COMMUNIST ATTACK

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 11

COMMUNIST ATTACK

ON TRADES AND LABOUR COUNCIL SOME HEATED MOMENTS A strong attack by a small body of Communists was made on the Unemployment Committee of the Trades and Labour Council at the Trades Hall today at a meeting of unemployed called to receive the report of the council on steps taken since the recent demonstration to the Minister at Parliamentary j Buildings. The veracity of speakers was called into question, frequently in the baldest of terms, and at one stage the meeting was declared closed by the chairman (Mr. W. Bromley, president of the Trades and Labour Cruneil), but it was shortly afterwards reopened. Mr. Bromley reported that as far as the Unemployment Committee of the council could ascertain, about half of the 350 men it had been decided to send away had been sent, and the remainder ■would be sent as soon as accommodation •was provided. It had also been planned to set up a committee to help in relief work, but that had not been done, as its constitution was not thought satisfactory, but the Government was being asked to reconstitute the conimitte on the lines of the representation given in former years. The Hospital* Board was being asked to rcinstitute the practice of giving three meals and a bed to all those unable to obtain employment. Mr. Griffin (Communist) here objected that the proper means, of getting recognition of the unemployment-posi-tion was by agitation, and annoying tire Government into doing things. Only by continued demonstration to the. Government could action be secured. _ Mr. Bromley said that the chief thing to be done was to help men to get work. Those who had enough to do to keep the wolf from the door were not likely to succeed by acting on their own account. It was not a time to talk about a wav against capitalists, but a time to get these men a job. A heated interchange occurred between Mr. Griffin and the chairman, the latter maintaining that nobody was better qualified to act for the workers than the Labour members of Parliament, who fully understood the position The Trades and Labour Council had been responsible for securing work or maintenance during the past years, and he could bring plenty of men who would testify to its assistance. What would they gain by demonstrating in the street and annoying the Government?Mr. Griffin: '"You are being well Bromley said that the committee had done everything except organise to annoy the Government. Unemployment was nust as much annoyance to everyone as it could be to Mr. Griffln. FUTILITY OF DEMONSTRATIONS. "Mr P. .Fraser, M.P., said that nothing more futile or silly could be imagined than demonstrations as a means of lighting capitalism.' The firsi; duty was to tho unemployed men, their women, ana children. "Mr. Griffln poses as an unemployed man," said Mr. Fraser, "and his pose may ; be quite correct." Mr. Griffin: "Why east a doubt?" Mr. Fraser: "Simply because if you are now unemployed in Wellington, and you, live.in Wellington, what were you doing in Auckland?" ' Mr. Griffin: "What's that to do with y°lrfr. Fraser: "It lias a great deal to do with me. I ani not disputing your right to go. to Auckland. lam disputing your right to "be'called a genuine unemployed' worker. ... The Trades Hall is for the purpose of representing tho workers of this country, who have never made a practice of demonstrations. The" Trades Hall unions have fought the battle "of the workers from long before the time Mr. Griffin was in New Zealand/but they are not going into every silly scheme inimical to the workers' interests, %fith the idea of helping Moscow ana Communism.,. That is exactly what you are attempting to do. Imagine anyone in their senses going to a Minister of the Crown asking for:work, and telling him that you cannot do it owing to capitalism." A .voice: "That's exactly it." Mr. Eraser: "Yes, Mr. Griffin and his men are the best instruments that could bo found for capitalism." Mr. Galbraith (West Coast) here refused t6 sit down when he rose to reply to Mr. Fraser'a statements, and. the chairman, after a rowdy interval, when it looked as though anything might happen, declared .the meeting closed. THE MEETING- RESUMES.

After various lioated conversations in knots had taken the place of the i meeting, Mr. Butler, secretary of the General Labourers Union, succeeded in getting a vote of confidence in ' Mr. Bromley as chairman, and the meeting was resumed. Mr. Bromley said that there had not teen a single suggestion of anything they had not done to ease the position. Mr. Galbraith gave a detailed account of how demonstrations on the West Coast had helped discharged single men into employment. He did not agree that going cap in hand was the best way of relieving the position, pqliticians, trade union officials, or anyone else. The unemployed should have their own organisation, and should be fully represented on any trades union or other committee. Mr. Griffin said it had been inferred that he was in receipt of Moscow gold, and a doubt had been cast as to whether he was genuinely unemployed. He had been invited to speak at Huntly - fry the Miners' Union, and had done so, and he had been enabled by making their,funds spin out to speak also in Auckland,, with >the further- assistance of the Communist Party there. At that, time he had been only two weeks out of gaol. He made money here while he could by peddling from door to door. He was genuinely unemployed. Mr. Butler said he did not think the matter apparently at contention was the methods to be employed, whether by deputation or otherwise, in the representation of the unemployed, but that the claims of the unemployed should be allied with those of the workers of this country. The workers should all be allied with the Trades Council to prevent the setting down of wages. He moved:—"That this meeting expresses confidence in the Unemployed Committee of the Trades and Labour Council, and pledges itself to work with the organised trades unions of New Zealand." The motion was seconded by a- speaker who. said that ho had been out of work a good deal, and knew what "it was to be "hard,up." He had como there in the hope of not being hungry. Mr. R. Semple, M.P., urged that the Labour members of Parliament > had done all they could,,having studied it economically and having mostly experienced suffering from being out of work at times themselves. Liko others, he personally had done a great deal. Mr. P. Fraser, M.P.,-stressed the seriousness of the unemployment situation, and said that if the sixty or so dissatisfied ones, instead of having the whole of the Labour movement behind them, liked to go out into the wilderness . . . Mr. Griffin: "That's not the proposal at all;" Mr. Fraser reiterated that capitalism jvould.be" attacked,,but-the-thing: to do

I now was to carry the meu on through the Laboxir movement. > N They did not want unemployed led astray by something called Communism. The motion was put and declared carried on the voices, but a count being demanded, the show of hands was 35 for and 14 against. The meeting, whie'h. lasted for about two hours, was frequently interrupted by interjections, many of them heated, and at times the chairman was quite unable to control it.