LABOUR AT HOME.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 December 1928, Page 4

LABOUR AT HOME.

SOCIALISM THEi GOAL. ELECTION FUND APPEAL. Mr George Lansbury, M.P., "was voted chairman at the Labour Party Conference this year.

“The efforts made by our enemies through the Trades Union Act to cripple the collection of funds,” he .said in bis opening address, “has succeeded m creating for us some temporary difficulties. Every delegate and all who read my words are very earnestly asked to • respond to our appeal for £IOO,OOO. lve urgently need money for the coining election, and this we must get from our own people.” He isaid that they must all deplore >/ sections of their party. 'Whatever might I be said about- the “card vote” or the | the disunity which prevailed in a feu I internal workings of their organisation, they had not yet accepted the principle of dictatorship, whether such dictatorship was exercised by a class-conscious minority or an intellectual group. “I believe that the Labour movement should be- an inclusive one,’’, lie said. “Just now a few people-in the party appear determined to make this policy impossible of application because of their downright refusal to- accept conference decisions, and also because tney appear incapable of seeing any good m comrades with whom they happen to be in disagreement- on matters- of policjand expediency. “I have never been able to- agree that everything wrong with the party, whether in the House of Commons or in the country, is due to leadership; both in the House of Commons and here in this conference it is the majority which decides or acquiesces in policy recommended either by the executive or by an affiliated organisation. There is no sense in talking and writing about democracy unless we practice _ what- we preach. Gradualness is only inevitable because our people have not yet devel- ; oped sufficient wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to. enable us to advance more speedily to our goal. CANNOT SERVE TWO MASTERS. “I would earnestly appeal to those disaffiliated comrades- who in their * hearts accept the principle of demo--5 cracy to reconsider their position. Don t come back if in your hearts you do not accept the -principle of democracy, or if you think those in disagreement with you are charlatans, hypocrites, and cowards. Life is too short fop you and for us for any such waste of time as is involved in such partnerships. “The old words, ‘You cannot serve two masters’ still ring true. There is no .such thing as dual loyalty, and because this- is so, members of the Communist Party are not likely, until their policy of action is changed, to rejoin our ranks. If I acepted and agreed to j work lor their policy.of hostility to the I ) Labour Party I would not desire afhlia- | tion. They have entered the field | i again us, both politically and industnallv, because they accept a theory of organisation and action which is foreign to ours. . “It is nonsense to compare conditions as they existed in Russia at the time of her revolution with the conditions which prevail here. The British movement has taken over one hundred years to build up. We are not an organisation created out of special conditions at lt particulai moment.” „ Turning to the future, he said : socialism is inscribed on o-ur banners. Ibis is not a pious hope or mere aspiration, but a definite, clear-cut article of faith. We may disagree, as to methods o.r as to which particular piece of legislation shall come first, but the ultimate end we intend to reach is simple; tve intend ( that the land of Britain and all its re-. sources shall be owned and used in the service of all the people. Landlordism, capitalism, monopoly, whether m the form of control of credit, or money or raw material, or manufacture, has been tried and found wanting. “Amy attempt, by whomsoever made, to- unite our forces, with the decadent remains of Liberalism is foredoomed to failure; our one and only goal is Socialism, and this goal all other parties in the State are violently opposed to, so between them and us there cam and will be no coalition or combination.