To the Communists, the British Labour Party is that accursed thing "middle-class." They would aay precisely the same of Labour in tt United States.) There are thr: sections in the Labour Party—all middle-class."
(2) The trade-union, element, which for the. moat part "has "done or doing manual labour, and 1s, mod and method. and. not at, Soclaltat"™ ak all Labour Party, Mists. For ths most and never, have beer'
But ave bluck-conted™ or. middle: lags in origin and habit of mind.
a) who" have ae they' well could" be.
Only among the rank and file of the first section can the Communists find the proletarians of their heart's desire. For the lenders of all three sections they express the neem and hatred. From a collection of speeches and manifestoos by the Communist spokesmen about the present leaders of our Labour mo ment it emerges that the Communist policy is to enter the Labour party, work against and subvert the pre-) sent leadership ("treacherous middle-class leadership " it is called) and conduct the rank and file to revolution—if need be to violent revolution. On public platforms nowadays the Communists make no bones about this. The Labour Party," says one spokesman, will have ' to be fought one ' da} Says another "we unders! the Labour pary and all treacherous motives and pps Our job is to get inside and upset their leadership." If necessary, violence is eventually to be used: "One of the leading Communists said recently: "Like the Trishmen who entered the boxing arch, we want to put a horseshoe fin our boxing-glove just for luck" and the president of our Communist party said openly, "If the working Classes were determined to get into the saddle themselves, they must be even for" the use of The Policy Defined.
The plan of the Communists in the field of polities was defined only a few weeks ago at their annual congress:—The Communist party considers it its duty to enter. into the ranks of the Lalowr party. marder to ateengthen the militant and fighting elements of the Labour movement, and to unmask the treacherous elements in, the Eabour party and free. the workers from their influence. The Communist party does not aim at the united front with Macdonald, Sri Thomas, but at the, ores the mais, front of the Gelade the. workers "that Failing. to obtain affiliation, the communists. ave aiming systematic cally at putting forward candidates HHament and securing for ction of the Labour party. Te is paradoxical that the Labour party, which will not accept the Communists as an alliated body, should accept as Labour can-dates individual Communists who make no attempt to conceal their contempt and hatred for the Labour and its leaders. But so it 7 the ordinary rule is that any feandidate, Communist or not, who accepts and signs the Labour " Constitution" is accepted as a Labour feandidate—and, if he is elected to Parliament, he enters the Labour party and works for This ridiculous rule is now likely to be modified, for in a by-election which has just been held at Glasgow the Communist candidate owing to the violence of the propaganda on his behalf found that the Labour party approval which he had. at first received was eventually withdrawn, It is indeed an_extraordinary anomaly—that Communists whose view is that the Trade Union ind Independent. Labour leaders, including Mr, Ramsay MacDonald and all his Ministry, are " traitors" to the interest of the people, should receive their blessing in order the more easily to carry on their work of mining and sapping the con-Stitutional cause, Such a practic conceivable so. long as the Communists are a negligible force.
they now begin to grow more powerful in the industrial feld, as they show signs of doing, the Labour il be compelled to fight them Inthe political arena, The Minority Movement.
The activity of the English Communists in industrial disputes is the now thing to watch.
whey are in favour of local strikes, lightning strikes, any sort of strike or sudden movement that will embarrass the employers or hole up the public in order to obtain what they want, and often, in pursuing these tactics they defy the authority of their own unions and their own officials. This in general what is called the " minority movement" in the and the new strategy of the Communists may in a word, be said to be the encouragement of the "minority movement" wherever there is discontents afoot in the hope of undermining the trade union authorities and through them of injuring the Parliamentary Labour party and the whole system of orderly constitutional ai The triumph of Communistic theory, would then naturally follow. The programme. thus consists of Action first and Theory afterwards. The Com-themselves set out strategy quite frankly, ax this festo rally "the "working masses Working-class' leadership. and programme must begin first and foremost development their dosa-conscious always. taking account rent and varying: stages of "Pris process will involve approsehing the trade union rank and Ale with piaetieal solutions "for their" own Erecial problems, before thes can gin to comprehend the need for attempting the solution of "problem Tying outside their immediate points "awit they. become convinced the Meld of action. that such an organization understands their needs, they" then will be ready to: listen to "eiemay be that this process will necessitate. for the tine being. th te organization in. quest Insist om pressing its fol roe: in this. sphere of activity.
But thie 1 price "worth. paying. la for baining the ear of the Their Methods in Practice.
We are now obtaining actual evidence that the Communists are oper When the great trade patting this insidious policy into
unions of their own free will make. 'a national settlement with the employers, the Communist organ denounces' it as "humiliating " in order to stimulate the discontent of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.