Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 11, No. 10, August 18th, 1948

Workers and Conscription

Workers and Conscription

VUC students no doubt are in complete agreement with the result of the Special Meeting, or are we? As a member of that College, I, for one, should like to place my disagreement in your columns.

It appears as though your Columns are biased, too. It's a pity that some people don't think before they write. (All right, I've thought.) Your columnist says: "The old men, the psychopaths, the property owners, the fanatic nationalists, etc.," are aching for war, and people the world over are succumbing to the craze for "war research." Propaganda of Fear and Hate." You are dead right, chum, Russia has fear and hate.

Russia fears British and American Democracy, for it works without unnecessary compulsion and constitutes a threat to M. Stalin who, if the truth be known, is scared of losing his position of dictator and murderer of innocent peoples. Do we in N.Z. murder Opposition Members?

Russia Hates—Here I must make a digression. When I say Russia I do not mean all the Russian people, but their Leaders. If truth was allowed to penetrate into Soviet States many of them would hardly credit the fact that Unions are there for the use of employees. In their country a union is the method of forcing workers to speed up production. Let's see how a so-called union works.

There is a system known as the "triangle of factory control." Firstly there is the manager who is responsible for the direction of the enterprise. Then there is the Party Cell of Communists and lastly the Factory Committee representing the Trade Union. (So far this system stinks of capitalism.) But the so-called trade unions are not for the workers to lodge complaints with (perhaps there are no complaints), but for the organisation of "shock brigades" to speed up production. Some of these "brigades" are more ruthless than the Ogpu! So much for the workers' "freedom."

From "each according to his needs" to "each according to the work performed." (Isn't that the system under capitalism?) The only difference being that there are no communist cells or shock brigades. (Thank goodness.)

But back to fear. Stalin is frightened of the atomic bomb. He has to wait until his German scientists (funny; I thought that Russia had a war with Germany) and secret police (found in Embassies) have unearthed the secrets. Then the war begins and we poor mugs will be caught with our pants down and what a thrashing we will get. All because Victoria University College decided it wasn't going to fight Communism; it was going to defend Workers Rights. It would do far better if it turned itself to the ask of Study and Logic before it attempted to influence world politics. Then it might find that there are more peaceful methods, and more successful ones, of creating harmony between employer and employee than Dictatorship and Force.

"Students of the world, unite." Fight for British freedom; Fight for the Workers; Fight for the Preservation of Peace; Resist Communism; and its challenge to World Peace. Then, and only then will we know what Peace is. Vote protection.

—J. F. Little.