WHAT BOLSHEVISM MEANS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 10 September 1921, Page 9

WHAT BOLSHEVISM MEANS

STINGING REPLY TO ABUSIVE

LETTER

Remarkable correspondence took place between the Russian Bolshevist Council of People's Commissaries and the International Federation of Trade Unions assembled at Amsterdam. M. Zinovieff, writing from Riga, addressed the Federaion a» "lour yellow Amsterdam International," denied its claim to represent 3Q,00Q/XK) organised workers, declared that it tad; gone over body and soul to the mortal enemy, the bourgeoise. and proposed that the Federation should secure through the. League of Nations permissiqn for representatives of the Communist International to proceed to Paris for the purpose of holding a. public debate with the "yellow treacherous organisation calling 'itself.,:the Amsterdam Trade Union international.*' / A trenchant reply, signed by MM. • Jouhaux, MertenSj Fimmen, and Oude_ , geest, expressed ;regretr that the Comi munists' hopes ;of "securing passports through the "League of Natious were doomed to disappointment, and great astonishment that they should solicit a I favour from a body whom they had { never ceased to condemn. As; to'their request for a debate, the reply proceeded: "They have, not learned how to associate with decent society. They do not seem capable of drawing up a manifesto or writing a letter without a shower of abuse. They do not possess sufficient wit to vary their insults. Their vocabulary of invective is copious, but as monotonous as the stories of famine and massacre in their landI.'? i "No. thank you," said the Federa- { tion in answer to M. Zinovieff's suggestion that they should take lessons from j the Communist International. "We * know your, system, your principles, .your j I theories. We know how they look on paper and we know how they look in | practice, as exemplified in the overcrowded prisons of your country. 1W j know the flourishing condition of the ; Russian Proletariate, and we rejoice ' that Central and Western Europe are, in your opinion,** not yet ripe for the perfect happiness which you would visit t« e«nfer upon them. 1'