L.L.O. Celebrates 50th Anniversary

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32012, 12 June 1969, Page 4

L.L.O. Celebrates 50th Anniversary

GENEVA. A wide variety of activities are taking place around the world this year to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the International Labour Organisation, which was created as part of the peace treaty ending World War I. The 1.L.0. is a specialised agency associated with the United Nations. Representatives of governments, employers and workers take part in its work. The 1.L.0. Office, in Geneva, is the organisation’s secretariat and operational headquarters. Special observance programmes are being held in nearly all the 1.L.0.’s 121 member states. Geneva will be a focal point of anniversary events during the Annual International Labour Conference, which is meeting until June 26. Almost 100 countries and the United Nations Postal Administration are issuing commemorative postage stamps. Twenty - three national parliaments are holding debates on the 1.L.0. Eighty-one countries are scheduling the production of films or radio and television programmes. Forty - three universities will hold study courses and lectures, or will create prizes for works of research, essays or competitions. The varied nature of the 1.L.0. anniversary observances are shown by the following events in different countries, among many others:

A Japanese committee will select a citizen born on October 29, 1919—the day the first International Labour Conference opened—to be sent with his wife to 1.L.0. headquarters in Geneva bearing a greeting from the Japanese Minister of Labour. An “Olympic Trophy” to be conferred on the 1.L.0. by the King of the Belgians: a national ceremony featuring literary and musical programmes in Bulgaria. An exhibition and evening courses by the Pan-African Institute for Development, Cameroon; a display of documents and photographs by the Canadian Public Archives on the history of Canada’s relation with 1.L.0.; an “1.L.0. Week” announced by the churches in Barbados. A mass rally and reception in Taiwan: television films in Congo (Brazzaville) and workers’ education courses in Congo (Kinshasa); a seminar in Costa Rica sponsored by the Organisation of Central American States; a labour-management-govern-ment conference in Cyprus.

A special cartoon film in Czechoslovakia; art exhibition and special publications in France; declaration of “Workers’ Education Year” and a public holiday on October 29 in Gabon; theatre week, national art exhibition and national football championship in Ghana. Lottery for granting of houses to workers in Greece; public holiday in the Central African Republic and Guatemala; concert and parliamentary debate in Iraq; art competitions in Ireland. Religious thanksgiving services in Jamaica; local artists in Lebanon fashioning handicraft items bearing 1.L.0. emblem; naming of public square after the 1.L.0. in Nouakchott, Mauritania; commemorative ceremonies by Mexican Federal and State Congresses.

Nigerian Timber Association offer of wood panelling for room in new 1.L.0. headquarters building in Geneva; ballet performance in Pakistan; ceramics exhibition in

Peru; sports meetings and commemorative dances for employer and worker representatives in Portugal; medals and bonuses to senior workers of enterprises in Rwanda.

Revision of Somali Republic labour code; concerts and a boat trip in Switzerland; theatrical performances on the LL.O. in Tunisia.

Distribution of special 1.L.0. insignia in Turkey; photographs, translations, conferences and publications in the Soviet Union; national ceremony and publications in the United Kingdom: travelling exhibition in Upper Volta. Special meeting on October 29, in Washington, D.C., to observe the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first International Labour Conference in that city in 1919; inauguration of workers’ housing sites in Vietnam. - International Labour Organisation.