W.F.T.U. Split Over Communists

Grey River Argus, 6 May 1948, Page 5

W.F.T.U. Split Over Communists

ROME. May 4. ] A special committee of the World Federation of Trades Unions, which is attempting to prevent an open split in the Federation, has failed to reach an agreement after a whole morning’s discussion. The committee may finally present two resolutions —one reflecting pie pro-Communist standpoint.. and the other the strictly Trade Union standpoint, and refer them to the executive bureau. , The committee was set up yesterday after British. American, and Russian delegates clashed over the alleged abuse of the Federations machinery for Communist Party ends / “Big Four" inner council to guide the World Federation was formed as a result of the crisis in the Feneration. The American delegation snokesman said Britain, the United States- and Russia will all have vice-secretaries-general to “consult . witn the secretarv-gcneral, M. Saillant, about W.F.T.U. policies. The president of the World Federation of Trade Unions (Mr Arthur Deakin). who is secretary of the British Transport and General Workers’ Union, in a closed session, said that the Federation was being “abused for Communist Partv • ends”. He recalled Britain’s insistence that the Federation .should be strictly a. trade union body and not a political bodv. He mentioned the episode in which IM Federation, without the Western delegates’ knowledge, attacked the Marshall aid plan in a May Day message which also criticised ‘the refusal of the Western., Powers to disarm”. The chief Russian delegate, M. Vassili Kuznetsov, replied in a speech lasting more than an r.our.