SINISTER FACTOR

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1929, Page 5

SINISTER FACTOR

COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA

DISRUPTING TRADE UNIONS.

ILLUMINATING INQUIRY. (Australian Press Association.! (Received 9 a.in.) LONDON, August 20. “Political success must not bo made the occasion of slackening efforts towards an increase in the bargaining power of organised' labour or extension of Trades Union influence, M insists a report which is being submitted to the Trade, Union Congress at Belfast in 'September. Two long sections are devoted to the results of an inquiry into disruptive elements within’ the unions. The report states that from the beginning of Communist propaganda, in Britain the constant endeavour has been not to voice honest criticism-’ and use the' unions as democratic machinery but to divide and conquer the unions, with the object of imposing a Communist autocracy. Communist minority movements, 'acting under instructions from Moscow, made this their paramount aim -and followed the deliberate plan of splitting the Trades Union's movement in order to step in and use it for their own purposes. It was found that the driving force behind the league's anti-imperialism and anti-colonial oppression were the Communist Internationals, from which its finances were largely delivered. ' The Communist newspaper “Sunday Worker," in 1928 lost £IO,OOO, but managed to carry on after receiving donations ffom unnamed sources exceeding £15,000.

, With the exception of one or two eases, the disruptive element *s influence on the unions was .decreasing. It had done most harm "where early action was not taken by ■•. branches, and the Districts ’ Council feels, in the light of evidence now available, that the unions are capable, of co-op-erating in the task of stamping out disruptive activity, Which has undoubtedly militated against membership.