COMMUNISTS AND MR. SEMPLE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 131, 7 June 1927, Page 15

COMMUNISTS AND MR. SEMPLE

(To the Editor.)

to^VTj'f Bpite o£ hU intention de- Ai~l d«tai!? of I"s career are not uuof'the feuTe n<?t iope to sit on bo*h *dcs KardfnJ'^^l^U^c statements made reIvs''{lll- the. A-S-B.S. strike and the minthe f X • ■^ amel> r' tha* the policy of times nf" 1" • P, arty- le*l«»Mp. which in tS c,-v o? t l, ndu < s < taa. struggle introduced thev,,f i .the PuM'= and the efforts S ' lac] e to secure a settlement at any Kroirifd ?T eakenne effeot on the fight■VK of the workers. In regard to the th,i™ str'k! ther? «*e telegram of the PartvV +i° £ £ h? Parliamentary tw +i!° ,tlle, Pnme Minister, and the fact that the leaders of the Labour Party had a conference with the A.&R.S. executive s» «nt le decision to call off the strike. l<m t eT, Zealand Worker," 7th May, n( «nL- c ™lners> strike the same lack ot a nghtmg lead is in evidence, and the irantic appeals for settlement and compromise can be read in the columns of the Aew Zealand Worker" from October to fc/V 923"24- This attittlde is ™th™ auectly to any personal motives but proceeds from the refusal of the aforesaid .f'P'o W. itself on the class struggle that dominates present-day society. In that struggle there is no middle course and attempts to produce palliatives m the interests of a mythical "pubJie merely pave the way for compromise m the interests of the boss class It is only natural that Mr. Semple should see in the general strike only a "failure" ana a pretext for encroachment on trade union lights." In such an attitude he is imteiu accord with Thomas, Mac Donald, and Co., who "made attempts behind the °Peaker s chair to arrive at a settlement behind toe backs of the miners' representatives" It was not the policy of the General Strike that failed but the policy pi Keiormism and class collaboration. It tSt ■ „ the Pretext lies for the Trade union Act and the attacks being made on "»e workers by the Baldwin Government. Mr bemple maintains "that the method ot public opinion and the development of the .Labour Party in politics based on democratic principles is powerful enough to defend the Labour movement from injustice. If this is bo will he explain wby the miners are forced back to starvation wages in Great Britain? Why the military preparations against Chinese Nationalism still continue, and the Baldwin Government is able to imprison hundreds of work-ing-class men and women and at the same time devise further means for the coercl°" and impoverishment of the workers? Ihe fault is not burs if Mr. Semple is unable to comprehend our statement of l'oree and Violence." Since he repeats ms charges in this connection we ask that he nominate who the Communists are that advocated civil war to prevent the passage of the Trade Union Bill" and "whose

stock-in-trade is the advocacy o£ civil war." The Taff Vale decision was not reversed through the effect of "public opinion" and the Labour Party. It is the or- j Kantsed strength of trade unionism on the i industrial field that sets such enactments ' at nought. The economic decline of Bri- I tain, the loss of her monopoly position and the developing contradictions of the Imperialist stage of Capitalism compel the British capitalists to adopt stronger and ; more drastic measures to reduce the work- ; ers stau-Jard of Hying. This position demandsmore effective organisation on the part or the workers and the recognition of the role of the capitalist state. Because this duty is shirked by the present leadership the routs of the workers take place in class society there can be no "community of interest" and the "public" Ls as much composed of antagonistic class in- ! terests as is the "democracy" of the present time. Such terms merely confuse and blind the workers to their slave status Conditions—not Mr. Semple—will determine the means that the working-class will employ in securing their emancipation. All that the Communist Party claims to attempt is to organise and lead the workers to act in accordance with a scientific analysis of the development of Capitalism.—l am, etc., . S. HARRISON, For the Wellington Group, Communist Party. Ist June.