“FREE” TRADE UNIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26627, 25 November 1947, Page 5

“FREE” TRADE UNIONS

DRIVE AGAINST COMMUNISM

AMERICAN FEDERATION’S PROPOSALS WASHINGTON, Nov. 23. An Amercian Federation of Labour official said to : day that an ( A.F.Lsponsored meeting of free “ade unions in Australia, Japan, China, and other Far Eastern • countries is under consideration as part of the union s drive throughout the world against Communism. , ___ , The International Transport Workers have already scheduled a meeting of =eamen and transport unions of this area for Sydney in April Mr William Green, president of the A.r.L., recently announced that the Labour leaders of 16 Western European nations would meet in Paris to organise against Communist encroachment and has called a conference aLimu (Peru) on January 10 to form a Western Hemisphere Labour FedeUnited Press of America Washington correspondent says indirectly the A.F.L. programme is aimed at driving the C. 1.0. from the field of international labour relations, or at least limiting its influence.

NEW ZEALAND NOT AFFECTED PA WELLINGTON, Nov. 24. Referring to the cable message regarding the American Federation of Labour Anti-Communist conference, the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, Mr K. McL Baxter, said: “ The New Zealand Federation of Labour is affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions. The American Federation of Labour is not. That is the answer.” It is recalled that at the recent assembly of the World Federation of Trade Unions in Prague the New. Zealand Federation of Labour and the Australian Council of Trade Unions were jointly represented in inner circles as two countries regarded on a numerical basis as entitled to one delegate by Mr Ernest Thornton, of the Ironworkers’ Union in New South Wales and as a national executive member of the Communist Party in Australia.