World labor demands return
to international cooperation

By HENRY C. FLEISHER

In the ranks of the World Federation of Trade Unions are some 70 million workers.
They live in 56 countries, speak countless languages, but they have two common ideals—
peace and progress for the people.

hast month, in the board room
of CIGQ'’s headquarters at Wash-
ington, their leading spokesmen
‘gathered to help carry their ideals
into practice. For four days, dur-
ing the course of the first Am-
erican session of the WETU Hx-
ecutive Bureau, leaders of world
labor talked, argued and reach-
ed agreement on a wide variety
of problems confronting workers
in every nation and their global

organization.
The highlights of their task:
1. A somber expression of
_ world labor’s “deep Concern .. .
with the growing threat to

peace” and a call to workers in
every land “te oppose the prep-
arations for another war.”

2 A condemnation of the “re-
actionary government of Greece”
for its suppression of the “dem-
ocratic liberties of the workers
freely to exercise their trade
union rights;” and 2 proposaf
for a restoration of the Greek
labor unions to the truly elect-
ed representatives of the work-
ers,

3% A strongly voiced demand
that plans be quickly adopted
by the various governments for
setting up an international re-
lief agency tunmediately upon the
liquidation of UNERRA to meet

- ‘the threat of famine and dis—
ease in large areas of the war
tern world.

CIO was represented at the Bur-

eau meeting by Frank Rosenblum,
secretary-treasurer ef the Amal-

gamated Clothing Workers and a

CIO vice-president. He had been

mamed as CIO’s spokesman by

President Philip Murray, who

in ‘an opening address to the

group, welcomed them to the U.S.

and expressed the hope of CIO
members everywhere that the
deliberations would be successful.

Ss.

The resolution on world peace,
perhaps the most important _pol-
icy statement of the meeting, was
adopted after considerable dis-
cussion at the final session. Like
other resolutions and actions of
the meeting, it represented the
“common denominator” of agree
ment to which the various na-
tional labor movements with
their varying attitudes and polit-
ical complexions—could subscribe.

It pointed out that the “unity
and solidarity of the organized
workers of the world,” as rep-
resented in the WETU, offers the
firmest assurance that the catas—
trophe of war shall not again be
visited upon the world. j

“Noted with alarm” that the
wartime coalition of freedom-loy—
ing nations which brought victory
over the Axis has “not been main-
tained”- with sufficient firmness
and unity of purpose= to guaran-
tee the establishment of an en-
during peace. :

Workers everywhere, the
WETU bureau declared, “hate
war... Dhey want to devote
themselves to the reconstruc-
tion of the war-devastated lands,
to raising their living standards,
and to the full realization of the
democratic rights and liberties
for which they fought.”

Many of the men who wrote the
resolution knew from first hand
of the horrors of war and fas-
cist oppression. Quick, animated
Louis Staillant, secretary-genera!
of WHETU,; had headed the French
resistance movement to the
Nazis; stately Leon Jouhaux, rep-
resenting the French Confedera-
tion of Labor, had spent years
in a Nazi internment camp; and
Guiseppi Di Vittorio, the  big-
framed spokesman for Italian
trade unionists, had been arrest-
ed by the Nazis when they took
over Italy after the fall of Mus-
solini.

When these men talked of the
horrors of war, of the danger
to peace from atomic Mass mur-
der, they talked wsth conviction.

eS.
The development of democrat-
i¢ trade unions in the former
strongholds of fascist oppression

—Germany and Japan—also re
ceived WETU study.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 2

The bureau voted to send a
commission headed by President
Deakin to Germany to follow
up an earlier study of the Ger-

man union situation made by
WETU early this year. At the
same time it requested the in-
ternational trade federations of

the various European unions to
hold up admission of the vari-
ous German unions pending the
outcome of the study.

Two eroups will be sent to
look into Japan’s growing la-
bor movement. Qne, a small
preliminary committee, will trav-
el to the Far East late this year.
A formal WETU commission
will visit Japan and the Far
East in the spring of 1947, after
receiving the preliminary report.
Two new federations of labor
unionists were welcomed into the
organization. The Central Com-
mittee of Iranian Trade Unions
was granted admission on the
basis of a report by Sec.-General
Saillant, who had visited the
Middie Eastern country a short
time ago.

In Greece, however, the bureau
found that “trade union liberties
have been seriously infringed and
the Greek Federation of Labor is
prevented from functioning demo-
cratically.”

The blame for this situation
Was placed squarely on activi-
ties of “the reactionary govern-
ment of Greece,” and WETU
called on all affiliated national

trade centers to rally to the
support of the Greek workers.
The leadership of the Greek

unions elected last March is “the
only representative body of that
nation’s trade unions” the WETU
Said, and it called upon the Greek
government to restore full free-
dom of action to that body. It
alse recommended the calling of
a new trade union convention in
Greece to restore the functioning
of the labor movement and to
give it the widest possible repre-
sentation.

The CIQ received a _ position
of major importance in the
structure of the world labor

agency when the Bureau appoint-
ed Adolph Germer, veteran Am-
erican union official, as assistant
secretary general. The action con-
firming a recent nomination by
President Murray, places Germer
at the head of the important
WETU Department of Golonies
and Mandated Territories.

Sixth meeting of the 9-man
Bureau will be held in Paris on
December 13-15. It was aiso
decided to convene the Genéral
Council of WEIU at Prague in
June, 1947. The Gouncil, com-
posed of approximately 75 rep-
resentatives, governs the labor
organization between the bien-
nial meetings of the big World
Trade Union Congresses. :
Attending the Washington meet-
ing were: President Deakin; Sec-
retary Saillant; M. P. Tarasov,
Soviet Union; Frank Rosenblum,
CIO; BE. Kupers, Netherlands;
Lombardo Toledano, Latin Amer-
ica; Leon Jouhaux, France, and
G, Di Vittorio, Italy. H. H. Chu

Hit Anglo-American
meddling in Balkans

—PARIS

British and American imterfence in the affairs of the
Balkan states was declared here last week to be a continual

source of strife and upheaval,
powers accused of opposing
governments in these ancient
strongholds of fascism and reac-
tion, Speaking to the debate on
the Bulgarian peace treaty at the
peace conference here, Mosha Pi-
jade of Yugoslavia and Polish
delegate Stephen Wierblowski
urged withdrawal of U.S. warships

VASSEL KOLAROV

Vassil Kolaroyv. provisional presi-_
dent of the new Bulgarian re-
public, renounced territorial
claims of the Greek fascist gov-
ernment this week and said that
“Greece will not receive an inch

of China was unable to be pres-

ef Buigarian land.”

with governments of the two
establishment of democratic

from Greek waters and British
from Greece, and pointed te the
Greek regime as a war danger as-
egravated by the continual’ inter
ference in Balkan affairs by the
U.S. and British governments,
Gonstantin ‘Tsidaris of Greece
demand for a slice of Bu

was refused, and was told a few
home truths by Yugoslav and
Polish delegates. :
The present Greek regime, Ji-
jade said, was the one danger oF
aggression in the Balkans: It was
“casting: covetous glances” toward
its northern neighbors Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia and Albania. Speak-
ing of foreign troops in the’ Baj-
kans, he said:

“The situation is worse in this
respect than it has ever been in
the course of the history of the
‘Balkan countries. There are Brit
tish troops’ in Greece. There are
warships of the US) navy in
Greek and Aegean waters.”

Pijade chargeq the present
Greek regime with being the
bulwark for imperialistic ae
Sigm0s on the rest of the Bak
Kans and said the interest 6f
peace in the Balkans and in
Europe “make it imperative to
put am end to interference in
the internal affairs of the Bal
Ean nations.”

The Balkan nations had hoped
that the era of imperialistic in-
fluence was over after the war,
Pijade said, but recent ‘events had
Taised new doubts.

“The peoples of the SBalkane
who have become capable of safe-
Suarding their political and eco-
nomic independence by their own
means cannot but be concerned
by these new conditions. ‘

“Bulgaria needs an outlet on
the Aegean Sea,” Wierblowski
told the conference in a speech

These Soviet delegates to the recent World Federation of Trade Unions meeting in
Washington are shown as they were welcomed as guests to the Transport Workers
Union (CIO) convention in New York.

CAWNPORE, india — (ALN) —
Police, aided by 1000 Congress
party volunteers, are launching
daily attacks against 35,000 strik-
ing workers here and have al-

ready arrested 94 trade union
leaders.
The Congress party, which

runs the lecal government here,
recently took over the reins of
national government as well un-
der 2 SBritish “independence”
formula. The party heretofore
has had strong working class
backing, but trade unionists now
feel that its leaders are giving
in to the pressure of Indian in-
dustrialists who link their fu-
ture with British interests.

The strike in this area, like

Congress government attacks strikers,
arrests Indian trade union leaders

those that have been breaking
out all over the country, was
brought about by the employers’
refusal to negotiate workers’
wage demands and involves all
important industries here.

The government’s decision this
week to lift all price controls
gives the workers another reason
to intensify their fight. Many
workers in this area are earning
as little as $7 or $8 a month.
Even with controls, prices went
up 300 percent during the war
according to government figures,
and 600 percent according to
trade union estimates.

The police brutality here is be-
ing repeated every day in other

areas. In Almanar, Bombay prov-
ince, the union secretary and
eight others have been killed and
100 wounded in the current tex-
tile strike. There are over 1,500
trade unionists in jail in Madras,
where railway workers recently
struck ,and More are being ar-
ested daily.

Mrinal Kanti Bose, president
of the Aill-Imdian Trades Union
Congress, charged this week that
the workers find no change “in
the labor policy so long associ-
ated with the hureaucratic Brit-
ish government,” ang called on
workers “to cry halt and think
out an independent line of ac-

protesting a commission recom-
mendation to defortify Bulgarfia’s
side of the frontier with “Greece
and another requiring Bulgaria to
pay $62,500,000 each in reparations
to Greece and Yugoslavia.

Wierblowski said Poles “sym-
pathize with Bulgaria because we
are a Slay state,” but he denied
the existence of an “imaginary
Slav bloc.’’ :

“There are circles? he de
Clared, “who do not like these
popular democratic republics,
Gne of which was established in
Bulgaria. They are prepared to
usé any means,’ he continued,
including “transgressins in do-
mestic affairs of the countries
and discrimination im interna-
tional affairs.”

}

Brazilian labor
center organized

RIO DE JANETRO (AEN) —
For the first time in their history,
Brazilian workers now have a
unified national trade union fed-
eration. The organization ‘was
formed at a conference of 2400 —
delegates who beat down the at-
tempt of Minister of Labor Ne

grao de Lima and his hand
Picked followers to prevent its
establishment.

Formation of an independent

Brazilian General Confederation
of Labor came as somewhat of 2
surprise, since approxiately half ©
of the conference delegates were

Special appointees of de Tima

who kad been ordered to keep ~
the unions tied to the goayert —
ment’s apron strings. A

When de Lima, in a fit of rage,
issued a decree dissolving the
e€d for one day, but then re
assembled. They declared that —
further interference by the —
Minister of Labor would vic-
late Brazil’s new constitution, ~
adopte@ September 18, which 44
gives unions the right to aS ©

tion.’

semble, organize and strike; 4
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1956