Auckland’s union chief off to Russia

Press, 7 March 1978, Page 1

Auckland’s union chief off to Russia

PA Auckland The president of the Auckland Trades Council (Mr Bill Andersen) will leave New Zealand at the end of the month to take up a long-standing invitation to visit the Soviet Union. Although the invitation nas been open to him for several years, it will be his first visit to Russia. Mr Andersen, president of the Moscow-aligned Socialist Unity Party, was all set last year to attend the sixtieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, but was forced to postpone it because of trade union commitments at home.

On his trip he will also visit Denmark—“to look up some of my ancestors”— East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Italy. He will attend the ninth World Federation of Trade Unions congress in Prague. His air fares have been met by the W.F.T.U., and his travels in Russia have been sponsored by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

“I don’t believe in going to only the Communist countries; I’ll be going to the capitalist countries as well,” said Mr Andersen yesterday. “In Italy the whole working class and trade union movement is very lively, and is developing in an interesting way. “In the Soviet Union I hope to look at the amount of public participation in the government of the country, how the workers discuss the conditions in the plant, and where the wealth of the country is allocated. . . .

“I will be having discussions with representatives of the trade unions and political parties in all countries if 1 can—the

Labour Party and any other. If 1 can meet the Christian Democrats in Italy 1 will be pleased.” Asked whether he expected to draw fire in New Zealand by his visit to the Soviet Union, Mr Andersen replied: “The American State Department invites people to the States, and they go. They are the same sort of visits.”