The Potters Herald

THE POTTERS HERALD. EAST LIVERPOOL, OHIO

Comment On
World Events

No one can even estimate the influence for good the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions will have on the future of the world, says Taylor T. Buchanan, editor of the International Molders' and Foundry Workers' Journal.

Mr. Taylor, who attended opening sessions of the historic London meeting which founded the new world organization, writes in the Molders' publication that it will be to the world "what the AFL is to the United States and what our central labor unions are to the community. When all workers move in the same direction, no power can stop them."

Editor Taylor goes on to point out that the World Federation of Trades Unions (WFTU) fell to pieces because it came under the domination of Russian union leaders who, from the start, sought to make it the instrument of communistic propaganda for the furtherance of Soviet policies.

"The AFL leaders," he recalls, "steadfastly refused to become affiliated with the WFTU, giving as their reason that free unions could not work with unions dominated by outside influence. That statement was later proved to be true when the CIO, the British Trades Union Congress and the Dutch Trade Union Congress withdrew, with several others following their lead."

Every precaution was taken at the London meeting to see that the same thing did not happen to the new organization, Taylor emphasizes.

"Representation was deliberately extended," he explains, "only to those trade unions and other organizations that are free and democratic bodies independent of any external domination and exercising the right of free speech, free association, and the practice of collective bargaining in their relations with employers and the state.

"Through this organization," he says in conclusion, "labor is making a contribution to world stability and world welfare."