UNEMPLOYMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18632, 10 May 1932, Page 9

UNEMPLOYMENT.

(To the Editor.). Sir, —I am very pleased to see by your report of the Unemployed Committee meeting given in yesterday’s paper that the Mayor has started to realise that the unemployed of this town are not getting justice. I understand the result of ballot, taken to decide which organisation the unemployed are to be under, has resulted in a huge majority for the Unemployed Workers’ Movement, and now we know where they are, may I suggest a scheme that should be satisfactory to all. If a meeting of business men interested in the welfare of their town were called and a joint committee comprised of representatives from the business community from the unemployed workers, the Hospital Board and Welfare League set up, surely \vays and means for bettering the existing conditions could be found. This committee could work in conjunction with the Labour Department and then I think the allocations for this town could be handled more fairly and it would do away with half of the dissatisfaction that exists among the workers. If, as Mr Beebe states, the Unemployed Workers’ Movement is controlled by the Communist party (which is, I think incorrect), then let the rank and file of the unemployed wake up and attend their meetings and elect .officers to run their branch as it should be run, for it is the rank and file that control the officers appointed. Hoping this will entice a more capable pen than mine to take up this suggestion.—l am, etc., INTERESTED. Hamilton, May 8, 1932. (To the Editor.) Sir, —Will you please allow me ■space to reply to the two letters in Saturday's Times, re the above movement? I want to assure Mr Houghton that I have always been willing and ready to do all that lay in my power to help the unemployed, and am still ready and anxious to do all I possibly | can to assist. I have made no attack I on the unemployed—far from it—and I do not think that anyone can justly I construe my letter into anything like 1 one. What Mr Hassett says is quite j correct and the ‘same applies to all national movements. The strength of ! all nation-wide organisations lies in ! giving to the local branches full local J autonomy, and the local branch of the i Unemployed Workers’ Movement is no j exception. In this letter I -want to content myI self with quotations from the New i Zealand Worker of April 27, 1932. : As you are aware the Worker is the official mouthpiece of the Labour Party in New Zealand, and in the is- , sue referred to, it gives the best part lof n page to this question. The ! Worker says: “Communism to-day in ; the eyes of its freakish representaj tives in New Zealand means only one . thing and that is the smashing up of the Labour Movement. In New Zealand and elsewhere, the public and the workers have got a true conception of what Communism stands for, so these individuals have attempted to Cy under false colours in order to worm their way into the confidence of the unthinking workers and so disrupt the entire movement in New Zealand; but the most despicable form of their propaganda is what is known as the Unemployed Workers’ Movement, jin directing the Unemployed Work--1 ers’ Movement, it is apparent ! they do not desire the workers Ito organise with a view to .bettering their conditions or help- ! ing in a reasonable campaign or to j take honest steps towards altering I the situation. All they are concerned with is making propaganda out of the misery of the unemployed and to use ! them as scape-goats for their own j ends.”

Again: The following are two ! points taken from the Third International, “Under the present state of intensified' civil war, there must bo ■an iron discipline. The party must, therefore, be organised upon the i basis of democratic centralism, with i fullest powers of authority vested in ; the general administration. All acts j of the, Communist International or ol | its executive committee are binding i upon affiliated bodies.” The following instructions were sent I out by circular by the Communist exe--1 cutlve to all branches and to all Unemployed Workers’ Movement cen--1 Ires, where Communists were appearj ing on December 30:—“As regards the Unemployed Workers’ Movement, j you must establish a fraction of mem- | hers in this organisation, the leader of | which must too on the Industrial Department of the local party committee and in the work of conducting the Unemployed Workers’ Movement, you ! must do your utmost to get all the ' unemployed to take up a struggle of some kind.” | There Is much more, but perhaps i one other quotation will do for the present. In another circular the secretary of the Communist party wrote: i“One responsible comrade should j constitute the Industrial Department' j for local groups. This department Is ■ responsible for all fraction work in ' trado unions and in the Un- [ employed Workers' Movement and for meting tho work to party I members in these fractions. ! This department is also re- ; sponsible for developing economic [struggles, strikes, etc., building jobi committees and establishing the Mili- ] taut Workers.’ League." | In conclusion sir, I want to say that I I stand by tho worker. I believe that I with sympathetic application of the Sustenance Act, 95 per cent, of the ! disturbances in New Zealand would I have been avoided, but unfortunately, | with tho present Minister in control, i (hero seems no Immediate prospect of j intelligent application. As evidenced by Mr Bryant’s letter, responsible | citizens of the oilier parties are getting impatienl, and one, wants to cry, how long! how long! shall the muddle continue—l am etc., HUBERT BEEBE. Hamilton, May 9, 1932.