LABOUR YEAR BOOK

Grey River Argus, 24 June 1925, Page 8

LABOUR YEAR BOOK

I FT.ti. THIRD ISSUE. The third year book published by the International Federation of Trade Unions, Amsterdam, of .>->0 pages, is published at the price of JOs, and it is obtainable from a 1! booksellers or from the Publications Department, International Federation of Trade I nions, Tessolseliadeslraat, 31, Amsterdam. We welcome the appearance of the new year.book of the International Federation of Trade 1, nions, which may most certainly lie said to be the most complete handbook ol the International trade union movement. From this publication we see that at the end of 1923 there were affiliated to the Federation 23 Trade Union centres, comprising 835 organisations with a total membership of 15,321,692. In regard to 14,687, .145 members out of this total, the sex is reported, so that we find that of this number 12,507,426 (55.2 per cent) arc men and 2.170 (14.3 per cent) women. A detailed table setting out the various orientations in the trade union movement shows that the total number of organised workers at the end of 1923 amounted to 36,439,320. Out of this total, 16,490,121 workers adopted the > platform of the international Federation of Trade Unions, while 5,245,889 p (principally in Russia) were affiliated ’ to the Communist, 2,354,583 to the . Clerical and 404,700 to the syndicalist ; trade union movements. The remaining 11,970,027 take a neutral stand.j point. [. , From a survey of the- number of or_ t ganised workers in each country com. ’ pared with the population, figures, it t appears, inter alia, that in Austria i out of every 100 inhabitants 17 are - trade unionists; next on the list is j Germany with. 15.3 per cent, then fol. 1 lew England (13.3 per cent), Aus. e tralia (12 per cent), Czechoslovakia r '(11.1 per cent) and Belgium (9.9 pei •, ; cent). The following countries arc :- among those where the trade unior •, movement is so far very little develop s ed: Argentine, Finland, Bulgaria, Por. tugal, Yugoslavia, Peru, Roumania South Africa, Brazil, Japan, Indi: >- (British Empire), Dutch East Indies 5, Egypt and China. In all these coun b tries not more than 1.5 per cent of tin n population are organised workers. 0 Of the contents we would mention in the first place, the tables witl I names, addresses and membership ii'im n Lors of all the 835 organisations afli s hated with the International Fcdera II tion of Trade Unions, together witl 1 ‘ the names of their trade jouniah There are also tables with addresse

and membership figures of the organi which compose the Trade Sec rclariats, a list of the organisation catering for workers’ education at th present time, and lists of the organi nations affiliated with the Labour am Socialist International. the Interna tional Co-operative Amance and th Young Workers’ Socialist Interna tional. It may also be specially mentions that the year-book contains, for th first time, detailed reports as to th position of the trade union moveincn in the various countries, written b; leaders of the nation:'.] centres. Both as an addressJ»ook and as ; statistical year.book this publication will be of the greatest service to al those actively engaged in the trad' union movement or who take an in terest in the work of the labour move ment.