Communist Rejected By Aust. Unions As Delegate To W.F.T.U.

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22914, 5 April 1949, Page 5

Communist Rejected By Aust. Unions As Delegate To W.F.T.U.

SYDNEY, April 4

A prominent Communist, Mr. Ernest Thornton, secretary of the Ironworkers’ Federation, left Sydney for Rome by air last night. He will attend the Congress of the Soviet Trade Union Organisations in Moscow and the World Federation of Trade Unions in Milan.

Earlier, Mr. Thornton suggested to the Australian Council of Trade Unions that he should represent that organisation at the Milan conference but the council refused on the grounds that it had not yet decided to continue membership. The invitation to Moscow was extended directly to Mr. Thornton. In a prepared statement, he claimed he was representing the Congress of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and that he had decided to go on to Moscow because little extra expense was involved. “Mr. Thornton, in the planning of his Moscow trip, has had a result for which he and his fellow Communists can scarcely have bargained, ’’ says the Sydney Morning Herald. “It has served to emphasise that the Australian Council of Trade Unions is becoming sharply divided on the question of continued affiliation with the Com-munist-dominated World Federation of Trade Unions." In Melbourne last week, the executive of the council decided to refer this issue to their next congress but it was also resolved that the council would not be represented at either the Soviet trade unions’ conference in Moscow or the World Federation Congress in Italy. The attempt by Mr. Thornton to claim status as the Australian council delegate and, incidentally, to claim travelling expenses from that body is, of course, part of the Communist endeavour to prevent a further breakaway from the so-called world federation. “Actually the W.F.T.U. falls far short of being a world federation as the original body became prey to the Communist infiltration which has riven it beyond repair. The British, American and Dutch unions all withdrew at its last meeting. It would be a deplorable anomaly if Australian unionism permitted itself to be persuaded by Mr. Thornton and his associates into continuing so compromising an alliance.”