Watching the strike, from N.Z.

Press, 27 August 1980, Page 20

Watching the strike, from N.Z.

Most New Zealanders will sympathise with the efforts of Polish workers to achieve better economic conditions and greater political freedom. Poland’s repressive political system was installed by the Russian Army 35 years ago and has been maintained by the Russian presence on Poland’s eastern border. Without that threat the Poles could long since have reformed their political and economic arrangements. They have tried to do so several times, in the face .of overwhelming difficulties. New Zealand trade unionists might be expected to have a special sympathy with the plight of the Poles. Poland’s official unions have been little more than instruments of the country’s Communist Government. Among the demands of the striking workers one of the most important is for free trade unions with leaders elected by secret, democratic ballot. New Zealanders, like unionists in most Western countries, would regard this as a fundamental condition of trade union activity. Unionists here have been quick to deplore what they have regarded as State intervention in the affairs of trade unions in countries such as Chile. In general, the control exercised over unions by Communist Governments has not drawn protests. The executive of the A.C.T.U., the Australian equivalent of the Federation of Labour in New Zealand, last Friday expressed unanimous support for the Polish strikers. No such resolution has b6en passed in New Zealand in spite of support for the strikers from some major unions, including the electrical workers and the meat workers. The presence of a member of the Socialist Unity Party, Mr K. G. . Douglas, as secretary 'of the F.O.L. may have discouraged the executive

from meeting and expressing its support. Mr Douglas and the president of the S.U.P., Mr G. H. Andersen, have made cautious and contradictory remarks about events in Poland. Mr Andersen has said he would support Russian military intervention in Poland. He later denied that his party did not support the strikers, but added that the strikers would not be supported if their aims were “antisocialist.” Mr Douglas said last evening that he and the president of the F.0.L., Mr W. J. Knox, has sent a cablegram to the central council of Polish Trade Unions offering “support and solidarity with Polish workers in their struggle for improved living standards and a strengthened role of trade unions.” It is tempting to see the S.U.P. leaders as New Zealand representatives of the world’s largest multinational .corporation—the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The S.U.P. has readily supported strikes in New Zealand for political purposes, hardly a necessary activity for trade unions to which other means are available for political expression. The S.U.P. appears reluctant to support strikes in Poland, a society in which almost all forms of political expression are controlled by the State. Perhaps the behaviour of the S.U.P. on the “Polish Question” will awaken New Zealand unionists to the manner in which the S.U.P. pursues the interests of a major foreign power, the Soviet Union, rather than the interests of trade unionists. The F.O.L. . has an opportunity to confirm that it is not shackled by the opinions of a small but very active political party. A vote of support for the aspirations of the Polish strikers would demonstrate the freedom of New Zealand unionists to make up their own minds.