During the 1920s, the CPNZ and the Communist front organisation NZ-USSR Society attempted to influence the New Zealand trade union movement, workers, intellectuals and the New Zealand Labour Party to promote support for the Soviet Union and socialist policies. These attempts were largely unsuccessful and the Labour Party adopted a policy excluding all members of the CPNZ and Communist front organisations. This set the stage for enmity and rivalry between communists and social democratic parties over control of the trade unions and unemployed workers' movements during the Great Depression. Both communists and social democrats however did work together during the 1930s to combat fascism.