CLERKS’ UNION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21924, 19 January 1946, Page 6

CLERKS’ UNION

DOMESTIC WARFARE “TEST 07 STRENGTH” DISRUPTION CHARGES SYDNEY, Jan. 18. The executive oi the Federated Clerks’ Union has found that two ol the seven members called to appear before it on charges of “disruptive activities within the union,” are not guilty. Two of the cited members did not appear and the cases against the others were adjourned. The - “trial” is regarded as a test of strength between the non-Com-munist members and the Communists who, it is alleged, are taking control of the union. It was held in camera. Union members who sympathised with the seven were denied entry. The charges concerned the activities of a bodv known as the Clerks’ Union Defence Association, a group formed in the union “to fuither political and sectarian and religious ends and disrupt the union.”

The executive refused to permit legal representation and, after hearing statements from some of the members before it, asked them to withdraw. The charged members whose cases were adjourned refuse to proceed without legal representation.

Concerning one of these, the executive ruling states: “The case will therefore have to be considered m his absence on such evidence as may be adduced from the charges made against him.”.

A Sydney barrister who sought to represent several of the accused members .said that, if the executive took anv action against his client, the fight would be carried into the court. The main point at issue is whether the Executive Committee, against whose actions the alleged “disruptive activities” were directed, is empowered to sit in judgment upon members as a disinterested body.