Red “Stooges” Charge Provokes Storm At N.S.W. Labour Congress

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22971, 14 June 1949, Page 7

Red “Stooges” Charge Provokes Storm At N.S.W. Labour Congress

SYDNEY, June 13.

Charges' that certain members of the Australian Labour Party were acting as stooges for the Communist Party in union elections led to stormy scenes at the annual conference of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labour Party. . The trouble started when the chairman- of the appeals committee, Mr. C. Anderson, recommended that the application for re-admission to the Labour Party by Mr. I. Barrett should be rejected. Only about 20 of the 450 delegates voted against the recommendation. Mr. Barrett was expelled by the Glebe branch of the Labour Party for allegedly failing to support the Labour Party industrial group candidates against the Communist candidates in the Waterside Workers’ Union elections. Mr. Anderson named three men present as delegates who, he said, consistently supported the Communist Party. The waterside workers’ delegate said: “In a militant union such as the watersiders, you cannot expect to convince a member that a Labour man is better than a Communist just because the Communist is a Communist. You must have something to show them. They will not vote for a man who is not militant. Unfortunately, if you bi’eathe the word socialism todday, someone will bark Communist at you.”