Communism

In Australia

By J. T. LANG

A Complete Exposure

By John T. Lang.

A "CENTURY" PUBLICATION.

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FOREWORD

I believe that the time has arrived for a complete exposure of the Communist Party. Here is the evidence. It is essentially a factual account of how the Communist Party is undermining the Australian nation. It explains how it is controlled. Its General Staff. Its penetration of the unions. Its sinister influence over the Curtin Government. Its duplicity during the present war. Its wealth. Its tricks and manouevres. The Trojan Horse tactic. Its organisation and its overseas bosses.

Fellow Australians, read the evidence carefully. Then make up your own minds how you are going to meet the threat of Communist conquest. It must be met. Complete exposure is the surest antidote. That is the primary purpose of this volume.

J. T. LANG.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

A MENACE TO AUSTRALIA.

The chief menace to the Australian way of life is the Communist Party. That menace can no longer be dismissed as a political bogey to be trotted out at election time.

The Communist Party of Australia is to-day a highly organised political machine, with apparently unlimited financial resources

and mounting political power.

Its strategy has been one of infiltration into the industrial and political Labor Movement. It has thrived on the weakness of the Official Labor Party. It has exploited the passion of the Curtin Government for the policy of appeasement.

The Communist Party has a clear cut objective. That is to seize power in Australia.

Everything is subordinated to the objective. If party principles stand in the way, then those principles must go. The Com-

munist knows no principle when he is out to

achieve that objective.

So the Communist Party explains its many changes of front with the explanation that the end justifies the means. But how does that end affect the future of this country?

The Communist has no sympathy with Australian sentiment. He does not believe in the White Australia Policy. He is not concerned with the improvement of industrial and living conditions for the Australian people.

In fact, he argues that the only way to achieve his objective is to create internal discontent. That is, at the expense of the

people's comfort.

For the past twenty years, I have been fighting the Communist Party. I have refused to compromise with them in any shape or form. For twenty years the Communist Party have been intriguing to remove me from the political scene in Australia.

Twelve months ago they believed they had succeeded. But their celebrations, thanks to the loyalty of the Labor people, proved all

too premature.

Why have they been so anxious to get rid of me? It is because they realise that throughout my political career, I have refused to compromise on basic Labor principles.

For half a century, the Labor Party in Australia has been Australian both in name

A MENACE TO AUSTRALIA

and spirit. It stood for the vigor, the vitality of our nation. It stood for our fierce pride in our own achievements. It stood for our

initiative and our independence.

Labor fought for the Australian way of life. It fought for White Australia. It fought for an adequate home defence against external aggression. It fought for a rising standard of living, and the right of every Australian to a decent home and security in old age and sickness.

These things are foreign to the Communist Party. The Communist Party owes its primary allegiance to an overseas international organisation. Its local branch has no real say in formulating the policy of its parent body.

If the rights of Australia conflict with the interest of its international controllers,

then Australian interests must go.

While the Labor Party was prepared to fight for its principles, then the Communist Party hadn't the remotest chance of getting a foot-hold in Australia.

But during the past ten years, the Labor Party in Australia has been torn by internal dissension.

Labor was in power during the critical years of the Depression. As in other countries, the government of the day was blamed for the depression. For example, the Republican Government of the United States led by

Herbert Hoover went out of office in 1932, and the Democrats have been in office ever since.

In Australia, the Labor Party was blamed for the Depression, just as the Republicans were in the United States, the Labor Party in England, and the Social Democrats in Germany.

The result was that Australian Labor was

out of office for almost ten years.

It is in such a period, that loyalty to principles is subjected to the greatest strain.

So it was for the Australian Labor Party. With unemployment at its greatest height, those unable to stand up to the fight started looking for compromise. So is born political opportunism.

Communists. Instead of sticking to Australian ideals, they went seeking a new political religion overseas. They became fanatics.

Then there was the other group. It wanted political office at any price. In any political organisation there are always the professional job-hunters. These are to be found on the door-step of every Government the day it takes office. They run out the day it meets its first reverse.

Unable to stand the strain of Opposition, the Australian Labor Party finally succumbed to this latter group.

Once the Labor Party resorted to compromise as the basis of its policy, the way was

A MENACE TO AUSTRALIA

wide open for the Communist Party to drive a wedge into its ranks.

The Communists probed the weakness of the Official Labor Party. They exploited its unwillingness to fight.

Communism cannot be handled with kid gloves. The tragedy of the Curtin Government is that it believed in could purchase immunity from the Communists.

So the Curtin Government took leading Communists into consultation. It appointed them to important Government positions. It shared its political platform with them.

It was not the Communists who were being gullible. They knew where they were driving. They knew that they were divorcing the Curtin Government from the people.

Their own false assumption was that once they disposed of the Curtin policy of appeasement, there would be no alternative and the workers would have to turn to Communism.

In that they were mistaken. The people who had made up the rank and file of the Labor Movement were as solid in their beliefs as ever they had been.

To them the Australian Labor Party was more than a political organisation. It was the rock on which they had built an Australian way of life. They did not propose to abandon it just because a few politicians had

been unable to stand up to the pressure of temporary reverses.

So during the past year, these men and women have rallied behind the same fundamental principles, to which they have subscribed for half a century.

The Referendum of August 19th, 1944, proved that Labor people have no time for the totalitarian ideas of dictator-ridden countries.

In rejecting the Referendum, we also rejected the National Planning strategy of the Communist Party.

The Communist Party took over the direction of the campaign from the Official Labor Party.

For a brief few weeks, the Communists showed their hands. Members of the Curtin Government were hostages to the Communist Party for the duration of the ill-fated campaign.

Communists marshalled so-called Labor politicians to march through the streets of Sydney as conscripts in a Communist directed procession.

In New South Wales the Referendum was directed by a Campaign Committee with Dr. Evatt and Mr. Chifley as Campaign Directors, but Communists Norman Jeffreys, Tom Wright, and H. B. Chandler in actual control of campaign arrangements on a joint com-

A MENACE TO AUSTRALIA

mittee with Official Labor and the Labor Council.

There, was proof positive of the Communist grip on the present Official Labor Machine. It proved how easily the Curtin Government could pass under complete Communist control.

The Australian Labor Party, under my leadership, exposed the duplicity of the Communist Party in advocating constitutional reform for Australia when their real objective is to destroy the Australian constitution and the Australian way of life.

The response of the electors proved that

our warning did not go unheeded.

Twelve months ago even the suggestion that men like Curtin and Chifley could be dominated by the Communist Party in a political campaign would have been dismissed as fantastic.

But during the Referendum, there was the spectacle of even such an avowed anti-Communist as Minister for Information Calwell, sharing the platform with Miss Bella Weiner, a member of the Communist Party a native of Poland.

Communists elbowed their way into every important Referendum gathering. Premier McKell and Attorney-General Evatt shared the platform with them in the Domain and the Sydney Town Hall.

So the Curtin Government, and the

Official Labor Party, instead of taking the gloves off to the Communist Party have compromised with them. They are trying out the policy of appearement. That never works with the Communists.

So far as the principles of Labor go, the Curtin Government and the Official Labor Party have abdicated. But those principles are being upheld by the real Labor voters with the same vigor and the same rugged independence that has marked the rank and file of Labor from the earliest day of its foundations.

By defeating the Referendum, we took the first step towards securing the future against any Communist plan to overthrow the constitution with the assistance of a centralised bureaucracy inspired by Communist ideas.

The idea of a bureaucratic dictatorship is fundamental to the Communist thesis of the transition stage in which the State is allpowerful, before it starts to wither away as

predicted by Lenin.

The idea of a bureaucratic dictatorship also suits the bureaucrats. Under cover of war-time emergency, they have reached out for dictatorial powers. They have introduced industrial conscription. They have regimented Australia, just as overseas dictators have employed regimentation.

In the Referendum Campaign, they also

A MENACE TO AUSTRALIA

showed that they were prepared to employ the Goebbel's technique to regiment public opinion by Government propaganda and use Government funds for that purpose.

All these things have played into the

hands of the Communist Party.

Three years ago the Communist Party was little more than an underground skeleton. It was still skulking in its hide-outs away from the danger of seizure as an illegal organisation.

To-day it is in a position where it not only consorts with the Government of this

country, but even dictates to it.

It is because the Communist Party is a danger to the future of Australia, that I believe a complete exposure of its treachery is imperative. To understand the present position of the Communist Party in the political structure of Australia it is necessary to understand its background, its plan of attack and its General Staff. That is the primary purpose of this volume.

CHAPTER II.

ORIGINS OF COMMUNISM.

The Communist Party of Australia is a Branch of the Communist International, better known as the Third International or Comintern.

The Australian Communist Party is directed from Communist International Head-quarters in Moscow. It is not permitted to have a policy of its own, and must carry out orders issued by its international controllers.

The latest manouevre was to announce the dissolution of the Comintern. That was in accordance with Communist tactics. But it did not mean that the Communists in Australia would be allowed to govern their own affairs. It did not mean that they had abandoned their foreign philosophy.

It only meant that its international headquarters have gone underground for political

ORIGINS OF COMMUNISM

reasons. That is an old manoeuvre—as old as Communism itself

Communism was first expounded by the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, both born in Prussia, in the "Comnunist Manifesto" of 1848.

The purpose of the "Communist Manifesto" was to provide a scientific programme of revolutionary Socialism. It was intended to deal with conditions operating in Central Europe as the result of the Industrial Revolution.

The Communist Party at that time was principally a German organisation. Significantly enough, the first sentence of the Manifesto read: "A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of Communism". Its final words were just as pregnant with meaning for the future: "The Communists openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions".

So a German political programme was soon to become the basis of a world-wide movement.

It was not long before the Germans wrapped this political programme up in abstract jargon about idealism and materialism — using such terms as dialectical materialism to bedazzle the simple followers.

Similar methods have been used by quacks and cranks from time immemorial.

How many Communists to-day have read the works of Marx, Engels or Lenin?

ave been used to dupe the simple-minded

The First International was established by Marx in 1864 and was followed by the Second International — or Socialist International of 1889.

But Communism did not become fashionable until the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in November, 1917, under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. Lenin concluded a peace with Germany at Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, giving Imperialist Germany all it demanded including reparations.

Then in 1920 Lenin severed relations with the Labor Parties of other countries, and set up the Third International, or Communist

International.

The objective of the new International was world revolution. It was based on the use of force. It rejected the idea that Labor Governments could serve the people. It denounced Democracy.

Instead it declared that social conditions could only be changed by armed revolution, followed by periods of civil war and a proletarian dictatorship.

What was actually happening, was that Lenin tied up in the problems of Russia was attempting to deal with world problems in terms of the problems of the Russian people.

ORIGINS OF COMMUNISM

Ever since that time, the Communist Party has been essentially a Russian Party. Its policy has changed in accordance with the purely nationalist needs of Russia. Indeed throughout his written works, Lenin was pre-occupied with the political problems of Russia.

Communism had a very slow start in Australia. It was not until after the Russian Revolution that it attracted any public attention.

Then it obtained a few recruits from the I.W.W. and breakaways from the Socialist

Party.

One of the earliest symptoms of Communist activity was the departure of J. S. Garden, then Secretary of the Sydney Trades and Labor Council to a Communist Congress.

At that stage the Comintern was holding up the Russian Revolution as the model for world revolution. Lenin was the driving force. He visualised Moscow as the capital of a world Socialist State.

So Moscow became the spiritual headquarters of Communism. As the Arabs made for Mecca, so the Communists headed for Moscow. Into the coffers of the International went huge sums for the work of finding new recruits for the cause.

Leading members of the Australian Communist Party found their way to Comintern headquarters, to receive their instructions.

ORIGINS OF COMMUNISM

Party and what it described as "reformist trade union leaders".

"The ultimate aim of the Communist International is to replace world economy by a world system of Communism. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable wealth in struggles between classes and nations, mankind will devote all its energy to the struggle against the forces of nature" states the Programme.

What tragic irony is there in those sentences. Even the homeland of Communism was to learn that it couldn't stand aloof when war came again, and its Allies were to be the very capitalist nations whom the International

ad denounced most bitterly.

Defining the strategy to be employed, the Communist International declared that the dictatorship of the proletariat could only be achieved through the existence in every country of a Communist Party, "disciplined and centralised".

Discipline means that the individual is not even allowed the privilege of criticising

Communist Leaders.

The Programme stresses the importance of capturing control of the trades union movement, as a prelude to the revolution, which is the Communists' ultimate aim:

"To work in reactionary trade unions and skilfully to capture them, to win the confidence of the broad masses of the industrially

organised workers, and to remove from their posts and replace the reformist leaders, are all important tasks in the preparatory period."

That is only the initial stage. In Australia, as will be shown later, the Communists are already approaching success in this initial

phase of their programme.

But what comes next? The Communist text-book is frank on that too. It must all lead up to a direct attack on the Parliament and Government of the country. Propaganda must become more radical. Mass action must

be organised.

"This mass action includes: strikes, a combination of strikes and armed demonstrations, and finally the general strike conjointly with armed action against the State bourgeoisie. The later form of struggle, which is the supreme form, must be conducted according to the rules of war: it presupposes a plan of campaign, offensive fighting and undoubted devotion and heroism on the part of the proletariat".

Those who still regard Communism as merely an extreme form of political thinking, would do well to study this Communist Programme, which governs the thinking of Communist leaders in every part of the world.

Every care has been taken to ensure that the Australian Communist will not think as an Australian. The Programme takes care of that. One of the cardinal articles of faith

ORIGINS OF COMMUNISM

that every Communist must accept, is that he will forget that he is an Australian, an American, or an Englishman.

The following two paragraphs are the key to Communism. They explain why the Communist can never be a loval Australian.

"In order that revolutionary work and revolutionary action may be co-ordinated and in order that these activities may be guided most successfully, the international proletariat must be bound by international class discipline, for which first of all, it is most important to have the strictest international discipline in the Communist ranks.

"This international Communist discipline must find expression in the subordination of the partial and local interests of the movement to its general and lasting interests and in the strict fulfilment, by all members, of the decisions passed by the leading bodies of the

Communist International ".

In other words, the Australian Communist Party must take its orders from its bosses at International Headquarters.

The decision made in Moscow is final. The Australian Communist must accept it without question. That has often led to some most embarrassing moments for the local faithful. Moscow has reversed its policy overnight, and the Australian Communist Party has been slow in receiving advice. So it finds itself momentarily out of step. It then has to

scramble for safety. International discipline means that International Headquarters chooses the leaders in charge of the Com-

Preference is invariably given to those who have undergone a period of training in Moscow. There they can be watched while they are being saturated in Communist strategy and tactics. That is another example of regimentation. Slogans are repeated parrot fashion. When the boss turns over in bed, the whole party has to turn over.

In Australia, it has meant that those in charge of the Communist Party have to be trained to oppose Australian ideals where necessary. A good Australian can never make

a good Communist.

In politics the Australian likes to argue, to challenge and form his own judgment. That is heresy under Communism. The Communist has to swallow without protest everything that comes to him from his International controllers.

The Russian, the German, or the Pole in charge of his particular section in Moscow probably knows nothing of Australian conditions. But he is the boss. The Programme says he must be obeyed. So the local Communist falls over backwards in his anxiety to carry out instructions.

At the same time the Communist leader in Australia also enjoys immunity from

ORIGINS OF COMMUNISM

criticism and challenge. He never has to run the gauntlet of a ballot. We have seen Communists arrive from overseas one day, and take charge of a section of the Communist Party's activities in this country almost the following day.

In Russia if a Communist disagrees with the ruling faction on a question of policy, he is quickly liquidated. In Australia if a Communist disagrees with his local boss, he is promptly expelled from the Party. There is

no appeal. It is a complete dictatorship

These conditions are entirely foreign to the healthy Australian outlook. There are no Four Freedoms under Communism. There is no freedom of religion; freedom of speech or expression; freedom from fear and only too often no freedom from want except for the Party bosses.

CHAPTER III.

PENETRATIÓN OF TRADES UNIONS

The first task set the Communist Party in Australia by the Communist International was the capture of the trade union machinery.

Having decided that the general strike was the first step in the direction of civil war leading to the establishment of a minority dictatorship under Communism, control of the trades union machinery became essential.

In Australia this was all the more necessary because the Labor Party had affiliated the trades unions on the basis of aggregate membership, irrespective of whether the individual members were attached to the Labor Party or belonged to some other political organisation.

In charge of the Moscow organisation of international trades union activities is the

Profintern, or better known as the R.I.L.U.—Red International of Labor Unions.

The Profintern was managed by a central secretariat under Solomon Lozovsky, now known as an official spokesman on military matters.

The problems of every country were studied by this Secretariat, and strategy dictated to be put into operation by the local Communist fraction.

For example in 1930, L. Sharkey, now President of the Communist Party in Australia, attended the 5th Congress of the R.I.L.U. in Moscow.

At that time the total membership of the Communist Party in Australia was only 2,000. Yet leading members of the Party suddenly found themselves handed fares for a round the world trip while employed as permanent employees of the organisation.

It was at the 1930 Conference that the Militant Minority tactic was dictated.

The basis of that strategy was that the Communist Party should start organisation through the establishment of cells in every workshop and every union.

Its basis task was to smash Labor Party leadership in the trade unions.

Paid organisers were given the job of selecting the unions for earliest action. In Australia the unions regarded as the most vulnerable to attack were the Miner's Federation and those of the heavy industries.

Sharkey brought back a letter to the local Communist faction from the Miners' International Committee of the R.I.L.U. which was published in the "Workers' Weekly" at the time.

This gave detailed directions of how the Communists were to smash the existing leadership of the Miners' Federation, at that time held by Dan Rees and Arthur Teece.

The letter proves that these international bosses were most painstaking in their study of conditions in the Australian coal mining

industry.

The first task was to establish a Militant Minority Movement. This was to be under the direction of Bill Orr, who had studied Communist strategy at headquarters. As Editor of the "Red Leader", organ of the Militant Minority Movement, Orr was foremost in advocating the revolutionary programme for Australian trades unions.

The next step was to see that pit top papers were published. Almost immediately these roneoed sheets began to appear not only at the pit top, but on the wharves, in the tram sheds, and wherever a Communist cell could be established.

Comrade Otto Wilhelm Kuuisinen of the Profintern, further outlined "Strike Strategy and Tactics" to be employed.

Particular attention had to be paid to the ventilation of local grievances. This was the particular aim of the local propaganda sheet. No detail was too small to be overlooked.

But principal attention had to be paid to the existing leadership. In the case of Rees and Teece, both trusted and tried leaders, the agitation centred around their alleged old age. They were declared to be too old to do the job.

The aim of this propaganda was not to provide improved conditions for Australian workers. Just the reverse. The primary objective of the Communist Party at all times is "the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions".

That can only be achieved, according to Communist philosophy, by first making the social conditions of the workers more intolerable. The worse off the workers, the quicker the revolution.

Solomon Lozovsky and Comrade Kuuisinen were not looking for any improvement in the conditions of Australian workers. That is why the Communist Party always resists a Labor Government that proceeds to put Labor policy into operation. A better deal for Australian workers, they contend, will postpone the day of the Soviet dictatorship.

Carrying out instructions from the Profintern, the local Communist organisers pro-

PENETRATIONS OF TRADES UNIONS

ceeded to vilify Australian trade unions leaders as reformists.

Unfortunately, at that time many trades unions were suffering from weak leadership. Many trade union secretaries had become job conscious. They had lost contact with their members. In some cases the rules had been amended so that they were no longer Democratic on control.

Now these officials had to contend with a cunning enemy, directed by keen inter-

The Communist cell was the beginning of a bridge-head in a union. In the first instance, the organiser was usually a paid employee of the Communist Central Committee. He was given an unlimited amount of literature. His slogans were carefully prepared. All references to armed revolution were carefully avoided.

The Communists had a favorite phrase: "Religion is an opiate of the masses". But never has there been a stronger opiate than Communism.

⁶. By ceaseless repetition of phrases and slogans, it ate its way into the simple-minded. These became the core of fanatics upon which Communism thrives.

This fanaticism quickly became the principal asset of the Communist Party. Over the years the trade union officials had forgotten how to organise. Instead of large

mass meetings, they preferred small meetings in the Trades Hall, held at inconvenient hours.

That played right into the hands of the Communist organisers. It meant that a small handful of fanatics could capture even the

biggest union.

That was exactly what happened. The Communist cell was expanded into a minority movement branch. Pamphlets were prepared to undermine the union officials. Only too often the officials tried to appease the Communists. That was fatal. Only where they fought back, were they able to defeat the intruders.

The Communists were not interested in gaining better working conditions and wages for the unions. But they were instructed to centre their propaganda along those lines. That is where Communism becomes sheer hypocrisy.

To weaken the Australian trades unions, the R.I.L.U. first had to isolate and destroy any trade union leader, who was not prepared to accept its international discipline. The Second International, or Socialist Trade Union International, with its headquarters at Amsterdam had allowed each country to organise itself. The R.I.L.U. insisted on controlling everything from the centre at Moscow.

In 1931-32 the Australian trades union movement passed through the crisis of the

PENETRATIONS OF TRADES UNIONS

Depression. That was the chance for which the Communist had been waiting.

Australian Labor Governments found themselves attacked from both the extreme Right and the extreme Left. On the extreme Right they were fighting High Finance. On the extreme Left they were fighting the Communists.

Labor leaders were called "Social Fascists". Communist auxiliaries were established to carry on the fight against the Government.

In Germany, the Social Democratic Government found itself fighting Hitlerism on the extreme Right and Communism on the extreme Left.

In France, Blum and the Socialist Party had to contend with the Croix de Feu on the extreme Right, and the Communists on the extreme Left.

In Australia during the same period, my Government had the New Guard on the extreme Right and the Communists doing exactly the same work on the extreme Left. Both were trying to upset a properly elected Government of the people.

In Berlin there were armed clashes in the streets between Hitler's Stormtroopers, and the Communist gangs. This created the conditions leading to the overthrow of the German Republic and the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship.

In New South Wales demonstrations by the Communists against the Labor Government, helped the New Guard in its work of creating the conditions leading to the constitutional coup d'etat.

In both instances, the Communists were in accordance with instructions from

he Comintern.

It was not long before the Communists captured their first important trades union. At the 1933 elections of the Miners' Federation, Teece was ousted and Orr elected on the Communist ticket. Rees died shortly after, and Nelson, a Communist nominee, took his place.

Metal Workers' Union. Tom Wright, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and one of its leading activists, had gone to the Soviet Union in 1927 to study Communist policy and strategy. On his return, he was elected to the Political Committee—the local Politbureau—and was assigned the job of capturing the Sheet Metal Workers' Union. This he did in 1936 when he was elected Secretary, subsequently becoming Federal President of the Union.

Since then Wright has been a Vice-President of the Sydney Labor Council, and was a member of the Joint Committee controlling the Referendum Campaign.

These early gains of the Communist

PENETRATIONS OF TRADES UNIONS

Party provided the spring-board for wholese invasion of the Australian trades unimovement.

Union after union quickly fell victim Communist strategy. Now, just ten yea after their first win on the trade union fro they have reached the position where the control the trade union machinery of the Commonwealth.

CHAPTER IV.

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS.

The Communists knew that if they could pture control of the Australian trades ions, they would fulfil three objectives, mely:

• 1. They would have access to the huge annual income in the shape of members' contributions, as well as accumulated funds, for the purpose of forwarding Communism.
• 2. They could capture control of the Official Labor Party, as during recent years affiliated union membership is much greater than branch membership. Through control of the political organisation, the Communists planned to dominate Labor Governments.
• 3. By controlling trade union policy, they believed they could choose their own time for dvancing to their final objective of the

forcible overthrow of Government in Australia.

Since Communism has been geared to Russian Nationalism—Social Nationalism is you will—there has appeared a fourth objective. That is influencing Australian external policy, as well as internal security, in accordance with the current needs of the Soviet Government. At one critical stage of the present war, that particular phase of their activities was likely to have been more devastating in its effect than any other aspect of Communist practice.

With regard to the first objective, the control of union funds, the position has already been reached where the Communist Party has access to huge amounts contributed each year by Australian workers to trade union funds.

The outstanding example is the Iron workers and Munition Workers' Union, controlled by the Communist Party's leader on the trades unions front, Mr. Ernest Thornton

The annual contributions to this combined union last year totalled £150,000. That is a huge amount of money under any circumstances. But when it is realised that the policy of this union placed the advancement of the Communist cause before all else, it can readily be realised what an amount of political dynamite is lying around for Communist direction.

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

With that amount of money a strong centralised union bureaucracy has been established. The Balmain Ironworkers, a strong independent body on the Sydney water-front, resisted Communist domination. They did not resist long.

The strong men of the central bureaucracy moved in, and the duly elected officials of the Branch were ousted from their offices. New elections were conducted under Communist supervision, and Communists elected to take charge of the Balmain Branch.

With a combined membership at its peak 130,000 Thornton's Union was Big Busi-

less. But it was not big enough.

The next step was to reach out for a nousery. The the trades union in heavy Federation.

The aggregate membership is 250,000 members. It consists of the Amalgamated Ironworkers and Munition Workers' Union; the Amalgamated Engineers' Union; Australasian Society of Engineers; Blacksmiths, Boilermakers, Moulders, Wire-workers and Sheet Metal Workers' Unions

In addition the Electrical Trades Umon, and the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen's Association have been invited to link up with the Federation, giving it a total membership of just on a third of a million, and an income of £500,000 annually.

Some of these unions have not yet completely fallen under Communist domination. But in every one of them Communist influence is already a driving force. Some of them were driven into the Federation in the hope that they might thereby gain immunity from the Communists. But in that they will be sadly mistaken.

The Moulders and Wire-workers are in the process of direct absorption. The Communist plan provides for the swallowing of

each of the other unions in their turn

Ultimately, it is hoped that a single Communist will be able to speak with authority for a third of a million Australian trades unionists in a single group. That is the real purpose of the Communist gamated engineers—willon was regarded as one of the most conservative unions in the Commonwealth. It is governed by a Commonwealth Council, which in turn accepts decisions on appeal to a form of Privy Council, sitting in London. The total assets of the union in the Empire are stated to be in the vicinity of expectation. What a target for Communist aggression!

Already Communists have made themselves heard in the affairs of the union. They now contest every union vacancy. Gains have already been made, and the Communists have marked the A.E.U. down for early conquest.

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

Following their broad gains on the trades union front, the Communists have now divided the unions into groups with each sphere of influence assigned to a leading Communist activist.

This is the next phase of Communist policy that will emerge as a preliminary to the establishment of a branch of the Profintern to replace the A.C.T.U. the constitution of which has never satisfied the Communists, because it is too broad and does not lend itself to the ways of a dictatorship.

Already the trades unions have been

divided into these groups, as follows:

Maritime Group under the leadership of E. V. Elliott of the Seamen's Union and J. Healey of the Waterside Workers' Union to cover Seamen, Waterside Workers, Firemen and Deckhands, Pantrymen and Stewards, Cooks, Ships' Painter and Dockers, Boilermakers, Coal-lumpers, and Ships' Wrights.

Transport Group comprising Australian Railways Union, Tram Employees' Union, Loco. Enginemen and Transport Union. Provision is already being made to extend

this to air transport after the war.

Food Group to include Hotel, Club and Restaurant Employees' Union, Confectioners, Food Preservers, Pastry Cooks, Bakers, Bread Carters, Meat Employees, Milk and Ice Carters, Sugar Workers, and Liquor Trades Unions.

White-collar Group under leadership of J. R. Hughes of the Clerks' Union and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, to include Teachers, Clerks, Public Servants, Actors, Journalists, Shop Assistants, and Police. Plans have been even made to include Doctors and Bank Clerks.

Fuel Group under leadership of Wells of the Miners' Federation to include Miners, Gas Employees, and Power House Employees.

On the basis of this organisation, it would be possible to establish a trade union dictatorship wielded by a small group of Communists carrying out Profintern policy.

This is not a visionary theory. The groups are already in the process of organisation. They constitute a definite threat to the Democratic control of Australian trades unions.

The groups are intended to tie up trade union funds. They are part and parcel of the strategy outlined in the International Programme.

The best answer to those who might dismiss this danger as a political bogey, is to survey the unions already captured by the Communists.

Unfortunately for the purposes of this survey, the Commonwealth Government does not publish details of trade union finances and membership.

But the Industrial Registrar in Néw

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

South Wales each year submits a report to Parliament giving the details of unions registered with him.

From the Annual Report for the year 1941, tabled in Parliament on October 29, 1942, it is learned that in New South Wales alone, the Communists already control trades unions with a membership of 162, 789 and an income for that year of £329, 488.

Unions that are to-day strongly under Communist Party influence have an aggregate membership of 42,696 and an income of \$49,269

£49,269.

So although the Communist Party only has a membership variously admitted by its own leaders as between 20,000 and 40,000 it has captured control of somewhere in the vicinity of 500,000 Australian trades unionists and has access to trade union income of somewhere in the vicinity of £1,000,000 a year.

The total membership of trades unions in New South Wales in 1941 was 326,551 and the annual income £648, 625 with funds at the end of the year stated at £562,333.

The largest individual union in New South Wales is the Federated Ironworkers' Union, New South Wales Branch with a membership at December 31, 1941, of 29,437. That does not include the Munition Workers' Union, since absorbed, or the Balmain Branch, both of which are registered Federally. Never-

theless the total income of the Branch for the year was stated at £43,505.

Details of other New South Wales unions in which Communists are at present in control include:

The position of the Miners' Federation is at present an anomalous one. The Federal control is Communist. Federal President R. Wells is an avowed Communist, being an organiser for the Communist Party before he contested the Presidency against Nelson in 1942.

The largest and most powerful group, however, inside the Miners' Federation is the

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

Northern Miners. At the last ballot the Communist Northern President H. Scanlon was defeated by W. Crooks on an anti-Communist ticket. The fight for control is still on, and the next ballot will be critical

The Northern Miners had a membership of 9.447 in 1941 and the revenue for the year amounted to £70,637. The Southern Miners with a membership of 3,300 had a revenue of £19,563 and the Western Miners with a membership of 1,720 a revenue of £8,912.

ober of other land 1995 including

The position in most of the above unions, is that while the Communists are not in control, they are able to get their policy put into operation. They get support on the Labor Council, Communist resolutions are passed at mass meetings and the unions are to use the Communist jargon "ripe for the picking".

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

The Teachers' Federation is an excellent example of Communist activity inside what was always regarded as a most conservative organisation. For years the Teachers' Federation boasted that it was "non-political".

Then in 1943 it joined the witch-hunt against the W.E.A., because a lecturer named Partridge had actually dared to criticise the

Soviet Union.

Next the Federation affilated with the Labor Council, on the basis of its full membership and promptly threw its weight behind the Council. When Thornton was defeated as a delegate to the International Trade Union Conference, the teachers' delegates joined in the hue and cry that the ballot must be upset because Thorn-Council, when I have been been because Thorn-Council, when I have been been been because Thorn-Council, when I have been been been been been been been be

S. P. Lewis, the senior Vice-President of the Federation opposed Dr. Evatt in Barton as the selected candidate of the State Labor Party. Since then the State Labor Party has been merged with the Communist Party.

Federation have had Leftist records, and one of the earlier Communist auxiliaries, the

Education Workers' League was affiliated to the Communist International Auxiliary of the same name.

The advance made by the Communist Party inside the Teachers' Federation is one of the best examples of Communist strategy in actual operation.

It would be ludicrous to suggest that any considerable body of teachers have sympathy with the objectives of the Communist Inter-

national.

Yet their Federation openly supports Communist policy. The General Secretary of the Teachers' Federation for 25 years, W. J. Hendry, was liquidated early this year because he was not a convert to Marxism. At all events no charge was brought against him, and that was his only apparent point of difference with the ruling Federation faction.

If the Communists can capture such a conservative organisation as the Teachers' Federation by their infiltration tactics, then their success in other unions is readily understood.

It is not that the rank and file members of the trade unions have any sympathy with the Communist Party. But their apathy in union affairs is no match for Communist fanaticism.

Unions that have kept the Communists out include the municipal employees, shop assistants, electrical trades, liquor trades,

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

confectioners, sugar workers, furniture trades, leather trades, musicians and milk and ice carters.

Even in these unions there are Communist cells. The number of non-Communist Unions is fast dwindling.

Even the Firemen recently appointed S. Jordan, 2KY Commentator and Communist, as employees representative for negotiations with the Fire Board.

One of the greatest struggles is that proceeding inside the ranks of the Australian Workers' Union. The A.W.U. thought it had made its rules water-tight against Communist intrusion when it adopted Rule 43 requiring all members to sign a special Pledge that "they will not join any industrial or political body or organisation which is opposed to the policy of the A.W.U., nor will they assist in the advocacy of any policy which is in contravention of the A.W.U.".

Unable to break through the A.W.U. barriers, the Communist first set up a break-away union—known in industrial circles as a "scab" union—under the title Pastoral Workers' Industrial Union with Norman Jeffrey as Secretary.

That move failed owing to the hostility of trades unionists to such organisations. Then having failed with that tactic, the Communists reversed their strategy and decided to join up, despite the pledge, with the

idea of capturing the A.W.U., branch by branch.

New South Wales was the first objective. With the absorption of the United Laborers' Protective Society by the A.W.U., the opportunities for Communists to qualify for membership were increased. In 1941 the A.W.U. had 23,348 members in New South Wales and an annual revenue of £32,826—well worthy of special consideration by the Communist General Staff.

Leader of the Communists' rural section is one Leo King, known as head of the Communist Party Agrarian Bureau, and a Communist Organiser E. Irvine, former organiser of the Pastoral Workers' Union.

When the New South Wales Executive of the A.W.U. took office in June, 1944, it was found that King, Irvine and another avowed Communist C. G. Connors had all been elected. They had all actively campaigned for Communist Party candidates at both Federal and State elections.

The General Secretary of the A.W.U., T. Dougherty in a series of articles in the "Worker" wanted to know how King, Irvine, and Connors could be elected to office in view of the pledge? The fact was that the Communists had captured control of the State Branch, and the Federal Executive had the job of removing them.

So far as pledges went, Communists are

EXTENT OF UNION GAINS

not worried about the formalities of signing pledges. Similar pledges govern admission to the Official Labor Party, yet at the 1944 Annual Conferences, delegates who had signed those pledges were openly voting for a merger with the Communist Party.

Dougherty pointed out to his members that: "It has long been an instruction to Communist Party members that they must carry out a consistent campaign inside the A.W.U. with the object, as instructed by the Assistant General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia in a report on 'Economic Struggles and the Tasks of the Communists in the Trade Union as delivered to the 11th Congress of the Communist Party of Australia' to consolidate organisationally the opposition to the A.W.U. officials' domination within the trade union movement and Labor Party".

But it is Dougherty's disclosures regarding the tactics being employed by the Communist Party inside his organisation that provide the greatest light on the reasons behind the capture of these great industrial unions.

"It has long been one of the recognised methods of supporters of the Communist Party to endeavour to gain control of Industrial Unions by having the number of members necessary to form a quorum reduced to a minimum until they gain control of a

CHAPTER V.

THE GENERAL STAFF.

The Communist International having from the inception based its organisation of military lines, with iron discipline imposed call members, early decided that each country to come under its influence must have its own General Staff.

carefully recruited. To qualify, it has not been sufficient to be a confirmed revolutionar. The Communists look for other qualification in their permanent employees. Qualities the had been regarded as admirable in the I.W.V. and O.B.U. were no longer sufficient.

So the Communist International set its own training school—the Marxist-Ler Institute in Moscow.

Into a common mould went the mater for the General Staff of the revolution. T

secret of the training was rigid regimentation. Independence of thinking was quickly eradicated. Tactics were reduced to simple formulae. Slogans were mass produced. International sections were in charge of leading doctrinaires of the Soviet.

Most of the present leaders of the Communist Party in Australia have had at least two years of such training in Moscow. The first lesson of the Institute is to think in terms of the International. To be an Australian is to be a nationalist. That is treason to the

During that period of training the recruit is watched carefully by his instructors. His future is planned. He becomes a soldier of the revolution. He must go where he is ordered. He must learn to carry out orders. He must steep himself in the current ideology of his International bosses. In return he is placed on the permanent pay-roll.

Jan Valtin in "Out of the Night" narrates how he spent two years as a student in this strange University of Communism in

925-26.

"The courses of the International Divison dealt almost exclusively with aspects of the class war and the struggle for Communism. They did not aim at educating academic scholars. Revolutionary theories were never reated apart from actual class war experience. The battles of the past and present—

THE GENERAL STAFF

armed risings, strikes, civil, wars—were an alysed and dissected, the mistakes of strategy and method were pointed out, and lesson were drawn to guide the student in the action of the future. All lessons led up and culminated in the Leninist conception of the most important step on the road to a classless society—the seizure of power through revolution, and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat under the Communis Party. Every thought, every campaign, ever action whatsoever had value only as it constituted a forward step to the seizure of power Revolution was not one way out, it was the only way out. There was a special Militar Department where Red Army officers lecture on the strategy of street fighting and civwar."

"The subjects ranged from Marx Theory of Surplus Value to the 'application of Clausewitz's Rules of Warfare in the conduct of strikes' from 'revolutionary of featism and the transformation of an Imperialist War into a civil war to mass perchology and propaganda'. Every minute our time was supervised by a Cominto control bureau of which Kuuisinien was invisible, and the German Communi Kuehne and Schneller, the visible heads"

This collective method of educat meant that the General Staff in the Uni States would put into operation exactly

same ideas as the General Staff in Australia or South Africa. That is why a speech by Earl Browder in New York reads exactly like

speech by J. B. Miles in Sydney.

The Communists were not seeking tubthumping demagogues. They were looking for intelligent employees. These were saturated in carefully prepared material, so that when they graduated they could return to their respective countries ready to put their teaching into immediate practice.

Typical of these Communists careerists is Richard Dixon, Assistant General Secretary

Number 3 man in the Party.

Dixon to-day is acclaimed the "leading cheorist of the party". He is its leading ntellectual. That means that he has the best trash of the current dast been devoting columns of hero-worshipping eulogies to the General Staff, Dixon started his career as a nessenger in the Lithgow Post Office. From here he joined the railway service as a elieving porter, and in time was assigned to ydney Parcels Office.

In 1928, Dixon joined the Communist Party, at that time only a miscroscopic rganisation. In the following year, he ecame Secretary of the Sydney Branch, llowing H. Denford now a member of the

THE GENERAL STAFF

New South Wales Milk Board, Dixon wa also Secretary of his A.R.U. Sub-Branch.

In the faction fight inside the Communical Party in 1929, Dixon was in the winning faction and was elected to the Central Committee.

Then in 1930 he was handed his pass ports and free passage to Moscow, where has spent two years "studying Communism is

theory and practice ".

On his return to Australia, he did not return to the railways service. He was now permanent employee of the Communist Part From 1934 until publication abruptly cease in 1940 when the Communist Party we declared an illegal organisation and we underground, Dixon was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party was editor of the "Communist Party

In addition as Assistance revised the Party, he was called upon write pamphlets and supervise party strates

Dixon's career is typical of most of

Communist General Staff

It took less than six years to turn the polished product of Internationalism

No other political party in Austr could afford to train a staff in that man But with the Communists, expense is object so long as they are moving toward declared objective.

It also explains why the Communists

so scientific in their organisational methods. Their theory is that staff can be trained by collective methods, just as farms can be collectivised. Analyse their writing, and it will soon be noticed that they traverse and re-traverse the same ground time after time. The title may be different. The cover is changed. But the lessons are all the same.

Number 1 man in the Communist hierarchy, is General Secretary J. B. Miles, who has been a member of the Communist Party's permanent staff since 1928

Miles was an English Socialist, who had worked as a stonemason, bricklayer, and tram conductor, before migrating to this country. He settled in Queensland, where he became a nember of the Socialist Party, and joined the Communist Party in 1920. He first came into prominence as a member of the Brisbane abor Council. Soon after his appointment as organiser, he was given orders to take tharge of the Communist Party Headquarters in Sydney.

L. L. Sharkey, now described as President of the party, is one of the most active publicates and for many years, head of the local Politbureau. When Sharkey joined the party in 1920, there were only 300 members in Australia. To day there are approximately 20,000, as against 4,000 in 1940 when the

arty was declared illegal.

Sharkey was elected to the Central

THE GENERAL STAFF

Committee in 1927, and in 1930 became edite of the official organ in New South Wales, the "Workers' Weekly". He also studied in Moscow, and in 1935, while there, was elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International. In union affairs, he was active in the Miscellaneous Workers' Union, but it on the official pay roll of the General Staff.

Tom Wright joined the Communist Part in 1923, and in 1927 went to the Sovie Union.

Jack Blake, whose activities have most been in the Victorian Branch, but now attack ed to Sydney Headquarters, is also a gradual of the Moscow International University. I started off in the Lithgow State Mine, as joined the party in 1925, being shortly afte wards elected Secretary of the Lithgo Branch.

In 1930 he went to Moscow for two year and on his return was assigned to the Victor Branch as President, and also established "Workers' Voice"—later known as "Guardian" as the official organ in that C He contested Port Melbourne unsuccessfu

L. Donald, another fulltime organiser Secretary of the Victorian State Commit graduated from the I.W.W., and after linl up in 1929 was given three years' educa in Soviet Russia.

Stan. Moran, prominent in the affair the Waterside Workers' Union and Fee

Treasurer in 1942, and this year State Treasurer of that body, joined the Communist Party in Glebe, in 1932. The following year he was sent to the Soviet Union for two years' training. He had formerly been a telegraphist.

Norman Jeffrey, of the defunct Pastoral Workers' Industrial Union and now Organiser of the Industrial Panel for Treasurer Chifley, has been one of the most active outside organisers, specialising in auxiliaries. He also graduated from the I.W.W., and went to Moscow in 1928. He has served on the Central Committee since 1920.

The present editor of the party organ is L. Harry Gould, a student of Dublin University, who did not join the Communist Party until 1934, although his biography states that in the United States he was "an

In addition there are organisers in the field throughout Australia, including Miss Bella Weiner, a native of Poland, who was prominent in criticism of the Australian constitution during the Referendum Campaign

In proportion to its numbers, the Communist Party of Australia has more paid officials than any other political organisation

n this or any other part of the world.

One election in Australia was noted for the saying "Join the U.A.P. and see the

THE GENERAL STAFF

world". Even more so is it a case of "Joir the Communist Party, and have two years in Moscow".

This training has resulted in a complete orientation of outlook away from Australia in the direction of Russian Nationalism.

Internally, there is complete co-ordination in the activities of the General Staff There can be no faction fighting. Those who pay the piper, know only too well that they can call the tune. To be out of step means to be off the pay-roll.

CHAPTER VI.

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER.

Unlike other political organisations in Australia, the Communist Party not only has a standing army or organisation work in the trade unions and on the political front.

But the careerist who embraces Communsm need not necessarily restrict his ambitions

to a niche on the party pay-roll.

The trade unions with their huge annual revenues, have become the target to provide economic emancipation for those Communists who are not concerned solely with the interpretation of the Marxist-Leninist-Stalin doctrines.

For many of these careerists, Communism has paid excellent dividends. They have realised their ambition of holding down well-

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

paid jobs as union bureaucrats as well as wielding great political power in a period o crisis.

It was Lenin who declared: "Without the trade unions, Revolution is impossible". These careerists might have added. "And without the trade unions, social emancipation

would have been impossible"

The meteoric rise to power and position of Ernest Thornton, boss of the Amalgamated Ironworkers and Munition Workers' Federation, is a case history that must be studied for a complete understanding of what makes the internal works of the Communist machine tick.

Thornton controls an organisation with an annual income of £150.000 the the the algorithm of the the control of the the control of the the control of the control of the control of the control of the control of the control of the control of the control of the curtin Government.

Yet Thornton has only been prominent in the affairs of the Ironworkers' Union for eight years, and was actually expelled from the Communist Party in 1932. Still a young man Thornton has found Australia a Land of Opportunity. But he had many moments of doubt before he finally saw the light of

Marxism beaming ahead.

Thornton himself says that he was unemployed during the Depression. He himself is silent these days regarding the trade he followed following his arrival in Australia and before his appearance as Secretary of the Victorian Communist Party in 1935.

But the records are not so silent. With an early aptitude for stirring up a hornet's nest, his activities in Victoria resulted in at least two permanent contributions to the

archives being preserved.

*First, there are the minutes of the Executive of the Victorian Trades Hall Council. Shortly after his election as Victorian Secretary of the Communist Party, Thornton turned up at the Melbourne Labor Council as a credentialled delegate of the Ironworkers' Union.

His credentials were challenged on the grounds that he was not a bona fide worker in the industry he claimed to be representing on Council.

At that time, the Communist Executive was assigning its organisers to key unions. But the Victorian Labor Council insisted that every trade union representative must actually work in the industry he was to represent. So it ordered an investigation into the Thornton credentials.

The records of the Victorian Clothing Trades Union disclosed that Thornton had

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

applied for membership of the Union in 1932. The application indicated that he had worked as a presser for his father in Brisbane, and another firm in that City.

The Brisbane Secretary of the Clothing Trades Union reported that he had no one on his records of that name as having worked in

the industry.

The Melbourne Municipal Employees' Union next reported having received an application for membership. The form showed that the applicant had worked for the Toowong Council in Brisbane. Inquiries from the Brisbane Municipal Employees' Union again drew a blank.

The next claim was that he had worked at the Epping (Vic.) Quarries as a member of the A.W.U. in 1928-29. A search of the A.W.U. records from 1926-30 showed no trace of the elusive young "unionist".

The next investigation was as to where the delegate had qualified as a member of the Ironworkers' Federation. The reply was the Australian Rolling Mills at Brooklyn (Vic.).

He said that he had to work under an assumed name because the mill was a non-union shop, and a known unionist's life would be unbearable.

Delegate Price: "Is it a rule of the Members of the Ironworkers' Trades Union to work under assumed names?"

Thornton: "It is not a crime to work

under an assumed name. A man who is known to be a unionist cannot get a job at Brooklyn. I have given an absolute guarantee to the men at Brooklyn that I would not divulge their names".

At that time, it began to appear that Thornton was an industrial martyr, living dangerously like the men of the European underground.

But Ironworkers' Organiser Crough was

mmoned to appear before the Council.

Said Crough: "The conditions at Brooklyn have been exaggerated. The mill is nearly 100 per cent. organised. I don't know of any man being victimised because he is a unionist. I am, as always, free to interview the men at Brooklyn".

Crough then deposed that he made a special trip out to Brooklyn to see Thornton working at his trade. The man who proposed him for membership said that Thornton worked in another part of the mill. But he could not be found.

Ironworkers' Delegate Ryan then said: "As a result of a lot of talk about Thornton, I made inquiries at the Lion Mills at South Melbourne, and at Brooklyn, but no one had heard of Thornton".

The Melbourne Trades Hall Executive in his judgment on the case reached the cryptic finding: "That in the opinion of the Executive, Thornton was not a bona fide worker

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

in the Iron Trades Industry, when he was accepted as a member of the Ironworkers' Union".

But as a good Communist, Thornton was not rebuffed. Almost immediately he submitted his name to the ballot for the position of Organiser of the Victorian Branch of the Ironworkers' Union and won. Then in the following year—1936—his ambitions still soaring, he ran for the position of Federal Secretary of the Union.

At that time, the post of Federal Secretary was regarded as unimportant, as the Branches had control of finances. There was also bitter rivalry between the Sydney and Balmain Branches in New South Wales. Thornton was successful in gaining the support of the Sydney Branch, against Brown of Balmain Ironworkers, and was elected Federa Secretary.

The attitude adopted by Thornton in this phase of his industrial career, was quite consistent with the doctrine of Communism In all cases, the end is the supreme justifica

tion of the means.

L. Sharkey, Chairman of the local Polit bureau, in his pamphlet on Communis Theory and Practice of Trade Unionism page 23, defines the attitude of the Communist Party to the Arbitration Court system thus:

The Communists regard the State

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

controlled Arbitration system as a pernicious, anti-working class institution, whose objective is to keep the workers shackled to the capitalist state. i.e. eternally wage slaves ".

Then in the succeeding paragraph, Sharkey is responsible for the following direct contradiction of his own avowed principle:

"Until the majority of unionists are convinced of the role of Arbitration, Communists have to represent their unions in court, in order not to lose contact with the masses, and, for tactical reasons, may support one form of Arbitration against another, i.e. Conciliation Committees, etc."

The average Australian does not appreciate the wealth of significance, the Communist attaches to that phase for "tactical reasons".

For "tactical reasons", Thornton had to carry out the order of the Victorian Communist Party and get into the Ironworkers' Jnion. The Communists were not interested in how he got in. But he had to qualify, or ose face as a Communist. Everything is econdary to the carrying out of the orders of the party. The individual is regarded as cossessing neither a body to be kicked nor a oul of his own to be damned. He belongs to he party, just as much as any serf belonged o his feudal over-lord.

Thornton himself had been disciplined by he Communist Party in 1932—only three ears before he climbed to the dizzy heights—

because of his alleged individualism.

In fact he was expelled from the Victoria Branch of the Communist Party. Before he was re-admitted he had to subman application that shows to what extraordinary lengths a Communist will get to satisfy Communist discipline. It resembles the self-accusations extracted at the Moscot trials of January, 1937, from Radek, Yagod and Krestinsky by O.G.P.U. Prosecutor Vyshinsky.

The following extracts from the "Workers' Weekly", then official organ of the Communist Party regarding the expulsion are subsequent application for re-admission to their own story:

Friday, 21st October, 1932.—Party Plenu

District Decisions.

"Some months ago Comrade Thornt was removed from the Secretariat because his individualistic approach to various que ions, this individualism expressing itself the form of a very large ego. The attitutaken up at that time by Comrade Thornt was that he was right and the District Comittee wrong; or, in other words, as individualist he pitted himself against collective opinion of the D.C. Following adverse criticism of the Party Organisat at the Plenum, changes were made in distribution of forces on the D.C. Comr. Thornton was removed from the D.C.

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

placed in Yarra Section, and so that he would recognise and overcome his political errors more easily was directed to forward to the D.C. a statement of self-criticism. This Comrade Thornton refuses to do. By thus refusing to carry out the decision of the D.C., Comrade Thornton places himself in the same category as Higgins and King, who likewise refused to recognise the political significance of their acts.

"This fact is borne out in the reasons given for this Comrade's refusal to submit himself to self-criticism. He states that a criticism on his part would not be an honest one as he does not know where his mistakes ie"

riday, 4th November, 1932.—Thornton's Expulsion.

"The Central Committee has taken np

he question of Thornton.

"Some Comrades in the Yarra Section re defending Thornton, and the C.C. Sectariat calls upon these comrades to loyally upport District Committee 4, to obey all of ts instructions and carry out its decisions, o do nothing to hinder the D.C. in its work.

"Further, certain slanders are being

..C.

"The C.C. warns that any member irculating such rumors is liable to instant xpulsion from the Party.

"All loose talk, gossip, or anything approaching factionalism, is against the interests of the Party, and renders those guilty of those activities open to the severest disciplinary measures.

"Pending investigation, the C.C. endorses the actions of the D.C. in the expulsion of Thornton, and calls upon the Party membership in District 4 to suppress all attempts at disruption and to build the Bolshevik discipline and unity of the Party". Friday, 11th November, 1932.—District Decision Upheld by C.C.

"Due to an over-estimation of his own importance, Thornton assumed the right to continue to press his rejected views in an impermissible way, leading to friction in the C.C. and the carrying of the friction outside

the D.C. by Thornton ".

Friday, 20th January, 1933.—Thornton Applies for Re-admission to the Communis Party.

'Dear Comrades,

I wish to make application for re-admission into the Communist Party, and, realising that only a definite change in my attitude towards Party questions will make consideration of the application possible, I submit the following statements:—

I have submitted a series of anti-Par actions, resulting in considerable disruptiwithin the Party, and for which I was qui

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

rightly expelled.

To understand such behaviour, moreover to avoid any repetition of same, it is necessary to understand the causes leading up to this conduct.

Firstly, in my own case, as distinct from the comrades who were expelled, the cause was purely personal.

When questions affecting my work in the Party were discussed by the District Committee, I took up the entirely wrong attitude of considering these questions in the light of their importance to myself as an individual and not of their importance to the Party.

This attitude is indefensible and leads to sabotage of work which would benefit the Party because it does not suit one individual. Another aspect is that this approach to such discussions means that within the Party the individual considers himself entirely independent and does not grant a Party Committee the right to decide what its individual members should or should not do. In my case, this led even further. When quite correctly removed from the D.C. I because see many with much to blame as the other within the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party of the party

Looking backwards, Lican see clearly the Looking backwards, Lican see clearly the folly of this view, especially as there have

been many cases of this kind, the experience of which should have warned me against the

pursuance of this anti-Party conduct.

Instead, blinded by personal reaction and seeking justification for an impossible attitude, I actually copied former renegades, magnifying the faults of the organ wielding disciplinary action, and even manufacturing faults and shortcomings in an attempt to prove the comrades in leading positions unfit for their place as Party leaders. I avowed that I had the interests of the Party at heart, and was only opposed to certain individuals. What is the difference between this attitude and the attitude taken up by Higgins and King and many others who have been put outside the Party?

It is a crime against the Party and working class to slander the leading organs of the Party and undermine their influence.

To strike a blow of this nature at the leadership is to strike the Party as a whole. When I received support from other comrades rupt the Party; in actions developed into course to be followed was that of working harder and more enthusiastically, in order to overcome the shortcomings that caused their dissatisfaction, I actually organised and le them in a faction fight against the Distriction.

may still hold the opinion that the faction was justified, that all our actions tended to disrupt the Party and to retard its progress, and it is obligatory on those responsible for this to do everything possible to make up for the mischief that has been done.

I realise that this statement alone does not prove that I have totally overcome the illusions, weaknesses and shortcomings that I have shown in the past, and that only in the light of my actions in the future can the value of this statement be weighed. Whatever the decision of the Party is in reference to my application for membership, I will endeavour to assist the Party in every way.

Yours for Communism.

E. THORNTON ".

Apparently the Communist Party was quite satisfied that Thornton had over-come his "illusions, weaknesses and shortcomings", because within three years he was not only Victorian Secretary, but also a member of the Australian Politbureau.

Once in control of the Ironworkers Union, Thornton quickly put into operation the Communist Theory and Practice of Trad Unionism, which is supposed to end in the revolution.

Favorite device of the Communist Or ganiser is to concentrate on shop committees. These are organised by the Communist cell

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

in the workshops. They provide a medium for the distribution of literature. As the average worker does not attend meetings, they are in actual practice the Communist cell operating as official units of the union. From these shop committees are elected the union representatives, so the Communist leaders can subsidise their followers from union funds by making payments for attendance at union meetings. This consolidates the position of the top-man. In effect he becomes a patron, and the shop committees dependent upon his patronage.

The Ironworkers' Federation developed this Shop Committee organisation under the Thornton leadership. At the same time, the Branches were brought under control of the

Federal Body.

Sharkey acknowledged assistance given by Thornton in preparing his pamphlet on trade union organisation. In that treatise of Communist strategy on the trade union front appears the following significant definition of

the function of the Shop Committee:

"Organising for Shop Committees in the factories is a foremost task for the Communists. The Shop Committees play a most important role in the preparation and mobilisation of the workers for strike action. They play an important role in leading the strike, and combatting betrayal and reformist leadership.

'In a revolutionary situation, the Shop

Committees would be one of the chief instruments for drawing the whole of the working class into the fight, into the street and the general

revolutionary struggle.

"After the seizure of political power by the workers, the Shop Committee's role is again extraordinarily important. Party comrades, therefore, must set about preparations for establishing a factory Committee where one does not exist, and strengthening and guiding it where it does exist".

With the war, finances started to roll into the Ironworkers' Federation. During the Depression it had been one of the weakest organisations. But with the rush for armaments, the Ironworkers' Union quickly became one of the most powerful trade unions in the Commonwealth, with Thornton on the box-seat.

Thornton next turned his attention to capturing the A.C.T.U. The Communists claim to have been instrumental in the establishment of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 1921. Their central idea was a strong central bureaucracy controlling trade union policy throughout the Commonwealth, as a means of disciplining trades unions as well as being in charge of the situation when the time was ripe for the general strike that was to usher in the Revolution.

The A.C.T.U. was intended to be the local control centre for the Profintern. But

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

the Communist objective has not yet 'been fully realised. Most of the A.C.T.U. gatherings have been held in Melbourne, where the anti-

Communist influence is still strong.

So at the June, 1943, A.C.T.U. Congress, Thornton moved a resolution, carried by 144 to 110, that the A.C.T.U. Headquarters should be moved to Sydney. At the same Congress, the Communists also carried a United Front resolution calling for closer unity between the Official Labor Party and the Communist Party.

That success made Thornton the most powerful trade union leader in the Commonwealth. No attempt was made at that stage to remove Albert Monk, Secretary of the A.C.T.U. That also was in strict accordance

with Communist policy.

When it is thought that the loss of a position by a "reformist" official might prove an obstacle in the way of making a gain, then the Communists are instructed to guarantee him a certain tenure of office, providing he goes quietly. That is known as the "softening up" process.

Stalin warned his followers against becoming "intoxicated with success". That warning might well have been taken seriously

by Thornton.

On establishing his Federal Headquarters in Sydney, Thornton adopted strong-arm methods in running his union. One of the

first episodes was at Austral Bronze. Members in opposition to the union bureaucracy, found themselves threatened with man-power callups.

In May, 1943, Thornton supported a resolution at the Sydney Labor Council ir favor of a merger between the Curtin Labor Party and the Communist Party. He declared

tion.

To prove his case, he gave two examples of United Front strategy. The resolution before Council, he said, had been drafted by himself. He had handed it to a rank and file member of the Boot Trade Employees' Union, who is a member of the Communist Party. That member had brought it before his union. It had been carried, and as a result was before the Labor Council.

He further pointed out that Tom Wright and himself met as members of the Communist Central Executive. They also met as members of the Labor Council. In short, the Central Executive of the Communist Party issues a directive on everything to be brought before the Labor Council. Thornton and Wright carry out the instructions of the Communist Party—not those of their own unions.

Through their cells, they also regiment

the other unions to support that policy

In other words, they are a trained army against leaderless guerillas on the Council.

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

By 110 votes to 98 the Labor Council declared in favor of the merger between the Communist Party and the Official Labor Party. Yet Secretary, Bob King, M.L.C., and Assistant Secretary, Frank Kelly, M.L.C., are both pledged members of the Official Labor Caucus. Actually they retain office by the narrowest of majorities. In any case the Communists will not remove them until its Central Executive decides the time is opportune.

An example of Communist methods in the Ironworkers' Union was furnished by the fantastic proceedings at Port Kembla, in July, 1944. A dispute occurred regarding a number of men to be retrenched. The union held a conference with the man-power authorities, and the union officials agreed to decide which employees must go, and which would remain.

On July 26, the Communist delegates of the Ironworkers' Union notified 31 men that their services had been terminated and that they must obtain a clearance from the office of the Ironworkers' Union and then report to the Man-power Office at Wollongong.

The men refused to accept these notices of dismissal. The employing company dedeclared it knew nothing of the union's arrangements. So the men reported for work as usual

The Communists held a meeting on the job, and again instructed the men that they

must resign their jobs. Again they refused. So the Communists staged a stop-work meeting in a Port Kembla theatre, attended by 400 out of the 1,200 in that particular works.

A microphone was erected on the stage in readiness for the trial of the "victims". Communist after Communist spoke over the loud speaker system exhorting the men to go quietly. They assured them that they would be making a real contribution to the class struggle.

Then the chairman called the victims to the microphone. One by one—like the accused at the Moscow trials—they were led forward. Some said they would carry out the union directive. Others defiantly said that they would not be sacked by the union.

It was then decided that anyone returning to the job would have to pass through a picket line as a "scab.". The Communist cell

manned the picket line.

Those that agreed to go quietly were told that they must report to man-power, that their fellow-workers had refused to work with them. Yes, that happened in an Australian town.

Contrast it with what happened when Thornton was a candidate for a trip abroad as delegate to a World Trades Union Congress, to be held in London,

When the numbers went up at Sydney Labor Council, the Returning Officer, R.

COMMUNISM AS A CAREER

Savage, M.L.C., reported that Thornton had been beaten. Immediately there was a howl of protest. On the following Thursday, a motion upsetting the Returning Officer's Report was submitted by the Communists. It has never been an Australian habit to squeal against the decision of the umpire. But the Communists have no time for Australian methods.

But there were loud guffaws when the Communists announced that they had consulted their legal advisers, as well as the Chief Electoral Officer and the Arbitration Court Officers in charge of ballots. They alleged that these opinions were that the method of

counting had been wrong.

With the Communists it is a case of "Heads I win, tails you lose". Never had the Council heard such wailing and squealing. The upshot was that the ballot was upset, and Thornton got his trip abroad. He went with the credentials of the Curtin Government, no doubt recommending "our well beloved Ernest Thornton" to the utmost courtesies and safe conduct of High Commissioner Stanley Melbourne Bruce.

By the irony of fate, the Second Front in Europe—for which Thornton had so vociferously yelled—intervened, and Thornton didn't

get beyond the United States.

Still as a Communist careerist, Ernest Thornton stands as top of his class. He

would do credit to any Horatio Alger story. Without in any way opening up the Balance Sheet sore—that is a most sensitive spot and Thornton has issued a pamphlet on the subject—his case history proves without qualification that "Communism Can Pay".

CHAPTER VII.

SOMERSAULTS ON WAR.

The history of the Communist Party in Australia during the war has been one of black treachery to this country, whenever the demands of Russian Nationalism happened to be in conflict with the needs of Australian security.

The Communists were hog-tied to their overseas masters, with the result that their attitude to the war has been one of twisting contortions, and bare-faced contradictions.

The principal difficulty was in anticipating what policy they would be expected to embrace next. At times they were 48 hours behind schedule in adopting the Comintern line. Had they been closer to the centre, they would have risked denunciation as "deviationists", to use a favorite Communist charge. Then when they caught up with the

directive, they simply somersaulted without

a word of explanation.

Therein lies one of the major threats to Australia. It has all the elements of treachery to this country, because it can never be Australian. The Communist, like any other national, cannot owe allegiance to two countries. He cannot have a fatherland in Asia, and still be loyal to the country in which he lives.

His troubles commenced when Communism became the official policy of Russian Nationalism, instead of an international social

philosophy.

Solomon Lozovsky in his report to the R.I.L.U. Conference in November, 1931, had said: "We follow up with great attention the class struggles wherever they may take place—in Tokyo, or in Berlin, in Shanghai, or in Paris, in Bombay, or in Barcelona, in Sydney, or in London".

How attentively Moscow was following the position of Australia in regard to the international position and the approaching war, is revealed in a lengthy letter from the Executive Committee of the R.I.L.U. to the Communist Party of Australia, published in the "Red Leader", official organ of the Militant Minority Movement then edited by William Orr, on February 1, 1934.

The R.I.L.U. showed that it had intimate knowledge of all Communist activities in

SOMERSAULTS ON WAR

Australia. It knew what it was getting for its money. It was pleased with the 1,000 members in the Pastoral Workers' Industrial Union. It analysed the Shop Committees.

But when it came to the international position, it showed to what extent the Communists were watching the possible line-up in

the event of war. Thus the R.I.L.U.:

"One of the greatest shortcomings of the work of the Militant Minority is in regard to the war preparations in the Pacific, particularly to the war preparations of the Australian

bourgeoisie.

"The Imperialist bourgeoisie of Australia are rapidly driving towards war, as is shown in the steady development of war supplies, increased air activity, development of land fortifications (Darwin, etc.), tightening up of the supervision of military and naval forces, development of oil reserves (Newnes), and in the vicious slanders against the U.S.S.R. (Lang at Bathurst). The Militant Minority must develop a big campaign against preparations for a anti-Soviet War.

"The Militant Minority must develop a wide activity amongst the workers, particularly in the transport industry, and in the munitions, factories, including chemicals, and attempt to organise demonstrations and strikes against Australia's participation in the war plans of the Imperialists and against the handling of any supplies for war purposes.

"An integral part of the whole of the struggle of the Militant Minority against Imperialist war, and against the White Australia policy, is the wide popularising of the Pan-Pacific Trades Union Secretariat, and the policy of uniting the masses of the Pacific countries in the struggle against Imperialist

war and Imperialist aggression ".

The interesting thing about that communication was that all the information about Darwin, Newnes, and my speech at Bathurst came in a letter from Moscow—not in a letter to Moscow. It showed also the emphasis being placed on Australia dropping the White Australia Policy. In that policy the Japanese delegates to the Secretariat, no doubt, wholeheartedly concurred.

The Australian Communists were told to unite with the Japanese Communists. How that must have played into the hands

of the Japanese war machine!

From 1934 to 1939 the Communist Party carried out the policy defined in that letter. The League against War and Fascism was established. Anti-War Congresses were held. The Communists opposed any preparations to defend Australia against external aggression.

Then came August, 1939. Up till then Nazi Germany had been the chief hate of the Communists, because of the anti-Comin-

tern Pact.

Like a bolt from the blue came the

SOMERSAULTS ON WAR

announcement of the German-Soviet Pact of Non-Aggression signed by Von Ribbentrop and Molotov in Moscow on August 23, 1939. Molotov had then declared: "The Soviet Union seeks to maintain good neighbour relations with all countries. Only those who want a new war and bloodshed would want war between Germany and the Soviet Union, and wish to disrupt good neighbour relations between Germany and the Soviet Union".

The Australian Communists were dumbfounded. Comrade Sharkey rushed into the official organ with an article dated September 1, 1939, with an attempt to explain away the Pact as a bluff—saving that it had not yet

been signed:

"The Soviet Government was aware that the underlying policy of the Chamberlain Government and of Daladier was to direct Fascist aggression against the Soviet Union to give support to Fascism in such an attack. The preservation of the Soviet Union as a Socialist country is the first consideration not only of the Soviet Government but of the entire international working class movement".

Unfortunately for Comrade Sharkey, even before his alibi was on the streets, Hitler was blitzing Poland and Chamberlain was issuing his ultimatum to Germany, thus giving the lie direct to the Communist line of propaganda.

in the name of

SOMERSAULTS ON WAR

and available members to offer their services".

Then came a new directive from Dimitrov of the Comintern. Over-night the Communist Party again somersaulted. Dimitrov said: "The leading circles of the Second International are acting the most filthy and criminal part in the blood dripping slaughter machine of the war. They are deceiving the masses by their homilies on the anti-Fascist character of the war, and are helping the bourgeoisie to drive the people to slaughter".

So the local Communists rolled over in bed again. On October 3, 1939, just a month after it had declared in favor of the war, it came out in favor of peace at any price.

"The destruction of Hitlerism and the liberation of the Czechs and Austrians can safely be left to the anti-Fascist victory of the people of Greater Germany themselves. This victory, which would be assisted by the restoration of peace, is inevitable sooner or later".

Leader J. B. Miles in the "Communist Review", of November, 1939, said all "must turn and force their Governments to turn" against the war. The war was now described as an Imperialist War.

Thornton in the first issue of his "Ironworker" published November 1, 1939, published the following statement of the Federal Ironworkers' Union's attitude to the war:

'That the Federal Management Com-

mittee after considering every aspect of the present war situation declares that it is in the interests of the working class of the world that the present war should cease.

Great Britain should immediately take the initiative in convening a peace conference of

all the major nations of Europe.

"British Conservative politicians say that there can be no peace with Hitler because

nobody can believe Hitler's word.

"If it comes to that nobody can believe Chamberlain's word. Remember how he promised not to introduce Conscription. Peace can be guaranteed in Europe by Britain, France, Germany, and the Soviet Union, guaranteeing resistance to any aggression".

Thornton, Miles, Dixon, Sharkey, and all the Communists adopted the same line. They were prepared to accept Hitler's word. They wanted Australia to be a party to entering into negotiations with him. They said nothing about Poland and the other countries under his subjection.

At the A.C.T.U. Congress on April 16, 1940, a resolution was moved affirming the trade union movement's support of the war effort.

Thornton then moved the following amendment, which was the official Communist policy at that stage towards the war.

Thornton's amendment read:

SOMERSAULTS ON WAR

"This Congress declares that the war involving Britain, France and Germany is an Imperialist War, continuing the struggle of 1914-18, for the control of colonies, markets, and raw materials. That the Imperialists are seeking to divert the war into an attack on the Soviet Union.

"The Conference further emphasises that the further the war develops, it becomes apparent that the most important job confronting the Australian working class is the defence of the Australian standard of living and Australian liberties. We have no confidence in the intentions and methods of the Menzies and Chamberlain Governments.

"Whatever may be their stated war aims, they are concerned with attacking the working class, strengthening Imperialism and settling the contradictions of Capitalism by diverting the war against the Soviet Union. In such a situation Labor must concern itself with emphasising working class liberties, opposing the use of Australian troops against the Soviet and resisting lower standards of living.

"That the working class has nothing to gain and much to loose from a continuation of the war. We believe, therefore, that the worker of Australia and other countries involved in the war, should demand:—

"An immediate cessation of hostilities.

"An international conference to negotiate a peace settlement.

Western Asia to use in the South Pacific did

not worry the Second Fronters.

The official organ of the Communist Party in Australia in September, 1943, editorially declared: "Russia is now patently dissatisfied with her partners. The real issue is that the promise of the Second Front remains unfulfilled"...

Yet when Australia was threatened with invasion, there was no cry for a Second Pacific

Front from the same sources.

Surely no political party deserves to survive that possesses such a black record of duplicity and treachery. When Australians were dying in Greece and North Africa, the Communists were prepared to stab them in the back. Their switch in attitude to the war had nothing to do with the position in which this country found itself. Had the war taken a different course internationally, they would have followed that course. That is why Australia can never trust the Communist Party.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TROJAN HORSE.

The Communists early in their history realised the futility of any hope that they might be able to seize power in Australia

through their own strength.

They could never hope to convince sufficient Australians that the Marxist doctrine of military revolution was applicable to Australia, or that a minority dictatorship based on the totalitarian system would be preferable to our Democratic system of Parliamentary Government—however, Australians might grumble about politicians at times.

So instead of standing on their own merits, and the merits of the Marxist theory, the Communists resorted to subterfuge and underhand methods in their drive to obtain power.

They decided to use dupes. They buried the revolutionary theme. In the trade unions they centred their agitation around industrial grievances and slanders of union officials.

On the political front they resorted to stand-over methods and sheer hypocrisy in their attempts to squeeze their way into positions where they might be able to exercise

political power.

So instead of making an initial drive to win converts to the Communist faith, they enlisted the aid of all kinds of causes to attract an outer fringe that would provide sympathetic material on which to work.

To the Communists, these people were either "Innocents", or "Fellow Travellers". The "Innocents" did not know they were being used by the Communists as part and parcel of the major scheme of smashing down the faith of the people in Parliamentary Government.

The "Fellow Travellers" were near-Communists who were not prepared to go the whole hog, and were not anxious to take the consequences of extra-legal activities.

The Communist International endorsed this programme for countries such as Australia, the United States, and Britain—Those countries where Democratic Government is solidly entrenched.

A special section of the International was set up in Berlin in the early twenties under

THE TROJAN: HORSE

Willi Munsterberg. It was known as the Communist Constellation. Out of this came such auxiliaries as the Militant Minority Movement, League Against Imperialism, Friends of the Soviet Union, Educational Workers' Union, Unemployed Workers' Movement, Writers' League, International Labor Defence, Pan Pacific Trades Union Secretariat, Hands Off China Movement, Young Communist League.

The key positions in each of these organisations were held by Communists—usually the Secretary and Treasurer were Communists. The President, Vice-Presidents and Patrons were usually not Communists—

they were the Innocents.

Thus religious dignitaries, newspaper editors and well-known public figures found themselves swept away with enthusiasm for a well-deserving cause. Their names went on the stationery. They were too busy to attend the committee meetings. So the Communists were able to take complete charge.

The Communists adopted the United Front tactic. They asked for affiliation with

the Australian Labor Party.

At the 1923 Easter Conference of the A.L.P. in New South Wales, a resolution granting them affiliation was carried on the casting vote of the Chairman, Mr. A. C. Willis, now Chairman of the Curtin Government's Central Coal Authority. The voting was 123

for and against the resolution, with the casting vote in favor of the resolution.

As leader of the Labor Party, I refused to accept the decision. The new A.L.P. Executive refused to admit the Communist Party to membership. Instead it adopted a pledge and a rule that no member of the Communist Party could become a member of the Party.

The Communists tried again in 1934. Under cover of Socialisation Units they secured the support of sufficient Depression Communists and Fellow-Travellers to capture a Metropolitan Conference of the Party, with strong trade union support. But the General Conference rejected the Socialisation Committee's Report and rebuffed the Communists.

But it was the 7th World Congress of the Communist International that laid down the strategy to be adopted by Communists throughout the world. At that time Communists were describing Labor leaders—including Attlee, Bevin, Scullin, Forgan Smith, and myself as "Social-fascists"—whatever that might have meant.

George Dimitrov, head of the International Section of the Communist Party, told delegates to the Congress—including the Australian delegates—that they were adopting the wrong tactic

the wrong tactic.

Instead he laid down what is now known as the Trojan Horse strategy. Instead of direct frontal assault, they had to use the

THE TROJAN HORSE

same military tactics as those later adopted by the Japanese in Malaya—infiltration by stealth.

Dimitrov said:

"Comrades, you remember the ancient tale of the capture of Troy. Troy was inaccessible to the armies attacking her, thanks to her impregnable walls, and the attacking army after suffering many sacrifices was unable to achieve victory until with the aid of the famous Trojan horse, it managed to penetrate to the very heart of the enemy's camp. We revolutionary workers, it appears to me, should not be shy about using the same tactics with regard to our foe, who is defending himself against the people with the help of the living wall of his cut-throats. He who fails to understand the necessity of applying such tactics in the case of Fascism, he who regards such an approach as humiliating, may be a most excellent comrade, but if you allow me to say so, he is a wind-bag and not a revolutionary. He will be unable to lead the masses in the overthrow of the Fascist dictatorship".

Dimitrov's advice immediately became standard practice throughout the world. The term "Social Fascist" was dropped at once. New auxiliaries were established. Such organisations as the Militant Minority and International Labor Defence were liquidated. The Militant Minority were instructed tojoin up inside the unions as loyal unionists, but

still to operate their cells in Shop Committees.

Dimitrov also told the Congress:

"We are sometimes accused of departing from our Communist principles. What stupidity, what blindness! We should not be Marxist and Leninist revolutionaries, nor disciples of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, if we were not capable of completely altering our tactics and our mode of action as circumstances may dictate. But all the deviations, and all the ins and outs of our tactics are directed to a single end—world revolution".

Therein lies the real explanation of the latest tactic—the reputed dissolution of the International Section by order of Dimitrov. That, too, was directed towards the attainment of the ultimate objective.

Such tactics are not in line with an Australian's idea of fighting. They explain the two-faced attitude of the Communists towards the Labor Party. When the Communist-makes overtures, it must be realised that he has his tongue in his cheek, and a dagger held behind his back ready to stab the Labor Party.

As soon as the Dimitrov tactic was conveyed to the Australian Politbureau, the local comrades fell over themselves backwards in their anxiety to prove that they were not just "wind-bags"—to quote Dimitrov.

THE TROJAN HORSE

Communists auxiliaries were quickly subjected to expert camouflage treatment. Instead of being aggressive, they were all for a United Front. The League Against Imperialism became the League Against War and Fascism. The Young Communist League became the Australian Labor League of Youth—A.L.L.Y. Still later this disappeared, and reappeared in new camouflaged dress as the Eureka Youth League—with the same controls as the Young Communist League, and later A.L.L.Y.

One of the objectives of this Eureka League was to become a Trojan Horse inside other youth movements, such as Y.M.C.A., Boy Scouts, and similar non-Communist bodies. In particular the Communists were anxious to capture the National Youth Association.

Other auxiliaries, or organisations in which the Communists have placed links, include the Friendship With Russia League, Medical Aid for Russia, Sheepskins for Russia, Voice of the People Movement, Forward to Victory Movement, Women for Freedom Movement, Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R., Encouragement of Art Movement, Lunch Hour Discussion Group Movement, New Theatre Movement, Music for the People Movement, People's Christmas Fair Movement, School of Modern Writers,

Southern Cross Servicemen's Hut and the

New Theatre League.

It will be noted to what extreme lengths they go in their attempt to capture the pseudo-intellectuals. For this type, membership of such movements gives them the satisfaction of an artistic pose. But the Communists regard them as very useful, especially in the propaganda field.

On the political front the Communist Party has been responsible for persistent attempts to place a wooden horse inside the

Official Labor Party.

With growing strength in the trade unions, they regard their triumph there as inevitable.

Well-known fellow-travellers were instructed to apply for membership of the A.L.P. and thereby qualify for nomination as Conference Delegates. Then resolutions are framed for submission to the A.L.P. Conference just as Thornton admitted he framed the resolution for the Boot Trades Union meeting.

When the 1940 Conference assembled, the United Front Group had captured control of the proceedings. Cranwell of the Amalgamated Engineer's Union was in the chair. Hughes of the Clerks' Union was leading the United Front forces, while Evans the General Secretary of the Party was responsible for marshalling the delegates.

The crisis was reached when the Confer-

THE TROJAN HORSE

ence carried its famous "Hands off Russia" resolution—at that time Russia was still out of the war. No less than 9 Communists were elected to the Executive. Cranwell ruled that a union had the right to send along a delegate, whether he was a pledged member of the Labor Party or not. A delegate asked if that meant that T. Wright could represent the Sheet Metal Workers, although he was a member of the Executive of the Communist Party. Cranwell ruled that he could.

That Conference was followed by the establishment of the Non-Communist Party. Finally the Federal Executive was forced to intervene, and Hughes and Evans went out

to form the State Labor Party.

The State Labor Party was the most active of the Communist auxiliaries. It had its own newspaper. The editorial staff were all Leftists, drilled in Marxist dogma and Communist propaganda methods. With only a shadow membership, it was still able to afford a large permanent staff.

Actually, the State Labor Party functioned as a front office while the Communist Party was underground during the period of the ban on its activities by the Menzies Government.

When the ban was lifted, there no longer existed any reason for the State Labor Party. So with a great fanfare of entertainment and propaganda, the State Labor Party was

liquidated in January, 1944, when Chandler, publisher of "Progress", Hughes of the Clerks' Union; Gollan of the Teachers' Federation; Edgar Ross, editor of the Miners' journal "Common Cause", and A. Wilson were all made members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

The State Labor Party had finished its job, just as the Militant Minority Movement and other auxiliaries had served their purpose. So the Communist Party cut the expense account, and the organisation went out of

existence.

CHAPTER IX.

COMMUNISM AND CURTIN.

Communist opportunism reached its peak in its relations with the Curtin Government. Applying the Trojan Horse tactic at its highest level, the Communist Party virtually moved into the inner sanctum of the Government of the Commonwealth.

If the Curtin Government thought that it could use the Communist Party and then discard it when it had served its purpose, it was sadly mistaken.

The Communists drove a hard bargain. They proved themselves astute political horse-traders. In every case they insisted that the Government should deliver the consideration, prior to any attempt on their part to carry out the bargain.

In 1940 the Communist Party published an open letter in which they accused Curtin

with being a traitor to his class, with having agreed to the proscribing of the Communist Party, and with failing to fight industrial conscription.

One particularly choice passage in the

letter read:

"You have never been accused of having an over-great supply of what we Australians call 'guts', but your published interview with some of the American journalists now in Australia is surely the limit of spinelessness".

That was in 1940. In October, 1941, the Curtin Government took office. By that time Soviet Russia had found itself involved in war with Nazi Germany, when Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Non-Aggression and crossed the 1939 frontier.

But it was not until Curtin decided to introduce Conscription for overseas service, that it became necessary to accept the Communists as allies.

By that time the Communist Anti-Conscription League had been buried, and the Communists were coming out of their hidingplaces to urge Conscription for the purpose of opening a Second Front in Europe.

So the ban was lifted on the Communist Party and they came out in the open to support the Curtin Government. That support was vital to the Government in securing the endorsement of Conscription by the Sydney Labor Council, and the New South

COMMUNISM AND CURTIN

Wales Executive. Beasley, who had helped to found the anti-Communist Party, was sent to Sydney to organise the vote on Conscription. It was from the Communists that he received his strongest support.

Not since 1923 when he was President of the Sydney Labor Council when it carried a resolution demanding that the A.L.P. should admit the Communist Party to affiliation, had Beasley been on side with the Communists.

The Conscription fight, was a life or death struggle for the Curtin Government and those Ministers who followed him in urging the acceptance of Conscription. In 1916, Curtin himself had been a militant opponent of Conscription, so on the question he found that he had much in common with the Communists.

Once the Communist Party was declared legal, it quickly set about gathering the threads of organisation.

But they were not satisfied with the lifting of the ban. They wanted recognition, and a place in the Curtin sun.

So within a few months, leading Communist trade union leaders were appointed to important positions, working in conjunction with Curtin Ministers.

The Trojan Horse was right inside the

Healey, National Secretary of the Waterside Workers' Federation and a leading

Communist activist was appointed a member of the Stevedoring Commission, where he works with the Director of Shipping, Sir Thomas Gordon, under the direction of Supply Minister Beasley.

At the succeeding A.C.T.U. Congress, Curtin surprised stalwart Labor supporters, when he referred to him in the course of a speech as "My good friend, Jim Healey".

Another Communist to receive an appointment under the Ministry of Shipping was E. V. Elliott, National Secretary of the Seamen's Union, who was appointed to the Maritime Commission where he fraternised with Sir Thomas Gordon, and Captain Patrick, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the New Guard in 1932.

E. V. Elliot, defending his appointment in a letter to the "Sydney Morning Herald",

made the naive explanation:

"I am a Communist and because being a Communist makes me a trusted member of the Seamen's Union of Australasia, it is not because I am a Communist that the Labor Government appointed me to the Maritime Commission, but because being a Communist made me a Nation Union Leader, that I was nominated by the Union".

Of course the Government has to accept full responsibility for all appointments. It cannot escape that.

Bill Orr, who was succeeded by Grant for

COMMUNISM AND CURTIN

the position of Secretary of the Miners' Federation, was next appointed to the Coal Commission, which also comes under Beasley

On his appointment, Orr was placed in charge of propaganda to speed up production. That was a master stroke that must have had reverberations at every pit-top-in-Australia-

There was probably not a miner in the industry who didn't remember Orr as leader mining industry as well as being National Secretary of that Communist

articles in the "Red Leader" under the caption "Every factory, every ship, every a Fortress of the Revolution"

ment's expert in specto he the Curtin Govern-It just about topped everything

the Curtin coal policy.

Another amazing appointment was that of the very versatile Norman Jeffery—one of the Australian Communist Old Guard—as Organising Secretary of the Industrial Panel in the War Loans Office, under Treasurer Chifley.

Jeffery had been in turn Secretary of the Pastoral Workers' Industrial Union, National Organiser of the Anti-Conscription League, National Organiser of the League Against War and Fascism, and Chief Marshal of the May Day Celebrations. Later he was to

organise the "YES" Campaign for the 1944 Referendum in New South Wales.

Communist organisers were later to move into the War Loans organisations in a solid bloc. It provided them with a wonderful opportunity to try out the wooden horse of old Troy on Australian industry.

As war loan organisers they had access to plants that could never have been under normal circumstance. They even had the opportunity of cross-examining personnel, and getting an insight into the economic set-up of Australian industries. In addition, they had travel priorities that must have been invaluable from an organisational view-point.

coup d'etat. Then w' down and wrote a Party, which they promptly published in their official organ.

Other Communist union leaders like Thornton, and Wells had ready access to members of the Curtin Government—access not granted to thick and thin Labor supporters.

But the Communist Party was not yet satisfied that the Curtin Government was completely under its control. It waited patiently for the next opportunity to drive a wedge into the Government, that would

COMMUNISM AND CURTIN

advance it further along the road to its objective.

That opportunity came immediately

prior to the 1943 A.L.P. Conference.

Conscription had driven a wedge into the Labor Party. Those remaining loyal to the Party's platform—both Curtin and Beasley had fought the previous elections as pledged anti-Conscriptionists—were seeking to revoke the Curtin Conscription Act.

When heads were counted it was found that the Communists held the balance of power. The Communists controlled 131 delegates, there were 129 pledged anti-Conscriptionists, and 102 delegates prepared to

support Curtin, right or wrong.

The Curtin group realised that the Communists held the balance. So just before

the Conference came the pay-off.

Before Conference assembled it was announced that the Communist Party had been issued four newspaper licenses, to publish newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

While those negotiations were actually proceeding, "CENTURY" had to cease publication for three weeks because the Newspaper Pool refused it an advance on the next quarter's quota of newsprint.

In all the Communists were issued with licenses to use 82 tons of paper a year. That was in addition to the paper being used in the

State Labor Party organ, and in the pamphlets and books pouring off the Communist presses.

With the assistance of the Communists, the Official Labor Group was able to endorse Conscription and also my expulsion for participating in the campaign against the

Curtin proposal.

The Curtin Government was destined to pay dearly for that Pact of Mutual Assistance with the Communist Party. More and more it had to rely upon Communist support. The price of that support soared in proportion to the Government's dependence on it.

J. B. Miles, General Secretary of the Communist Party, issued an exultant state-

ment:

"The way has been cleared for establishing direct co-operation between the Communist Party and the Official and State

Labor Parties.

"The Conference of the New South Wales Branch of the Official Labor Party has decisively endorsed the central slogan of the Communist Party since October, 1941, when Mr. Curtin became Prime Minister—that is 'Unity in the Labor Movement' and nationally behind the Curtin Government.

"The long struggle, led by the Communist Party to have J. T. Lang thrown out of the Labor Party was crowned with success by the Conference endorsement of the expulsion of Lang by the Executive".

munist Party was actually on the box-seat, dictating terms and conditions to the Curtin Government.

The Communist leader L. L. Sharkey polled 3,301 votes in Dalley, against 37,015 polled by Speaker Rosevear.

General Secretary, J. B. Miles, could only muster 2,324 in North Sydney against W. M.

Hughes, and lost his deposit.

Adam Ogston polled less than 10 per cent. of the vote registered for Dan Mulcahy in Lang. J. R. Hughes of the then State Labor Party lost his deposit in Reid, as did Evans in Robertson. Even though the Communists attempted to win over service votes by endorsing members of the armed forces, they failed to make any impression on the electorates.

Nothing daunted, the Communists immediately launched a campaign for a merger of the Official Labor Party and the Communist Party.

In a letter to D. MacNamara, M.L.C., General Secretary of the Federal Labor Party, J. B. Miles, Communist leader, on

January 25, 1944, said :

"On behalf of the Australian Communist Party, I am instructed to request the Labor Party to grant affiliation to our organisation. Affiliation means that our organisation would accept the constitution of the Labor Party and the decisions of Labor Party Conferences.

COMMUNISM AND CURTIN

Constitutional difficulties could be overcome by the Labor Party making provision to extend to our organisation obligations and rights similar to those provided for affiliated trades unions".

In a further statement, Miles amplified

his views by stating:

"Official Labor Party policy is now nearer to that of the Communists than any previous time in history".

Diplomatically, the Labor Party has sidestepped the issue. It can no longer afford to

rebuff the Communists.

But the Communists are campaigning hard for unity with the Official Labor Party.

For example, Macquarie District Assembly is in control of Treasurer Chifley's political organisation. It passed the following resolution:

"That we urge the State and Federal Executives to accept the proposals made to them by the Australian Communist Party for unity in action in support of our Labor Government, the defeat of Capitalist reaction, and victory over the Axis Fascist forces".

A similar petition was signed by a powerful group of trades union secretaries—all members of the Official Labor Party.

With the advent of the 1944 Official Labor Party Conference, the ruling faction again compromised with the Communist Party. The Communists agreed not to press

for formal recognition of a Unity Pact at that stage. The resolutions were to be ruled out on a technicality which was not to be challenged.

In return, the Communists were given joint control of the Referendum Campaign. Instead of Official Labor Branches functioning, People's Committees were established with Communists admitted on a basis of absolute equality.

With Communists Chandler, Wright and Jeffrey on the Joint Campaign Committee, the Communists not only had official recognition but actual control of campaign arrangements. It was their most spectacular advance to date.

The softening-up process had been completed. The Trojan Horse was inside the citadel. The invaders, to quote Dimitrov, had penetrated right to the very heart of the enemy's camp.

Prime Minister Curtin publicly acknowledged the new relationship between his Goverbment and the Communist Party when he addressed a message to Thornton on the occasion of the first issue of the "Ironworker", thus:

"In the first issue of your new publication, marking as it does the association of Ironworkers and Munition Workers in one concerted body, may I extend the best

COMMUNISM AND CURTIN

wishes of my colleagues and myself for future sustained success".

Perhaps Prime Minister Curtin could explain how that future success could be achieved without being to the detriment of the future of the Official Labor Party. The odds are that he couldn't.

Bluntly, the position has been reached where 20,000 members of the Communist Party dominate the Government of this country. That is Democracy in reverse.

CHAPTER X.

WHO PROVIDES THE MONEY?

The Communist Party is the wealthiest political organisation in Australia. It has a large staff of permanent organisers. It has five newspapers. In Sydney it is housed in a four storeyed city building. It has its own publishing plant, from which are poured a never ending stream of pamphlets and books. It has shops at large rentals in both city and suburbs.

What other political organisation could hope to match this wealth? Yet according to its own claims, the party only had 4,000 members when the Curtin Government lifted the ban in December 18, 1942. At the present time it is conducting a recruiting campaign to lift the membership to 20,000.

When the organisation was declared illegal in June, 1940, all its assets were seized

WHO PROVIDES THE MONEY?

by the Commonwealth Government. These included several libraries, the stock of several book-shops, printing machinery and publishing plant as well as newsprint stock.

They are still in active negotiation with the Curtin Government for payment of com-

pensation.

In the meantime they have gone straight inexhaustible.

The State Labor Party first purchased a newspaper in North Sydney, to produce "Progress", which provided employment for a large staff during the period of the ban.

Then, almost simultaneously with the lifting of the ban on the Communist Party, an agreement was signed by H. B. Chandler—now a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, for the purchase of the Newsletter Printery for a sum of £25,000.

Then as soon as the Curtin Government issued the newsprint licenses to the Communist Party, this plant was used to print "Tribune", official organ of the Communist Party as well as to publish posters, dodgers and other literature for the Communist Party. At the same time, the publication of the racing tipping sheet was continued—indeed a strange activity for the Communist Party. Or perhaps some of the Comrades, thought that Dimitrov's Trojan Horse sanc-

tioned the infiltration of the racing business

as well as politics.

In addition to "Tribune", there is the monthly "Communist Review" dealing with party strategy, and a host of shop papers. All of these papers are published without advertising.

Then there is the Party literature. Most of this is now published in Australia. This range for socialist Sixth, heavy works on Marxism, elaborate rotogravure monthlies to the pamphlets churned out by Sharkey and Dixon. Of these there is apparently no end.

For the sale of these books and pamphlets, the Communist Party has a chain of bookshops—in Sydney there are the Pioneer Bookshops—and even exclusive suburbs suddenly find that the Communists have opened a shop in their midst. Obviously profit can be no object—or expense either.

For high pressure salesmanship there is the organisation known as the Current Book Distributors. This sponsors radio talks on a big chain of city and country radio stations with speakers including Rupert Lockwood,

L. H. Gould, and W. A. Wood.

In addition, the Communist Party sponsors special radio sessions on stations throughout Australia. Wherever it can, it uses non-Labor stations as well as Labor stations.

On the radio phase of its activities, it is

WHO PROVIDES THE MONEY?

spending at least £150 a week in New South Wales alone. Its weekly radio schedule occupies half a column of its official organ each week.

The latest development has been the attempt to publish a chain of country newspapers in the form of weekly pamphlets.

The Educational programme is controlled by an organisation known as Marx House, which hires halls and conducts lectures by party theorists such as Dixon and E. W. Campbell. Lecturers are sent to country centres regularly. A recent Sunday found Marx House lecturers billed in Sydney, Cessnock, Bondi, Redfern, Darlinghurst, Rockdale, and Redfern. In many cases, the comrades assemble at the local Communist book shop, which serves a dual purpose.

Allied to the Education Programme there is the Entertainments Programme. If the Communists cannot attract recruits with Marx, then they do not scruple to use Boogie-

Woogie as a Trojan Horse.

Dances are organised regularly by the Communist auxiliaries, and potential members are lured into the net with free tickets. For the high-brows there is the New Theatre League, which admits that its stage properties cost several hundred pounds.

All of these activities involve heavy expenditure and considerable staff work. Specialists are assigned to each. One Comrade may be asked to look after the Yugoslav

Community Social and Dance. Another is assigned the Marrickville Symphony Concert.

Australia is divided into Communist Districts—New South Wales is known as the First District, and each district into zones. During recent months zone organisers have been appointed. Particular attention is being paid to the country—active branches are operating in such towns as Glen Innes, Lismore, and Cootamundra, although, the organisation is numerically much stronger in industrial towns such as Wollongong, Lithgow, Portland, Port Kembla, and the Northern coal-fields towns.

In many cases members of the Teachers' Federation have been found useful recruits, although in other towns the Communists have actually enlisted professional men. In fact, they have established a Communist Medical Committee consisting of a group of well-established medical practitioners. Their organisers have been instructed to pay particular attention fo the University—both staff and students.

To house all these activities, the Communists decided that they must have their own premises. Once again money was no object.

First they advertised in the "Sydney Morning Herald"; "Wanted office premises, suite 14 offices, space about 2,000 square feet, centrally situated".

WHO PROVIDES THE MONEY!

That apparently brought no satisfactory reply. Next there came a report that Thornton was negotiating on behalf of the Ironworkers for the acquisition of Adyar Hall, Bligh Street, at a reputed figure of £89,000. That deal fell through, owing to existing tenancies, including that of a broadcasting station.

Then the Communists were able to negotiate a deal for themselves. They obtained a long-term lease of the Green Coupon premises. This is a four-storeyed building in one of the high-rental city areas. Notwithstanding Commonwealth Treasury restrictions, the Communists immediately set to work adapting the premises to suit their requirements. Marx House and the newspapers, as well as the central organisation were now under the one roof. The Post Office promptly installed seven 'phones with extensions to the different departments.

At a very conservative estimate, the Communist Party is spending £150,000 a

year on propaganda in Australia.

Who supplies the finances? On that the Communist Party is dumb. Obviously it does not come from the members—most of whom belonged to unemployed workers organisations when they joined the Party.

Even though members levy themselves each week, the aggregate income would only be a drop in the ocean compared with the annual expenditure.

The Secretary of the British Labor Party, J. S. Middleton, definitely charged the Communists with being dependent on outside subsidies, in a letter dated March, 1943, rejecting an application by the British Communist Party for affiliation:

"The British Labor Party with a membership forty times greater could never spend on

such a scale.

"This together with the fact that the Communist Party never published a balance sheet justifies the lack of confidence in the Communist claim to financial independence. The Labor Party cannot believe that the Communist intentions towards British Labor are any more honest than in the days when Britain stood alone against Nazi and Fascist aggression.

"Labor does not believe that the blood sacrifices, either by French Socialists and Communists or by the Red Army, relieves the British Communist Party or the Communist International of its share of responsibility for the breakdown of Democratic Government and

the extension of Fascist rule ".

What applies to the British Communist Party, also applies to the Australian Communist Party. The indictment is exactly the same. But instead of taking the line of the British Labor Party, the Curtin Government and the Official Labor Party have attempted to follow a course of appeasement.

Reverting to the source of the Communist

WHO PROVIDES THE MONEY?

funds, Mr. Middleton's comments are also valid in Australia. The Communist Party here has never published a balance sheet.

On only one occasion in its long history, has any section of the Communist Party published a statement of its income. That was in 1932 when the Militant Minority Movement published a statement that its income for the year was £29/2/-. Yet at that time the Militant Minority Movement was publishing a 16 page propaganda sheet—the "Red Leader"—mainly for five distribution, and had a national staff of organisers on its payroll—all on an income of £29/2/- per

Wherever the money comes from, it certainly does not come from the local

membership.

It was Stalin himself who answered this very question, in his interview with the first American Labor Delegation to Soviet Russia in September, 1927, as reported in Volumn 2, of "Leninism", by Joseph Stalin, page 68:

Question X: Is any money now being sent to America to aid either the American Communist Party or the Communist paper, the "Daily Worker"? If not, how much do American Communists remit to the Third International in annual membership dues?

Stalin's reply: "If this has reference to the relations between the Communist Party and the Third International, I must say that

the Communist Party of America, most likely pays affiliation dues to the Comintern. On the other hand, the Comintern, being the central body of the Communist International movement, we assume, renders assistance to the Communist Party of America whenever it is necessary? I do not think that there is anything surprising or exceptional in that ".

In Italy, immediately following the collapse of Fascism, 25,000,000 lira were lodged to the credit of the Communist Party in a party organisation. The Democratic parties

had no funds.

If the Comintern found it necessary to give financial assistance to the American Communist Party, with a membership many times greater than that of the Communist Party in Australia, then Stalin would not find anything "surprising or exceptional" if it rendered financial aid to the Communist Party of Australia.

But the Communist International is not an international in the strict sense of the term. It is governed by the needs of Russian Nationalism. So a Party that accepts subsidies from it, is actually receiving a subsidy from a Foreign Power. That is incompatible with Australian sentiment and the requirements of true Australianism. That is why the Communist Party can never be an Australian Party. The Foreign Office that pays the

WHO PROVIDES THE MONEY?

Party, has the habit of calling the tune. The Communists in Australia have had great difficulty in dancing to the tune. Nevertheless in their attempt, they were prepared to betray this country in its hour of greatest national need.

CHAPTER XI.

PLAN OF ORGANISATION.

With almost unlimited finance, the Communist Party has concentrated on the capture of the Labor Party, as the quickest means of establishing a bridge-head to control the government in Australia. To the Communists, the Official Labor Party is the wooden horse. They are inside.

A few details of their methods on this political front are essential if Australians are

to be ready to combat them.

J. N. Rawlings, a Communist Party propagandist from 1925 to 1939, who was expelled because of differences over the Party line towards the war, has made some interesting disclosures regarding tactics and happenings inside the local Politbureau.

Rawlings is well qualified to discuss such matters, as he was right on the inside, being

PLAN OF ORGANISATION

editor of "World Survey", organ of the League Against Imperialism from 1932 to 1934; and National Secretary of the Anti-War Movement from 1934 to 1939. In addition he is author of one of the Communist Party's best-sellers "Who Owns Australia?".

Rawlings states that the present Communist Central Executive was placed in power by an emissary of the Comintern who visited this country in 1929—he went under

the name of Herbert Moore.

"He was for making Sharkey the new General Secretary, but as the Party Solicitor would not have him, the call went to Miles. Moore expressed the opinion that the leadership so put was to stay put till the Revolution".

"Communists became quiet 'Labor men', joined Labor Leagues, denied Communist Party membership with many oaths, despite

the crowing of many cocks.

"Some Communists used to belaboring Laborites, found the turn difficult to make. One such wrote 'As political Labor and Fascism are synonymous, why flirt with them?' ('Communist Review', April, 1935). But the faithful had to learn, to adapt their language and tactics to their new environment.

"I quote from a secret instruction issued by the Communist Party in New South Wales to its members in the A.L.P. on September 2,

1937: 'We should advise militants in the A.L.P. to carefully avoid Communist phraseology. The terms and phraseology generally used by the Labor Party should be used by A.L.P. militants, instead of transplanting our terms, etc. into the A.L.P.'"

Rawling then proceeds to tell how the Communist Campaign was directed against my leadership. I was Public Enemy Number I to the Communist Party, as I had been since

1920 at its very formation:

"Success followed success. Many A.L.P. Leagues became known at C.P. Headquarters as 'our' Leagues, and were so listed. Through these, A.L.P. funds were used to buy C.P.

papers.

"Came the time when N.S.W. A.L.P. Politicians and Trades Hall Secretaries decided that 'Lang must go'. They sought allies in the Communists, who, 'as a result gained increasing power within the Labor Party. Intriguing, organising, counter-intriguing—Lang went.

"At a Unity Conference, McKell, to whom Heffron, a leader of the anti-Lang rebels, had to hand over, was given an Executive, which, as somebody elegantly described the situation, was 'lousy' with Communists.

"Thus, the Hughes-Evans Executive was on top of the world, and Labor Parliamentarians were in a quandary—especially

PLAN OF ORGANISATION

after the notorious 'Hands Off Russia' resolution—and with the Federal Elections

approaching ".

That is one revelation of how the Communists work to gain control of the Official Labor Party. Under the rules of that Party, the organisation must always be at the mercy of the Communist so long as they dominate the trades unions.

Clause 15 of the rules provides "Unions shall pay affiliation fees yearly upon their full financial membership". So at Annual Conference they obtain representation on their aggregate membership, irrespective of the individual political affiliations of their membership.

But it is to the Communist Party itself that it is necessary to look for a complete explanation of their tactics in organisation.

J. B. Miles has issued a brochure entitled "HOW" for the guidance of new members. In that, no detail is too small for careful

explanation. For example:

"Treasurer: 'The treasurer is not "that man (or woman) who comes around again". This Comrade is responsible for finance, without which there could be no Communist Party'." (How true!) "The task is not technical; but extremely political".

"Group Organisers: Comrades Brown, Mary, Bill Smith and that young chap who joined two months ago and seemed so keen,

have not attended the last three Branch meetings. What can we do about it '?"

"The answer is Group Organisers! Remember, many join our Party, support it, but do not understand it, our methods or our organisation, the responsibilities of members, etc. They must be helped by Group Organisers.

"Group Organisers should; have a talk with each member of the group, discover his or her special problem, capacity, type of work preferred, and make recommendations to the Branch Executive accordingly; see every member of the Group attends meetings, participates in training, etc.; visit those who do not, and assist them to solve the particular problem of 'Why not', collect their dues, ensure supply of literature, advise on Branch decisions, take responsibilities of members'.

Next Comrades are advised to attend Marxist classes: "Remember our leaders go to classes and schools themselves, and indulge in intensive studies".

Individual study is prescribed at home-Marxist-Leninist books, of course. But the Cottage Lecture is one of the favorite approaches. Thus Comrade Miles:

"Cottage Lecture: You have known Jim and Mary Smith for a long time now, you know they are interested in politics; they are asking questions about the Government; about the magnificent Red Army and Soviet peoples; but they don't know the answers.

PLAN OF ORGANISATION

They are two good Aussies with a brace of fine youngsters, but they are puzzled. Don't you think you should do something about it?

"Then there is that nice girl at work whose boy friend has returned from the Middle East, and is worrying her by talking 'Red'. Well round up these people, have a handful of your Branch Comrades for seasoning, and throw a different kind of party. Have the linen and china out, flowers round, supper to follow AND a party speaker to talk to them, for twenty minutes or so, on what is the policy of our Party and similar matters; maybe he or she could tell them of the Soviet Union;

", When the talk is over, get your visitors asking questions, usually they need no prompting, but if they are shy at first get your comrades on the job and soon the speaker will be perspiring well, and the result? More Communists in the making".

Then there is the tactic in the workshop: Here is the approach: "Our Party press is busy printing good stuff. Some you can give out free, some you have to sell; but the main thing is to get it to your work-mates. Next time Jim growls, get him a pamphlet like 'People's War'. Next time Susan in the sulks, turns up her nose at processions, get a copy of the May Day pamphlet under said nose—tell her about it".

Similar rules are laid down for selling

newspapers, canvassing homes in the suburbs. The approach should be through the ordinary problems of life. That is the approach the comrades must make.

In the workshops there are the circulars; factory gate meetings; shop committee meetings. As for the radio sessions, Comrade Miles makes sure that everybody is organised there too: "See that all your friends telephone or write to the Stations, saying that they appreciated our sessions". IF there is someone opposed to the Communists on the stations, then, of course, the same comrades are expected to telephone or write to the station abusing the station for the speaker's remarks and demanding that he be silenced. That usually happens after one of my broadcasts.

Particular stress is laid upon the necessity of working hard for the United Front, the amalgamation of the Official Labor Party and the Communist Party.

"Study Dimitrov's report to the 7th Congress, and the agreement with the State Labor Party" is Miles' admonition to all members. That, indeed, is the crux of the Communist task in Australia to-day. It all leads to the one objective—armed revolution.

One field in which the Communists have been specialising since 1942, has been propaganda amongst the armed forces. The Army Educational Service was seized upon as

PLAN OF ORGANISATION

providing special opportunities. Communists were instructed to attend all such lectures, ask questions and direct discussions to the achievements of the Soviet Union and the New Order after the war stressing the inevitability of Communism. The Communists have even turned out special literature for army distribution, the size being adjusted to fit into the pocket.

The present target of the Communist Party is "Every platoon, every ship, every air unit—a cell of Communism". So when the Communist urges an all-out war effort it is as well to think carefully as to what will be

the Communist policy after the war

CHAPTER XI

NEWSPAPERS AND SCHOOLS.

The Communists have always wanted recruits amongst the intelligentsia. That is why they have paid such attention to the writings of Dr. Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury.

They discovered early in their work of international sabotage, that the so-called intelligentsia fall readily for Marxism. Its obscurantism gives them scope for intellectual snobbishness. Many of these book Communists are cheap poseurs. Yet they are dupes for the General Staff. They might well prove more dangerous than dupes recruited amongst worker malcontents.

During 1944 the Communist Party has made big gains amongst white-collar workers. Particularly so amongst newspaper employees and teachers.

NEWSPAPERS AND SCHOOLS

They believe that control of the newspapers and schools would give them control of the people's thoughts. That would quickly lead to national destruction.

The schools and newspapers are keys to the propaganda front. The collectivist State demands regimented thinking. So it requires rigid Press dictatorship as in Germany and Russia. It also requires the disciplining of

children to accept the party line.

The Communist Party quickly exploited the newspaper dispute in Sydney, in October, 1944. Industrial trouble between employers and employees in the industry opened the door wide for penetration of the key newspaper unions by the Communist Party.

Precipitate action by the newspaper proprietors in attempting to publish a composite paper, broadened a dispute in the "Sun" Office affecting the mechanical staff only, so that the entire daily newspaper

organisations became involved.

Journalists, printers, publishers, transport workers, clerks and vendors who refused to assist in the production of the Composite paper found themselves on the streets.

It was at that stage that the Communist Party stepped in. It was organised and

equipped to take charge.

Two days after the trouble commenced, the Communist Party was publishing a daily newspaper for the men. Normally it takes

months to organise the production of a daily newspaper. The Communists had a daily paper on the streets within 48 hours.

They did this in defiance of newsprint regulations, man-power restrictions, fuel priorities and all other impediments to war-time

newspaper production.

The paper was printed at "Newsletter", the headquarters of the Party's printing business. There appeared no limit on the

newsprint available.

In ten days more than 1,000,000 papers were rushed off the machines—including 150,000 copies of a 16-page Sunday paper. That newsprint could only have come from the reserves held by the Party.

Only the Curtin Government could have granted the necessary licenses for the Communists to acquire such reserves. Yet established newspapers could not acquire a cwt. of paper in excess of their quota. Why the preferential treatment for J. B. Miles & Co.?

No time was lost in getting the journalists into the inner citadel of the Communist Party. They were housed in the new palatial head-quarters recently acquired from the Green Coupon Company—a four storeyed building in George Street, Sydney.

The building was being re-modelled at an estimated cost running into thousands—including a new synthetic marble facade at a

NEWSPAPERS AND SCHOOLS

time when ordinary citizens cannot make essential renovations to their homes.

By getting the journalists inside their building, they hoped to convince them that the Communist Party is a benevolent corporation, staffed by wealthy philanthropists.

But the Communists had at least two

ulterior motives for their intervention.

Firstly, they hoped to use the dispute as a further lever in their plan to obtain a license for a Communist daily newspaper in Sydney, to be run on similar lines to the London "Daily Worker". Cable services have already been arranged.

Pressure is now being applied to the

Curtin Government to grant the license

Secondly, they believe that they can turn the employees' resentment against the employers into positive support for the Communist master-plan. They hope to gain recruits, especially amongst the journalists.

They believe that under given conditions, they could organise a similar hold-up again to synchronise with a revolutionary situation. They believe that they would be in a position to dictate the editorial content of every Sydney newspaper.

The importance of the newspaper upheaval to the Communist Party was that it had all the elements of the conditions leading up to a general strike. That was seen when the action of the proprietors involved even

train and tram employees who refused to

carry the Composite paper.

The Communists believe in the general strike. But they have always in the past been most pessimistic regarding the participation of the white-collar worker. Now they have become confident of their ability to control even these.

The Communist Party had no interest in helping the newspaper employees. It did not care what happened to them. But it was very much interested in exploiting the situation to further its own objective.

The other advance has been inside the education system of New South Wales. There its principal ally has been the Teachers'

Federation.

The Communist indoctrination of school-pupils was not likely under the old syllabus. But early in 1944 the Board of Secondary School Studies decided to establish a course in Social Studies. To that end it compiled an innocuous list of suitable text-books and general topics.

But the Communist Party was not asleep. It saw its opportunity. So its henchmen on the Teachers' Federation Council succeeded in securing the appointment of a special committee to plan a more "progressive" syllabus.

The Board of Secondary School Studies agreed to accept the Federation's syllabus as

NEWSPAPERS AND SCHOOLS

an alternative to its own, with teachers free to make their choice.

The importance of the Federation course was not in the subjects stipulated, or the text-books specified, so much as in the opportunities it provided for teacher Leftists to embark upon detailed teaching of the Communist doctrine in the schools.

The Trojan Horse was dragged right into the class-room. The teacher could not be accused of peddling Communism. His alibi would be that he was teaching in accordance with Course "B" as drawn up by the Federation.

The syllabus covers such Communist activities as the formation of shop committees in factories, the Marxian doctrine, the life of a Soviet citizen, Economic Imperialism, Life under Lenin and Stalin—no mention of Trotsky who was murdered in Mexico, because he refused to bow the knee to the ruling faction.

In third year the student is to be told all about "Australia's Place in the Pacific". Heading the list of Pacific countries is Soviet Pacific Russia, with Japan second and the United States ranking tenth. The inclusion of White Australia as a topic provides the Communist teacher with the opportunity to undermine that tenet of Australianism.

Dr. Hewlett Johnson's "Socialist Sixth of the World" has prominence amongst the

recommended books—it is published by the

Communist Party in Australia.

Following public outcry, Education Minister Heffron was forced to consent to further consideration of the syllabus by the Board. But the Communists now have their toe-hold in the schools and are not likely to be dislodged by the present Government.

Further proof of the subservience of the Teachers' Federation to the directives of the Communist Party was furnished on the occasion of the celebration of the anniversary of the Russian Revolution on November 5.

1944.

The Federation issued a circular to its members reading: "Your Federation Council at its last meeting decided to organise a teachers' section of the procession to be held on Sunday, November 5th. This demonstration is part of Russia Day Celebrations.

"In accordance with the decision of Council you are asked to march and bring

your friends.

"A children's section is being organised, and we should appreciate any effort you are able to make to secure representation from your school".

That proves to what extent the Communists have already white-anted our educational system.

So the cancer of Communism is eating right into the vitals of our national life.

NEWSPAPERS AND SCHOOLS

Alexander Barmine, for 20 years a Soviet diplomat, recently summed up the immorality of Communism thus:

"It is an astute and unscrupulous conspiracy to lay the ground-work for eventually seizing power and transferring the country into a totalitarian Communist dictatorship.

"The reason Americans are bewildered is that they cannot understand totalitarian methods. They imagine that a group aiming for Communism must advocate Communism.

"But totalitarian conspirators do not care what they advocate. All they want is to get their accomplices into key positions. All they want is nower.

want is power.

"Ideals, faiths, programmes, political parties, political associations—to them these things are merely tricks and implements for seizure of power".

But as Australians we cannot afford to be tricked. We have everything at stake. Our homes, our families, our Democracy, our

way of life.

Above all, we have the future integrity of this country; Australia must not become a slave state dominated by Asiatic Imperialism. Our rulers must not be the hirelings of a Foreign State.

The future of Australia can only be safe while it is in the hands of men and women whose outlook is 100 per cent. Australian. The Communist Party is anti-Australian.

That is why it must be rooted out of our national life.

Published by Walter Brown, 59 Regent Street, Sydney.