Ed. Notes we have carried two items on the recent New Zealand Labour Party annual conference, and our New Zealand correspondent has given same background facts to the shift in the balance of force that conference revealed. We shall publish more material from our correspondent in the next issue about the general political situation in New Zealand.
Current support for socialism within the NZLP comes primarily from two sources, Firstly, it comes from what might - for want of a more valid terminology - be called “intelligentzia" branches, There are very few of these, and they consist for the most part of new recruits from the universe ities, in alliance with the -remant of the 1930 Left which has clung terciously to the party through the years of political decadence. Most of the left of that tumultuous era resigned from the party with the expulsion of John A. Lee in 1940. The second, and more important area of support cones, with two notable exceptions from the trade unions. ‘his leftward trend in the unions is also rooted in the past. At the time of the waterfront lockout in 1951, many of the strongest unions were not in the Federation of Labour, which, at that time, had a solid majority of white collar and right wing unions, composed for the most part, of inactive members who were often in the unions only because of state legislated complulsory unionism, These right-wing unions thus had a superficial strength in terms of bloc voting, to be continued in the next issue,
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