COMMUNISTS’ EFFORTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 133, 7 June 1934, Page 10

COMMUNISTS’ EFFORTS

ACTIVITY IN QUEENSLAND

NORTHERN SUGAR AREA ATTACK ON INDUSTRY. SYDNEY, May 24. Communists, who are carrying on much propaganda in North Queensland, with Innisfail as headquarters, intend singling out the sugar industry for special attention, on the grounds that it is a “rich man’s industry,” and there is need for closer settlement and subdivision of large farms. The Communist Party is directing attention to the fact that, unlike Southern Queensland, the sugar farms in the far north comprise large acreages. As a result, the Innisfail area, although it produces more sugar, carries only half the population of the Mackay district, where the faftns are much smaller, and the industry is not a “big man” proposition. The party claims that £13,000 cash was recently paid for one sugar farm in the Innisfail area, and that none has been sold for less then £6OOO cash, and that these sales prove its contentions. The British Preference. It has been evident for some time that the Communist Party has been increasing its strength at Innisfail, where the presence of a large foreign vote has tended to encourage its growth. It is reported that the Communist Party’s funds have been plentifully supplied with money subscribed by foreigners. The chief avenue through which tho Communist Party has won the support of foreigners has been the introduction of the British preference provisions into the sugar industry, whereby the foreign cane-cutters, who dominated the sugar fields, had to yield a substantial proportion of their monopoly of that work to British-born subjects, whose labours have been attended by the greatest success. The Communists Party, through its various “cells” in the far north, has waged continuous war against this British preference, using propaganda in foreign languages. This campaign is apparently an advance effort to foment trouble in the sugar areas during the coming season. The Communist Party convened a conference in Innisfail with the announcement that the purpose was “to arrive at an understanding as to what should be done to overcome the present ineffective organisation of sugar workers, and to unite for an effective struggle, under rank and file control, against further attacks on wages and conditions.” The conference adopted a resolution approving the formation of minoritv movements groups among the mill workers, the field workers, and the cutters “to give direction in the establishment of militant trade unionism in the industry and to link up more closely with the workers in other industries. ’ ’ Official Labour’s Attitude. The conference adopted a programme seeking the restoration of the 1929 award rates and conditions to all sugar workers and thereafter the advocacy of a 30-hours week, a £5 weekly wage, the doubling of the dole for unemployed, and award wages and more work for relief workers. The conference prepared plans providing a rank and file committee for each mill, and among field workers and cutters. The functions of these committees will be to have rectified by direct negotiation with employers all grievances as they arise. It is generally considered that a strenuous contest between Communism and the official Labour Party, with Innisfail as a battleground, is approaching. The Australian Workers’ Union has started on the warpath against the Communists. It alleges that the rank and file committees mean job-control. “Our members,” it stales, “have sufficient sense not to be misled by those individuals who are endeavouring to spread . trouble and who are always attacking the Labour Party and bona-fide trade unions.”