LABORITE OR SOCIALIST?

Evening Star, Issue 14628, 26 July 1911, Page 2

LABORITE OR SOCIALIST?

TO THE EDITOII. Si rj —Mr MacManue has taken up over half a column of your valuable space in an attempt to reply to my letter and has not done so. Mr MacManus answers my question by asking another. He says : " How did I, while a member of the Socialist party and an advocate of industrial unionism, support the Labor party's nominee, Mr J. W. Munro, against the Hon. J. A. Millar?" This is not a question for me to answer. Let Mr MacManus explain this himself. As part explanation of the above, he tells us that he " burst into verse" over it. I don't for ono moment question Mr MacManus's poetical abilities. But that is no reply to my question. Mr MacManus has not read my letter carefully. I did not Kay that he was opposed to the Labor party, or antagonistic to it. What I did say was that he advocated socialism and industrial unionism. Mr MacManus seems to recognise the force of my argument, for he attempts to justify his"attitude by quotations from Marx and references to an interview, etc.. which has nothing to do with the question at issue. Mr MacManus tries to reply by using words I did not use. I did not say : " How can a Socialist justify his attitude in belonging to a Labor party'" What I did say is : "Being a member of the Socialist party, how can ho at tho same time advocate the policy of the Labor party?" Certainly a Socialist can belong to the Labor party. I know several good Socialists who aro members of the Labor party, but they are not members of the Socialist party at the same time. No man can consistently support two different constitutions, and no amount of argument and quotations from Marx can prove 6uch an action possible. If Mr MacManus believes in industrial unionism, and is a member of the Socialist party, then I maintain that he cannot consistently advocate the policy of tho Labor party. The Socialist party platform is clear and dktinct : " The industrial and political organisation of the workers." A man pledges himself not to be connected, directly or indirectly, with any party but the New Zealand Socialist party, and that he will render no support to any other political party; but this does not apply to membership of any industrial organisation. If Mr MacManus is a Socialist, and is anxious to take political action, then there is room for his activities in the Socialist party, without allying himself with the Labor party, who ignore the true and scientific organisation of the working class by "industrial unionism."—l am, etc.. Interested. July 25.