COMMUNISTS AT HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19604, 5 April 1927, Page 7

COMMUNISTS AT HOME.

CLASS WARFARE SCHEME, BOTH SEXES RECRUITED. DISTRICT DEFENCE COMMITTEES. An insight into the organisation of the Communist movement and an indication of its extensive schemes for. class warfare in Britain were afforded at a meeting addressed by Communists at the Monmouthshire mining village of Mynyddislwyn, where, before the local Trades and Labour Council, the formation of a Workers' Defence Corps was outlined. The scheme had been circulated throughout the country, it was said, and in it trades councils were invited to appoint "Defence Committees" who would: Recruit members of both sexes from whom platoons and companies would ba organised. Form a local &taff for technical and organisation purposes on which ex-service workers would act. Organise special services for (a) training, (b) medical, and (c) communication. Appoint a member to take charge of each of these sections, whose first task would be the physical training of the members. Set ly? regular weekly parades and monthly demonstrations. The parades and demonstrations would be organised in order to train members to march in proper formation. There would be training in the protection of demonstrations, meetings, pickets, and working-class organisations. Th§ communications department, it was explained, would organise a cyclists' section and look after transport and distribution. A register of vehicles would be made and kept in the possession of the officers in charge of the service. The medical department would be responsible for the organisation of an efficient medical service and the formation of first-aid classes. Sympathetic membeis of ambulance organisations should be drawn into this work. It was also provided that district defence committees should be set up, and ultimately a national committee, but at the present time all attention should, it was urged, be devoted to work in all localities. It was pointed • out that such an -organisation would prevent disorder and maintain discipline during a crisis such as the recent coal stoppage. One of the functions of the defence corps would be to see that pickets had fair play during a strike. They desired, it was explained, to defend themselves against "the cowardly attacks made by v the police" in times of strikes. It was further stated that the reason the new organisation was proposed was because the recent crisis proved the capitalists were well organised. The settlement of the Coal stoppage, it was declared, had not ended the dispute. There would be another crisis in the near future. There was considerable opposition to the scheme at the meeting, and Mr. Sydney Jones, a miners' leader, said that if the proposals did not mean preparation for physical defence he failed to see any force in them. He did not think it was fair to ask the Trades Council to put such ideas as were contained in the Communists' proposal into operation. The Communists talked of "material weapons" rather than of mental and moral weapons. He thought the adoption of such . a proposal would weaken the Labour movement.