COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA
(To the Editor.)
Sir,—lt has been noted with much regret that Mr. Peter Butler, secretary of the General Labourers' Union, in making a statement to your paper relative to the introduction of the. 40----hour week, stated that during the last few weeks invidious propaganda and misleading statements had been issued by representatives of the Communist Party calculated to discredit the Government and its intentions in regard to the 40-hour week. We wish to refute this utterly baseless attack on the Communist Party. In all our propaganda in relation, to the 40-hour week we have urged the workers through their trade unions particularly to give the Labour Government every possible support and thus show in practice to such employers' organisations as have intimated their opposition, that the Government has the organised backing of its supporters who returned it to power with great solidarity. True, while we have spoken and issued printed ,■ propaganda on the 40-hour week, at1 the same time we have criticised weaknesses which we considered were in the Government's plan to this end. For instance, we have criticised the Government's attitude in handing over the introduction of this measure finally to the Arbitration Court, which Court, we claim, is loaded on the employers' side. The Hon. H. T. Armstrong, Minister of Employment, in reply to a question in the House relative to any change in the Court, replied "No." To prove that the Arbitration Court is loaded in the interests of the employers, we have used in our propaganda a statement made by Mr. Armstrong, the present Minister, at the second annual conference of the Miners' Federation in October, 1909. All criticism has been definitely constructive, for while we have pointed out a weakness in the plans of the Labour Government, we have continually called upon the Government supporters to organise in behind the Government and so supply added strength. I am, etc.,
A. J. BIRCHFIELD, C..P.N.Z,
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19360409.2.81.4
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 85, 9 April 1936, Page 10
Word Count
320COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 85, 9 April 1936, Page 10
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