mr. "Jock" Garden, which seems likely to produce very important consequences, for the State Labour party deserves separate notice. But apart from this the conference was a continuous triumph for Lan«\ Tha Socialisation militants were completely ousted from the administration; the dictatorial powers given to Lang six years ago were solemnly ! renewed; the executive "gamed its rio-ht to control the rank and file of the movement absolutely in the m . te ™ between conferences; a new Socialisation committee was elected, excluding Kilburn and V. McNamara, Lang's. most dangerous opponents; and a re P°™ drafted by McNamara was m favour of a report drafted by Garden, embodying the chief points in La"g no licv Lang himself was received with inducing the conference to reveise the decisions ol tie metropolitan <=»'« which bound him to a wholesale "Socialisation" policy. . The conference carried resolutions registering ita cam plete confidence m Lang, an for the unqualified acceptance of Ins Slier of "unification and the Socialisation ofcredit," as a first step toward Labour's goal. It should be noted that Langs sociallanks n is SC ior e wi|ly 4TMT£OS£ financial policy advanced by Mr. bcum e~T +l<o ALP. No doubt the astuxe "Jock" Garden, who still professes to elieve that the unity of tlie A " s Labour party can yet be achieved, had an eye to the Scullin policy when he drafted the proposals which. Lang suT) mitted to the conference. Attitude of Miners. There are two other features of this conference which deserve special notice. One is the effort made successfully by Mr H. C Willis to prevent the proposed break away by the miners' unions when the socialisation proposals were rejected. Mr "Willis is an astute politician, and l,e 'realises that, though lie lias immense influence over the miners, and the time mav yet come for him to appeal to them to displace Lang and advance 111 m o the dictatorship, the hour has not yet struck.

The first step must be to secure tlie unitv of labour, if possible, at the coming A.L.P. conference. And this, too,. is°the reason for the refusal of the Garden group to take advantage of their strength and punish the socialisation leaders by expulsion. Whether they are Communists or not, they will be more useful in the movement than outside it—at least till after the A.L.P. conference next week, and, possibly, till after the triennial conference of the Federal A.L.P. in June. And so for the moment Willis and Garden and Lang have held the party together.