Approximately fifty people attended the annual meeting of the Socialist Club on March 8th. The annual report presented by Gunter Warner revealed the intense club activity of the past year. The salient points were the Indonesian demonstration, which brought Victoria world fame, and defeated legal attacks on the rights of citizens to free assembly and expression of opinion. The Yugoslav clothes drives, film evenings and publications were also mentioned.

Ron Smith then gave a full and interesting report as delegate from the club, on the Australasian Student Labour Federation in Melbourne in January. He revealed that the Labour and Socialist Clubs which exist in every Australian university play an extremely active part in student affairs. The conference considered that a united front type of labour club such as the V.U.S.C. which embraces all types of labour and socialist is preferable to a club with direct political affiliation.

The police bashing of students in the Indonesian demonstration in Sydney was outlined and the subsequent legal condemnation of the police in the Supreme Court was explained. A report on the decisions of the conference and plans for the future and an outline of the Melbourne tramway strike. Mr. Smith also commented on the Australian Financial Assistance scheme for travel concessions and urged our executive to take up these questions. The need for club members to take a lead in the union building campaign was emphasized.

The secretary read a letter to Mr. Platts-Mills, a British Labour M.P., and a previous Rhodes Scholar from Victoria congratulating him on his consistent fight for Socialism and peace. This was signed by members present.

A resolution supporting the N.Z. Carpenters' Union and demanding the withdrawal of repressive emergency war legislation was carried.

Carpenters and Students

Mr. Molineux, President of the Wellington Carpenters' Union, was the guest speaker of the Socialist Club at a meeting on Wednesday, March 9th. Mr. Molineux, who was one of the union leaders who were recently heavily fined in the Courts, gave an outline of the present dispute in the building industry.

The speaker commenced by explaining events leading up to the dispute, showing how the decisions of the Arbitration Court have left the carpenters with a just grievance. Carpenters rates are 1½d. behind those of other sections of the building industry. After doing everything in their power to obtain an equitable settlement, the union had started a "go-slow" action, and such was the justness of their claim and the solidarity of their struggle that 95 per cent, of the master builders had capitulated, and were willing to pay the additional 1½d.

It was at this stage that the Government had entered the fight on the side of the employers. Leaders of the union throughout the country were prosecuted under wartime emergency legislation.

"The Labour Government can no longer be regarded as friends of the union movement," declared Mr. Molineux.

The role of the Arbitration Court in delaying and preventing the satisfaction of the workers' demands was then explained. The latest developments in the handling of the dispute over to the National Council of the Federation of Labour were also outlined.

The questions raised by students at the conclusion of the address showed a keen interest in the functions of the Arbitration Court and in the effect of industrial laws on the workers' struggles in New Zealand.

The Socialist Club is to be congratulated in its first function for 1948. It shows that the club is carrying out its objective of bringing students into contact with the Labour Movement and giving them an insight into the real forces operating in our society today.