Trade Unions of the World
The World Conference of Trade Unions is meeting, at the invitation of the British T.U.C., at a significant juncture in world affairs. The American Congress of Industrial Organisations is represented, but not the American Federation of Labour ; and no delegates from enemy countries were invited ; but the question of inviting them now is, as we write, creating in the Conference divisions which might easily develop into a crisis. The trade union movement is organised in different ways in different countries, yet in their essential objects all have much in common. The opening debate dwelt on the fact of their complete solidarity in the war—all are anti-Nazi, anti-Fascist, and bent on complete victory in the war, and putting the whole weight of their organisation on the side of the war effort. The Prime Minister's message to the conference emphasised the contribution made by the movement in this country, and it might have been added that trade unionists in enemy-occupied Europe have played their part in organising sabotage. But after the war, as during it, the trade union movement will have, as Mr. Attlee said, another and even greater interest in common—„that of economic co-operation for raising the standards of living of workers all over the world. There the. trade unions everywhere have a common interest which serves the cause of each nation individually and of all nations collectively.
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