TRADES UNICES AND LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22358, 23 March 1938, Page 10

TRADES UNICES AND LABOUR

PARTY’S DRIVE FOR AFFILIATION

CANVASS OF MEMBERS

APPEAL FOR FUNDS TO FIGHT GENERAL ELECTION - ,

rTHE PRESS Special Service.l AUCKLAND, March 22. A determined effort is being made by the New Zealand Labour Party to bring about the affiliation of every trades union in the Dominion with the party. Coincident with this national drive for amalgamation an appeal for funds has been made by the party headquarters at Wellington. Mr D. Wilson, the national secretary, has called for a minimum of £25,000 to contest 80 seats at the coming General Election. Unions which have not yet affiliated, such as the Auckland Clerical Workers’ Union and the Auckland Amalgamated Society of Shop Assistants, are being actively canvassed. The Shop Assistants’ Union, with a membership of 4000, embracing the whole of the northern industrial district, is to make its decision in June, and it is understood that the clerical workers are to hold a meeting this evening to make theirs. In the case of shop assistants, affiliation will cost their union £2OO a year on the basis of Is a year for each member. Half that sum is voted to the Auckland Labour Representation Committee and the other half to the national organisation, but the system does not stop there, for, in Mr Wilson’s words, “Last year’s conference recommended that every Labour supporter should make himself or herself responsible for raising at least £1 towards election campaign expenses, '

and I am enclosing a subscription list herewith, so that any individual who desires to help in that way may do his part.

Contributions Sought “What we want now is a donation from individuals and organisations, the consideration of a voluntary levy from every supporter, and a wholehearted effort on the part of everyone to raise as much, money as possible to ensure the continuation'of government by the people and for the people. All donations will be credited to the electorate in which the donor resides, unless a request is made for it to be used for national purposes.” In November of last year the Federation of Labour announced a membership of 200,000, which means that, apart from other contributions, the Labour Party, if successful in its present drive for affiliation, would have an assured income of at least £IO,OOO a year from its Is a head charge upon unions. ■ In his appeal for funds, Mr Wilson says: “Vested interests are determined to nip in the bud the concessions and • privileges granted to the working class by the present Government. Constitutional leagues and freedom leagues are trans for the unwary, but. given sufficient money to contest 80 seats, the return of the Labour Government is again assured. Children, the aged, the infirm, and all the victims of the vicious social system still need our care and assistance. They must not be left to the tender mercies of the Hamilton-Coates-Forbes National Party, which prates about freedom and justice, but who were themselves responsible for the deplorable conditions which existed before the advent of the Labour Government.”