COMMUNISTS ACTIVE

Evening Star, Issue 23322, 19 July 1939, Page 5

COMMUNISTS ACTIVE

ENDEAVOURING TO GAIN CONTROL OF UNIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR RECENT STRIKES APATHY OF RANK AND FILE While there does not appear to be the same determined drive in the south Communists in the North Island are making an endeavour to gain control of all unions, and unionists with the welfare of their organisations at heart are becoming perturbed, it is averred j and this is borne out by reports from the north, where Communists are stated to be aiming at control of the industrial machine, in New Zealand. Within the past six months or so attention lias been focused on the creation of national unions, with headquarters in Wellington, and those conversant with the situation consider this is a move on the part of Communists, who realise if they can centralise control in Wellington, they have a better chance of dictating to trade unionism generally in this country. From inquiries made among those who should know something of the position, it is ascertained that the position obtaining to-day results largely from the apathy of members of individual unions. Communists are in a minority in all unions, and yet invariably they manage to get one, two, or more of their number on to a union executive simply because the ordinary rank and file unionist takes no heed to what is transpiring in his organisation, and docs not attend meetings. Since the Labour Party assumed office there have been many strikes, and it is stated that with a few exceptions, such as the drivers’ dispute, the

majority of them have been engineered by the Communist element m the unions concerned. They are responsible for all the strikes and stop-work meetings which havp been cheeking trade 1 and industry in the north, it is stated. “ If the more level-headed workers would only realise that these _ glibtongued orators on the jobs and in tne factories are never satisfied unless there is trouble between the workers and the bosses, they would soon eliminate them,” one' union member remarked. In this regard, it was remarked by one man interviewed: —By the institution of compulsory unionism, has the . Government created the very machinery the Communists were looking for? Cer- , tainly it has created a machine which ; is being turned to advantage by the followers of Stalin. . . Communists make no secret of their ’ aim to control unions, and to -tins end | they regularly attend meetings until i the opportunity arises (through apathy of members) to get into office. ' It is alleged that- a strike in Wel- . lihgton and others in the north recent! v were the direct result of Com- . inunist agitation. _ That the matter is causing the Go- . vernment some concern is seen in the passing by Parliament yesterday of a ' Bill to deregister any union causing an ■ unnecessary stoppage of work.