THE COMMUNIST PLAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22544, 11 April 1935, Page 7

THE COMMUNIST PLAN

"NEW ZEALAND AS IT MIGHT BE” ADDRESS TO WORKERS’ EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION The second of a series of addresses and discussions on “New Zealand as It Might Be ” took place before a fair attendance of members of the Workers’ Educational Association at the Otago University last night. Mr A. B. Powell, a member of the Communist Party, addressed the meeting on the attitude taken up by Communists in this matter, and at the conclusion of the lecture the members discussed the question at some length. Mr Powell said that intelligent discuaeion of the subject of “ New Zealand as It Might Be” had to be preceded by a clear and correct understanding of New Zealand as it actually was. It was the business of the Communist Party scientifically to consider all the essential facts governing the situation logically and dispassionately, and to deduce from them a plan of action through which the highest standard of well-being for .the people of New Zealand could be achieved. The Commumist Party did not propose any fantastic or Utopian scheme of reform to be imposed regardless of natural development. It recognised that the present social, economic, and political situation was a natural and inevitable development of that which had preceded it, and that the future must likewise grow out of the present. What the Communist Party did propose was the removal of all hindrances or obstructions to natural progress and to the fullest application of all the natural and cultural resources of society for the satisfaction of its needs. They lived in a country which was immensely rich in natural resources. They had access to all the scientific and technical knowledge of the world. There was nothing that was essential to comfort and happiness that could not be produced in abundance. With all these means at their disposal they should be a prosperous and happy people. But, on the contrary, the majority lived in a greater or lesser degree of poverty. The task was to eliminate private ownership and bring social production under social control. Then, and then only, would they be able to plan the national' economy and organise production »o that all needs could be satisfied. The world was on the verge of the greatest upward movement in its history. It would escape from all the social and economic evils that afflicted it to-day, for they were a consequence of decaying capitalism, war, and poverty, ignorance, vice, crime, and disease. Capitalism, ever since its inception, had been compelled to create and develop the forces that would ultimately destroy it —the needs and the power of the modern working class. Men did not revolt and did not seize control of public affah’s because the capitalist class was able, through its economic power,- to control the minds of the people. This economic power gives it control of the State schools, the church, and the press. Through these agencies it persuaded the workers that all ideas which tended to preserve the existing social order were right and just, while those which were in opposition to it were bad and wicked. Chief among these imposed ideas was the prevailing belief that the State was an impartial body standing above and aloof from society for the purpose of administering order and keeping fair play. A little consideration would show how absurd this belief was and that the State was merely, an instrument for controlling and administering the affairs of society in the interests of the capitalist class, and that the Government was merely the executive committee of that class. One of the means of preserving this belief was the description of the present form of government ns a constitutional democracy, leading the workers to the delusion that they actually elected and controlled the government ami if they suffered through the defects it was their own fault. To describe a capitalist society as a democracy wag a contradiction in terms. Where society was divided into two classes, one of which owned the means of production and was able (o dominate and condition the lives of the other, there could be no such state as democracy. The ruling class did not share its rule with the subject class. Lest the workers should use the forms of democracy to defeat their masters, they were per suaded that their aims should be achieved by constitutional means. The Constitution, it was taught, was a set of standing rides and orders which could cover all eases and serve all interests. In fact, the Constitution was merely a flexible instrument in the hands of the ruling class for the purpose of class rale. It could be suspended, amended, or abolished, as circumstances required. In other words, what the ruling class did was constitutional, while what the workers did if against the interests of capitalism was unconstitutional and seditious. The constant introduction of new machinery and better processes was forced upon the capitalists through competition, and these constantly increased mass unemployment. This in turn had the result of forcing the general level of wages down to the barest subsistence level, thus destroying the market upon which capitalist production depends. Capitalism reached its apex when the world market had been extended to its uttermost limits and then it fell like Lucifer, never to rise again. The essential difference between Parliamentism and Sovietism was that in the one case the authority was imposed from above against the interest of the workers, while in the other it came from the workers themselves and was always exercised in their interests and was always under their control.

The first steps of a New Zealand Soviet Government would be to arm the workers to repudiate all foreign debts, to organise work in the factories and on the land, to plan and commence great public works such as housing', reclamation, irrigation and harbour construction. Production organised by and for the workers would eliminate an enormous amount of waste such as advertising, invoicing and manifesting among middle men. It would also result in the elimination of socially unnecessary small businesses and the economic centralising of distribution. The immediate social effect would be economic security for all workers and freedom from the fearful anxiety that weighed so heavily upon them to-day. In terms of present-day value, the standard of living might easily be raised immediately to at least £lO per week. By applying machinery already in existence, practically all the heavy and toilsome work could be done without strain. All the incentive to crime which existed under capitalism would disappear and the natural desire and opportunity for culture would result in an immensely high mental and moral standing. The chief characteristic of capitalism in New Zealand was its debasement and degradation of the people. Many of thousands were prevented from engaging in either congenial or useful work. The great majority, was deprived of culture and an increasing number given to crime and prostitution. It was no exaggeration to say that capitalism represented the most immoral and uneconomic social order the World had ever known. There were two main forces obstructing and resisting social progress-i-First. there was the active resistance of the capitalist class, using the machinery of the State, the press and the platform to stifle opinions and discussion and imposing severe economic penalties on revolutionary workers, there was also the force of social inertia. _ It was an axiom that a body projected into space, with a given direction and velocity, would, through the force of inertia, maintain that direction and velocity until it was diverted or stopped by some extraneous force. In the physical this extraneous force was the resistance of the air and gravitation, and it was just so ivitli society—it could not change its purpose or function except through the operation of some extraneous force; a force that was diametrically opposed to it; a revolutionary force, It was the function of the Communist movement to give direction and efficiency to this force, which was to save society from itself.