yiovement, a govern- hient of social reform dy Myer Sharzer IW ZEALAND, mecca of verambulating CCF poli- fans and golden calf of the #tt-Lewis-Steeves claque ey “South-Pacific Socialism- ®proxy idolaters, holds § sOme interesting lessons © Canadian beneficaries of official CCF line. = .ver Since 1935, when the amy 4ealand Labor Party feved a majority of seats in §:e of propaganda regarding 4| kinship of the CCF to what he many progressive mea- Um:s of the Labor administra- , which has been re-elected ‘e, and its consistent record imilevelopment of social secur- @> been fastened on by the ger-hunery moguls of the "and held out for all the iid to see as. a sample of ‘et there is a curious anom- in New Zealand polities th has been quite cleverly len from Canadians; indeed @ one CCE leader has even “Bed at it. The CCF claim ial recognition of their re- ioship to the New Zealand ‘Gor Party, and M. J. Cold- “F™ vigorously protests when "j4iS Not accorded an oppor- “acy to add a particularly Fm welcome to Prime Min- ic Peter Fraser when the igsr visits Canada. @4e truth is that there exists few Zealand a group whose #tam, policies, ideas and “cs are much closer to of- | CCF ideology than the Labor Party. Itis a group sch follows an anti-unity, jbaitinge line, based on a nm that it is the only real alist party in the country that every other party has mayed ‘socialism; it attacks leadership. of the trade @us for not supporting it; 7 @uls the Communists of New yim and “political mounte- cass and turncoats” and “fleas ene Prime Minister’s shirt’; gtiacks the New Zealand Rmitment of manpower in Pacific war as too large; it ks the government on any all occasions for manpower idlement and financial orth- ys it says there is no dan- firem reaction in New Zea- al (Labor recently lost heav- gain the municipal elections Ingrell as suffering reverses in a1@ 1943 national election); it is@t party “agin the govern- pe sib.” : alls UTiously enough this wa ugely-familiar sounding -op- off Hionist group calls itself the @iccratic Labor Party. And Wias formed by a gentleman athe name of John A. Lee faze. And the burden of the "cks was that the labor "ty was betraying socialism. ij bile the solid trade union 12 of the Labor Party, plus the energetic support of the N.Z. Communsit Party, has enabled the government 0 weather the storms, the split- ting tacties of the Lee group have caused considerable dam- age. After his expulsion in 119389; lee undertook the formation of the DLP and for a time at- tracted to his party some dis- gruntled elements of the Labor Party. He made an intensive effort at this time to make in- roads on the trade union sup- port of the Labor Party, but they would have none of it. _He then proceeded to level his attacks against the govern- ment for what he termed its ~ betrayal of socialism and set his group up as the inheritor of the mantle of the original program of the Labor Party which the leadership of the lat- ter was supposed to have abandoned, and were now, so he claimed, selling out the workers. Himself a powerful cam- paigner. who had received the largest majority of any Labor candidate in the 1938 elections, Lee deliberately organized his splinter group to discredit and smash the Labor Party. The fruits became apparent in the electon of 1943. For some time prior to this ele¢tion, and arising out of ;the pressure of reactionary groups who attempted to engineer a financial crisis a right-wing tendency developed in the lead= ership of the Labor Party which gave considerable aid and comfort to the maneuvers of Lee. The sharp reverses of the election finally corrected this trend of concessions to re- action and 1944 has seen many progressive measures demand- ed by the workers put into force. The elections also brought a heightening .of the unity be- tween all sections of the work- ingeclass movement and thus enabled the Labor government Reform Govt. to return to office. But only after severe losses arising out of hee’s splitting tactes. Basing their” campaign on the claim to be the only Ssocial- ist group, the DILP ran candi- dates in 60 of the 84 econstitu- encies. The main emphasis of Lee’s propaganda was directed to an attack upon the government. He ignored completely the threat of reaction, and the political realities of the world and New Zealand situations. The results shook the Labor Party. Ten seats were lost, and though the party achieved 4 majority of seats it did not command that majority of the pomular vote, which it had achieved for the first time in the 1938 election. Responsibility for the set- back could be traced directly to the Lee group. In five con- stituencies they took enough votes from labor to defeat the latter’s candidates and they were responsible for the defeats in the other five seats. Yet they failed to elect one candidate and nearly all their candidates lost their deposits. The Communist Party of New Zealand played a vital role in the return to power of the government. It supported the government on the basis of its realistic progressive pro- gram and succeeded in forging unity in election work which enabled them to smash the Lee bid to put reaction in the saddle again. The Labor Party is made up in the main of workers and trade unionists. Its leadership eonsists of trade unionists who participated in the building of the labor movement and many of whom had suffered imprison- ment for workingelass activi- ties. : Parallel and contrast. New Zealand should offer little com- fort to the redbaitine discord of “socialism now” chamber-music. THE FIRING SQUAD by F. C. Weiskopf A Left Book Club Selection TRANSIT by Anna Seghers Author of the Seventh Cross HEAVEN IS TOO HIGH by Mildred Masterson McNeilly A story of the Russians in Alaska _______ 3.25 THE SEIGE OF LENINGRAD By Boris Skonoroysky The saga of the greatest seise of all time as told by documents, letters, and stories of the brave people who withstood it. 3.25 THE NIGHT OF THE SUMMER SALTICE and other stories of the Russian war selected by Mark Van Doren 3.00 PEOPLE’S BOOKSTORE 420 WEST PENDER STREET Phone MArine 5863 Books and People by Kay Gregory IT is typical of Hewlett Johnson, Pean of Canterbury, that in his latest book, The Secret of Soviet Strength, he deals first with how things have been done and secondly with the actual achieve- ments of the Soviet Union. g issued in popular form by Contemporary Publishers, the Dean’s newest book is divided into two sections, The New Way, and The New Iife. Every word in this book and of his earlier work, The Soviet Power, as he says in his introduction, “receives daily and hourly confirmation on the Hastern battlefront where Hitler’s armies reel before Red Army blows.’ a “Viewing the present war, not from the narrower and immedi- ately personal point of view, but as part of a divine process whereby wisdom is acquired, rays of light already “pierce the gloom, the Dean remarks. “We are learning on the negative side, and learning as we could learn in no other way, the evils of nazism, fascism, and the Japanese variant of these bestial systems. We are also learning on the positive side, the true worth of the Soviet system and the quality of the Soviet people. : “Out of this war is being forced a friendship which lays the foundation for a new world system in which peace can endure and become permanent. “If the four great countries now allied stand united after the war as they stand united now, animated by the ideals they now possess, hating war then as they hate it now, then a new world era will dawn in our day and life will rise to a higher nobler plane.”. This is the theme of the Dean’s latest book—mnot a new one for him, but just as important today as it was when he wrote the first book which called down the wrath of the gods upon his determined head. The second Section of The Secret of Soviet Strength deals with human life and its interests—children, culture, morality, liberty and such, and may be more interesting to the average reader than Bock 1 which deals with material achievements. o But, as the Dean says, “without a correct estimate of the sheer magnitude of the material achievements, and .~. . . an understand- ing of the moral and scientific foundations on which it is based, we shall never learn the lessons which Russia can teach..... a4 Thus, he adds, if you find the first part a little dull, read the second half first and you will constantly want to refer to Book i to find out “whence comes the money to do these marvelous things ?” : 2 : () EWLETT Johnson tells of new fields conquered in industry, science and medicine and he repeats the story of Philip Jor- dan’s. visit to the Stalin Motor Works in Moscow in August, 1941, when he saw “the same pressing mill you may see at Dearborn or Cowley, but with this intangible difference, I think: that the visitor can sense something different in the air, some sense of shared pos- session that makes the urgency greater and the interest in the job profounder.”’ The Dean, in this book, pays great tribute to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and to Lenin’s and Stalin’s great leader- ship. He likens the party to “a religious order, composed of men of single mind, inspired by profound and essential truths, aglow with purpose, men prepared to die for their ideal.” He declares that events have shown that victory of the com- mon people “is impossible without a disciplined party working Within it. . “Without such a party Russia could never have born the shock and maintained its cohesion of will and purpose throughout the terrible five and a half months of defeat and retreat which fol- lowed Hitler’s initial attack. It was the iron core of unity and determination that made possible what is probably the greatest feat in military history and turned an ordered retreat of eight hun- dred miles, without pause or hesitation, into the long and effective counter-offensive. ... It was Russia’s will, manifested through the Communist Party, which saved Russia and the world in 1941 and 1942.” : NCE again Contemporary Publishers has given its readers an excellent pamphlet for fifteen cents, one which you should buy and give to your friends to read. But apparently even better ones are in store for us this fall, one of which will be Wanda Wasilewska’s Stalin prize novel, The Rainbow, which Contemporary have announced as their next “paper book,” containing a foreward by Hon. Joseph BE. Davies, who wrote Mission to Moscow.