A PRETTY PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25241, 2 June 1943, Page 2

A PRETTY PROBLEM

While the dissolution of the Communist International has been welcomed in the democracies as strengthening the basis for cooperation with Soviet Russia in peace as in war, it has, as we anticipated, provided a pretty problem for the parties of the Left. In New Zealand, where the Communist Party is distinguished for its vociferousness rather than for its strength, the question whether or not it should throw in its lot with the Socialists is probably A matter of indifference even to the Labour Party, which already include.many of them. But in Great Britain the Communists have enjoyed a temporary boom in popular esteem, owing largely and perhaps wholly to acceptance of their own identification of themselves with the heroic Russian people. Their present desire is to obtain admission to the British Labour Party, from which they have been excluded so far. Their argument that the disbanding of the Comintern removes objections to their affiliation with the Labour Party in Great Britain is not, however, accepted by the national executive of that body, which has recommended that the application should be rejected at the party conference to be held later this month. Labour’s coldness towards Communism, whether international or national, can be understood. Communism has proved a disruptive, and a deliberately disruptive, influence in organisations with which it has been associated. The ideology of Labour is nationalisation and socialisation of property and of the national economy by due process of law, but, while Communism may seek a similar ultimate objective, the latter is

essentially a revolutionary movement which, unless it has radically changed its principles, would overthrow the established Government and institutions and substitute a proletarian dictatorship. Between these two parties, both dedicated to a purpose that is inimical in its full development to the temperament and the individualism of the. British peoples, there could still be no real community of interest, Left in the general political sense as both may be. The decision of the British Labour Party executive is interesting, not so much by reason of its rejection of the Communists as from the suggestion that the Communist Party of Great Britain should, if it truly believes in unity among the parties of the Left, follow the Comintern’s example and dissolve itself, thereby contributing to the development of Labour as the one great Leftist party. If this ingenious view finds no favour with the Communists, it at least makes a refreshing contribution to the Leftist dialectic.