Unions Plan War Protest

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31125, 30 July 1966, Page 1

Unions Plan War Protest

(N.Z. Press Association) i WELLINGTON, July 29. The trade union movement in Wellington intends to hold a public meeting in September to express its opposition to the Vietnam war. The Wellington Trades Council decided at its monthly meeting this week that it would hold a public demonstration in support of Feder-

•ation of Labour policy on Vietnam, the council vicepresident (Mr T. Hill) said today. Mr Hill said F.O.L. policy supported the principle of collective security, but opposed the sending and use of troops in Vietnam. “All affiliated unions reported members expressing complete opposition to New Zealand troops being in Vietnam, and instructed their delegates to support the calling of a public meeting,” Mr Hill said. The council also decided to use any other means of expressing its views, including the buying of advertising space in a Sunday paper. At its meeting the council also endorsed the World Council of Churches charge that the United States, by escalating the Vietnam war, was aggravating ill-feeling between races. It viewed with alarm the in-

creased American bombing of North Vietnamese cities and regretted the extreme retaliation that would follow.

The council supported U Thant’s peace-seeking efforts and called on the Government to intensify efforts through the United Nations and other media for the cessation of hostilities in terms of the Geneva Agreement. It reaffirmed the right of all people and nations, including the Vietnamese, to work out their own economic social and political order of society.