S.U.P. beliefs ‘no difficulty’

Press, 19 June 1979, Page 6

S.U.P. beliefs ‘no difficulty’

Mr K. G. Douglas, the new secretary of the Federation of Labour, sees his Socialist Unity Party membership as presenting no difficulties in dealing with the Government and employers, the Press Association reports. “I have never made a secret of njy. political beliefs and 1 do not think the Government or the employers are too concerned about the^a—except when they need, a convenient whipping boy,” he said. Mr Douglas beat the national secretary of the Carpenters’ Union (Mr A,. RusS) 273-247, in a postal ballot counted in Wellington last evening. He said he had encountered no personal antagonism as an F.O.L. executive member, and did not expect any as secretary. Even the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) a critic of S.U.P. influence in unions, had treated him in a “very professional, polite way.” Mr Muldoon said last evening that he had

nothing to say about Mr Douglas’s election. Mr Douglas, aged 43, the Wellington-born secretary of the Drivers’ Union, sees his win as an expression of the desire for change in the union movement. People wanted change and were prepared to put aside political considerations to achieve it, Mr Douglas said. Mr Douglas wants to see “social ownership” in New Zealand, but he accepts that there is a fundamental contradiction between that aim and his ' role as a union' negotiator. “My grandfather used to tell ; me that every, union economic battle was just a compromise with capitalism and that it would always happen until the system was changed.” Mr Douglas joined the Communist party in 1960. In 1965 he joined the Moscow - aligned S.U.P. when it split with the Communist Party of New Zealand and is now its Wellington chairman. “They were the only party that was advocating socialism for New Zealand,” he said.