The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-20
On the
World Front
- BY HARRY CANNES =
\ South Wales Election
labor Party Tactics
3,4O9 Communist Votes

| -4dDO oAlg AuSb1SS
3,4O9 Communist Votes
IN MERTHUR, South Wales
a stronghold of the Labor
Party, the Communist Party
of Great Britain in the recent
by-elections, made tremen.
dous gains winning 3,4O9
votes for Communism where
no Communist candidate ever ran
before.
In the 1881 general election1l
the Labor Party candidate polle,s
1913 votes in this district while ith
the recent election brilliantly fought
by the Communist Party, the Labor
Party vote was cut down to 1855,
or decrease of 5000 votes, and its
majority by $500
Wal Harrington, leader Of the
unemployed movement, was the
candidate for the Communist Party.
Applications continued to pour in
after the campaign was over.
No trick was too low or dirty for
either the Labor Party or the In
dependent Labor Party candidate in
their struggle against the Commu.
mist candidate. When Arthur Hor-
nor, miners agent for the anthra-
cite district. and Evan Evans,
checkweighman at the Emlyn Col
liery. took the field in support Of
the Communist candidate. the La
Dor Party reactionarieS threatened
to have them expelled from the
union.
When the Executive Council Of
the South Wales Miners Fedora
ton threatened to victimize these
supporters of the Communist cam
didate, Horner answered by COM
pairing the action of the Federation
with that taken by Tory govern
ment against the Tolpuddle Martyrs
100 years ago. Then membership in
a trade union was declared a felony,
punishable by transportation for
seven years.
MY RECORD as a Communist"
W said Horner, was we'll known to
the 10000 anthracite miners who
elected me by ballot vote to the po-
sition Of Miners Agent, and to the
10000 South Wales miners who sup
ported my candidature for the Vice.
Presidency month ago.
IT was elected on the clear UNI
Outstanding that I would continue
my Communist activities, believing
as I do that the Communist policy
is the only way out for the work.
! ingclass.
This present action of the
Executive Council. if allowed to go
unchallenged, will do more to
destroy the Federation in South
Wales than all the attacks of the
coal owners and the disruptive
policy of the scab unions.
II will not barter a job for
principles for which Dimitroff was
| W give 1llo lit.
He was enthusiastically cheered
by the workers.
The Independent Labor Party
candidate, John McGovern. member
of parliament, who received 3.409
votes, resorted to the most UNI
scrupulous demagogy and conceit,
pandering to the prejudices of the
Catholics in order to win their
votes.
The Labor Party victor again app
pealed to the workers to support a
struggle for a Labor government
declaring that the Labor Party had
| now learned its lesson" and that
the weaknesses of the past two labor
governments would be remedied.
How it will be remedied is shown
by the Daily Herald" organ of the
Labor Party which supports the
British imperialist policy of aiding
Hitler's policy of re-arming, a war
move deliberately aimed at the
Soviet Union.
THE Communist Party did not
stop its actions with the an
nouncement of the election results
as did all the other candidates. In
tensified recruiting for the Party
was carried on after the election.
Communist Party speakers held
many meetings explaining the re-
suits of the election, telling the
workers how to continue the Strug-
! gle for the victory Of Soviet Power
in England
| The election campaign had lasted
only two weeks, but in those two
weeks the Party threw It's best eff
forts into the campaign.
Comrade Harry Pollitt, one of the
leaders of the Communist Party of
Great Britain, who took an active
part in the election campaign,
summed up the results for the
Party as follows:
1.-THE Communist Party at it's first
fight here in Merthyr, with only one
small group in existence, has in two
weeks, on the basis of its revolution
airy line, won 3,409 votes for Com
munism, for revolution. 1t has
made 10 new members, including
the very best from the I. L. P.
branches. scores of new readers for
the Daily Worker, and this means
that now for all time we have es-
tablished firm basis throughout
the Merthyr division. -.
"A total of 3,409 votes for Com
munism. For Communism which
was undiluted, for revolutionary
PRINCIPLES that were not nrostituted.