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— . y “ u i Vol. 1. No. ®& 27 Price Threepence ~ gune 22th 1962 COLTIUNIST PARTY GXPUILS THR 4.T.U. MILITANTS
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Those of us who were intrigued by the three line announcement in the Daily Worker that Messrs. Jack Frazer, Pat O'Neill and Harold Voolf had been expelled from the Party because of conduct 'prejidicial to the intorest of the Communist Party' had to turn to the capitalist press to find out what it was all about. After all these were no small fry, Jack Fraser was one of the five members of the &.T.U. Lxecutive who were found guilty of conspiring to deprive John Byrno of his office as General Secretary of that Union, Pat O'Neill is a leading light in the Fulham branch of the 4.1T.U. one time secretary of it and its delegate to the recent 4.T.U. National Conference, and Harold Voolf is chairman of the same branche
They are supporters of Frank Haxell, the former C.P. General Secretary of the 3.T.U., and the old Guard in the Union. They refused to accept the Party's decision to support John Hendy, a former member of the 3.T.U. Uxecutive, who esc aped relativiely unscathed in the high court action. They were also told to resign from the unofficial pro-Haxell organisation inside the 3.T.U. — the campaign for the Defence of Union Policy - and refused. This committeso is anti-Hendy and the Communist Party has accused it of being dominated by Trotskyists. A C.P. official said that tho expulsions were as a result of a series of unoffical mect— ings the men had been organising.
Haxell himalf, resigned from the Party after the High Court judgement and a subsequent Communist Party statement made it clear that they were using him as a scapegoat for the alleged mal-practices. Haxell has been expelled from the Union but the esteumwith which he is held by militants is show by the incident in which he appl ed for a job as an electrician on a building site in London, 01 learning that he had no got an 3.T.U. card the management rofused ° set him on. hen this news reached the other electricians, oll of them (some 180 1dd) except one walked off the job and demanded he be set on.
feanwhile the right wing are conducting a purge against the left in the Union and we hope to give a report on this and the fight being conducted against it in Scotland shortly. Politically, this whole unsavoury affair demonstrates the disastrous consequences of the C.P.'s policies. They are far more intested in their members holding full-time officials job instoad of leading struggles. This being an indirect result of their 'peaceful co-existence! policy. The lack of candour by the Communist Party in dealing with the question also demonstrates their distrust of their ovm rank and file, who have to turn to the capitalist press to find out the facts.