THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29366, 19 November 1960, Page 4

THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM

During the last 100 years the West Coast has been the victim of gross exploitation by private enterprise. Timber by the hundreds of millions of feet, gold by the hundredweight, and coal by the millions of tons has been exported by train and ship and yet our economy is stagnant. Monopoly capitalism is intensifying its efforts to gain a still greater share and control over our New Zealand economy. The two major economic problems at present confronting the New Zealand workers are an adequate wage on a 40-hour week and genuine relief from the overbearing tax burden. They will only be solved by forcing private enterprise to disgorge some of the record profits it is still making even under the so-called Labour Government. The Communist Party says £l6 is the minimum wage a worker requires for a 40-hour week. So that such a wage will be really effective, its implementation must be accompanied by price-pegging and rigid control over profits and rents. In the 20 years from 1939 to 1959, income tax has increased from £8 17s to £B3 2s a head of population. Over the same period, total taxation has increased from £23 9s to £125 10s a head. To relieve the taxation burden from the workers, the Communist Party advocates a personal income tax exemption level of £676 a year, with £2OB for a wife and £lO4 for each child. This policy is easily achievable. Increase the tax payments on big profits and high personal incomes. The monopoly threat to the West "Coast comes’ mainly from two sources—the Fletcher combine which is manoeuvring to gain control of the timber industry, and the oil companies. Coal is the basis of the Coast economy, and must remain so in the future. The coal industry is being threatened by oil. When the oil refinery is, established, there must be rigid Government control of its' functions to ensure that the profits of the oil companies are not going to take precedence over all other factors. Two hundred thousand tons of furnace oil a year will be left after refining processes. This is. the equivalent of 400,000 tons of coal, virtually the yearly production of the West Coast mines. If that amount of furnace oil is to be in addition to what is already being imported it could mean disaster to the coal-mining industry. The establishment of a chemicals from coal industry on the West Coast 4s vital for its future. There is room for only one such industry in New Zealand. Already the Labour Government and oil company spokesmen are talking of the possibility of establishing a chemical industry using byproducts from the oil refinery. In contesting this election, the Communist Party is the only one that advocates the need for socialism. Socialism alone can provide a real and lasting solution to the ills that beset New Zealand. The transition from capitalism to socialism will only come when the majority of the New Zealand people realise that change is necessary. Our policy for 1960 is designed to overcome immediate problems. Its acceptance by the workers will be a mighty first step along the road to eventual socialism.