DICTATORSHIP OR DEMOCRACY?

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 123, 25 May 1920, Page 7

DICTATORSHIP OR DEMOCRACY?

WHICH DO NEW ZEALAND

WORKERS WANT?

(Contributed by the New Zealand

Welfare League.)

• "The dictatorship of the proletariat must in practice mean the dictatorship of an autocracy."—Philip Snowden.

We. have before us now a Labour paper headed "Official Organ of the New Zealand Labour Party." Nearly the whole of its front page is devoted to boosting Bolshevism. In one article the practice of "forced labour," instituted in Soviet Russia, is defended. The >v,riter says, "Where there is no private profit there is no great difference between conscripting men to dig trenches and conscripting men to dig in the fields." Surely the people of New.Zealand have, not forgotten how bitterly tile Labour Party candidates complained of being called "Bolshevists." Where was ■ .their sincerity, or how truthful their protests are, can be seen by reading the propaganda in favour of .Bolshevist ideas that the party's officia.l organ is constantly publishing. Left to themselves we are confident that the vast majority of New Zealand workers stand for democracy. In industrial af-. fairs they want a fair hearing and a measure of control, because the industries affect thoir lives, Only, the Revolutionists seek for "all the control."

The following taken from the London Spectator^ presents the candid view of Mr. Philip .Snowden, as to the' true relation of the Soviet Government of Russia to the principle of democratic control: —"Sir, —A section of the Labour movement is demanding' the control of ■ nationalised industries by. workers' committees. This is supposed to he the alternative to bureaucratic control. Ths shop stewards' and workers' committees are holding a national conference in London this week to demand not mereiy the nationalisation of mines, railways, etc., but control q£ these industries by Soviets or workers' committees. They state in their resolutions that the workers' committees, which they have already formed in various parts of the country, are built on Soviet lines."

Now this demand is of peculiar interest because the Soviet Government of Russia has just abolished these workers' committees and. councils. Mr. Philip Snowden, writing in the Labour Leader of 4th M/irch, says :—"The Soviet Government has officially published in the Petrpajrad Bolshevik press a decree abolishing the workmen's councils andeommittees of factory delegates. In this decree it is stated : 'These ccrascile and committees, created to maintain order in the centres of production, have, on the contrary, produced grave disorders. They have caused the demoralisation of the workmen and the complete demoralisation of industry. Ii? view of these circumstances the Soviet-Government finds itself compelled to' abolish the workmen's councils and the factory delegates in all Russia. The system of democratic control of the workshop has been superseded by autocratic decree, for the militarisation of all industrial work.' "

• Mr. Snowden says that these decisions have "come as a y shock to the Communists of Great Britain and to the uncritical supporters and admirer's of the Bolshevik regime."l, "I really, do not see," continues Mr. -Snowden, "that this decree by the Soviet Government need cause surprise or dismay. The dictatorship of the. proletariat must in practice mean the dictatorship of an autocracy"; nnd he warns Socialists here to avoid following the Russian Bolsheviks.

AUTOCRACY AND CONSCRIPTION

In England the leading Labour-men are either suspending their judgment about Soviet Russia or are warning their fellows not to be drawn away by its abstract appeals to sentiment. There seems little doubt that Lenin's Government is acting on the basis of autocratic rule, and is in practice a dictatorship. It has raised its armies by conscription methods. It has applied the conscription of labour to the carrying on of the industries. The New .Zealand Labour Party leaders have denounced conscription in every shape and form. They may be right, but what we- contend is that they are not justified in denouncing conscription and autocracy whilst at the same time they are using their organs of propaganda in support of the communist Bolshevik ideals, which, in practice, are- shown to be oonscriptionist and autocratic. The principles of dictatorship and democracy are* in opposition. The workers of New' Zealand will be well advised to keep that fact in mind. We cannot- have both, for one is destructive of the other. New Zealand workers have for many years been seeking to secure a fuller measure of democracy, and any party leaders, or organs of the' party, engaged in inculcating respect for autocratic rule and dictatorship should be dealt with as renegades from the true principles of Labour.