Labour men 'deplore' S.U.P. remarks

Press, 25 August 1980, Page 4

Labour men ' deplore ' S.U.P. remarks

PA Auckland The president of the Labour Party (Mr J. P. Anderton), has deplored statements about Polish strikers by the Socialist Unity Party’s president (Mr G. H. Andersen) and Mr K. G. Douglas, a member. Mr Anderton said all New Zealanders would surely be appalled by their remarks virtually condemning the protests of Polish workers. “The remarks of Mr Andersen, who said he would support Russian military intervention against Polish workers, are consistent with the S.U.P.’s mindless and doctrinaire attachment to oppressive Communism and to the belief that the Russians can do no wrong,” said Mr Anderton.

“While I fully support and am participating in a series of protests against the National Government for its economic policies and antiunion legislation, it is utterly hypocritical for Mr Douglas and Mr Andersen to deny Polish workers the right to do the same thing against their own Government.'

“If this were Poland, trade union leaders like Mr Douglas and Mr Andersen and free trade union organisations in general would not even be allowed to exist.

“If thej' are sincere in their espousal of trade union principles they would give their full backing to the Polish workers struggle.

“The Polish situation is a classic case of workers and trade unions fighting for their rights, and possibly their very lives, but Mr Douglas and Mr Andersen are busily selling them down the river,” Mr ’ Anderton said.

“The present Polish Government is clearly an oppressive regime. That is why it has two motorised divisions from Russia in the country, why the Polish workers are demanding free trade unions, why Premier Gierek has made a secret visit to Russia.

“Unlike Mr Douglas and Mr Andersen and their S.U.P. friends, the Labour Party pledges whatever support it can give to the Polish workers and their trade union leaders, and hails their tremendous courage in fighting to regain their freedom.

“The statement by Mr W. J. Knox that the Federation of Labour stands firmly behind the rights of workers (everywhere to fight for indi-

vidual and collective rights and freedoms surely expresses the real spirit of New Zealand workers.” The Socialist Action League last evening criticised the Socialist Unity Party’s statement of support for the Polish Government and for. possible Soviet intervention in Poland.

The league said that the Polish workers were fighting for democracy within a socialist society, which was exactly what the league was fighting for in New Zealand today. A national executive member of the league, Mr George Fyson, said, “It is .no accident that, some leaders of the worker’s opposition in Poland have been labelled ‘subversive’ by the Gierek Government, in much the same way as Mr Muldoon has labelled us.

“The Stalinist regime in Poland and the National Government in New Zealand are at one in their opposition to a free trade union movement and their surveillance and harassment of anti-Government groups.” Mr Douglas and Mr Andersen havd also come under

fire from a fellow trade unionist, Mr A. J. Neary. Mr Neary, secretary of the North Island Electrical Workers' Union, said Mr Douglas’s view that inflation was the cause of the strikes was “garbage.” Mr Douglas’s support of the “oppressive” police regime showed that he held double standards — one for workers in New Zealand and another for workers in Poland.

Both men should now seriously consider resigning because they were becoming an embarrassment to the trade union movement in New Zealand, said Mr Neary. . What the two men were saying was in conflict with the Federation of Labour’s constitution which supported the right of workers to form themselves into trade unions, and the cause of human freedom, Mr Neary said.

Mr Neary has written on behalf of his union to Mr Douglas, calling on the . F.O.L. to support the striking Polish workers. Polish strikers and Government talk, Page 6