LABOUR FEDERATION URGES BAN ON PROPOSED "HICCOUGH"

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23288, 24 June 1950, Page 6

LABOUR FEDERATION URGES BAN ON PROPOSED "HICCOUGH"

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 21. The demonstrations planned by (he Trade s Union Congress throughout New Zealand cn Wednesday are known by communists as "hiccough” strikes, according to Mr. I-\ P. Walsh, vice-president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. Ibis term is apparently applied to brief strikes intended as sharp and sudden expressions of force.

Mr. Walsh announced -last night that the national council of the federation of Labour had endorsed the national executive’s refusal to take part in demonstrations on Wednesday at me opening of Parliament. He. said that the invitation to take part received from the chairman of the Trades Union Congress Mr. F. G. Young, had been rejected.

Mr. Walsh said the national council would not ask workers to take part in a national partial strike on June 23. The executive had stated that there was evidence that the demonstration was being organised by the New Zealand Communist Party and by trade union officials who had been misled by them. They were using what was termed the inadequacy of the amount of the Arbitration Court's wage increase for their political purposes. These tactics were understandable to those who had a knowledge of the philosophy of the Communist party. Advice To Workers The national council resolved to advise the workers, said Mr. Walsh, lo take note of the important fact that much of the agitation for demonstrations on Wednesday came from the Communist Party. The proposed stoppage was in line with the internation-ally-directed sabotaging efforts of Communists in all democratic countries.

This short stoppage, said Mr. Walsh, was known as a “hiccough” strike, so termed and directed by the Communistcontrolled World Federation of Trade Unions. A similar agitation was noted in Australia, where it had been spurned by real unionists.

The proposed stoppage on Wednesday could not affect any legislation and was part of the cold war against free trade unionism and democracy. For these reasons the national council strongly urged workers to refrain from participation in the demonstration.