The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-09-15
COMMIES TECHNIQUE
IS SAME WORLD OVER


international is the waterfront.
For instance, American seamen
roam the dockside streets of Lon
don, Hamburg, LIE Harve, Naples,
Piraeus, Singapore, and Rio. Dutch,
Births h, Norwegian, Argentine,
Greek and Italian sailors get ashore
in Baltimore, New Orleans, New
York and San Francisco to spend
what dollars they can muster.
In short, mariners Of a dozen
nations can be encountered in any
of the worlds great ports any day
of the week. The fact is best ap-
perciated by romantic novelists and
Communists. Both groups recog-
nize the possibilities.
Romantic novelists may spread
some sentimental nonsense about
life on the ocean wave, but they
don't do much harm. Communists
are another matter, however, as
the events of 1949-notably the
messy strike of the Communist
led Canadian Seamen's Union have
demonstrated.
Ever since the first World War.
the Communists have striven to
control seamen and longshoremen
of many countries. Their main aim
was to be able to halt ocean com
merce at will. Of course, they never
have been able to achieve their
end.
On the waterfront, the Commun-
list strategy is to see to it that
enough grievances, real or drum
med up, always exist so that
trouble can be stirred up at any
moment. One reason they some
times can do this is that many
earnest hard working rank-and-fil-
ers are away from home months
at time and are necessarily out
of touch with important union sit
uations. If they have to depend on
the Commies to fill them in when
they return they may be unwitting
ly mis-informed at every turn.
Meanwhile, the Commies attempt
to hold strong cliques ashore to
keep the pot boiling. Here and
there they have scored notable sue
cesses.
Just how the Commies try to do
it is told in the August issue of
Labour, monthly publication of the
British Trades Union Congress, by
a member of the executive council
of the Federated Seamen's Union
of New Zealand.
This seamen's official charges
that Communists in his union and
others are sabotaging New Yea
lands aid-to- Britain program "as
part of the general conspiracy" to
create industrial turmoil and over
throw New Zealand's labor govern
ment.
He points out that there is only
a handful of Communists among
New Zealand's seamen but that
the Commies and their fellow
travelling dupes have worked out a
complete set of tactics for stirring
up trouble.
They manage to present Identical
resolutions at widely scattered
meetings, and then manage to mon
opolize some Of the meetings. They
drag out the proceedings, harping
away at issues which have already
been settled or bringing in mat
ters unrelated to the discussion,
pretty much the way the American
Communist leaders are conducting
their defense in Judge Medina's
court in New York.
OF course, this taking advantage
Of democratic procedures in meet
ings and courts and this peVerting |
Of labor's cherished traditions are
old Connie hat--but sometimes
they wear down the opposition.
In the New Zealand seamen's
union they see to it that they have
some trouble makers present at
every meeting in every port, and if |
a few have TO travel cross-country |
to make meeting they just
travel. On the ships they play the
same game-always trying to find
a dispute which they can build into
something big enough to warrant
holding up "A ship.
The New Zealander's account of