Trade unionists versus

from Tony Topham The latest issue of Yugoslav Trade Unions, the official newspaper of the Yugoslav trode union movement contained an article attacking the ICFTU for its attitude to the Vietnam war. It read: "The International Day of Workers! Solidarity with the Struggle of the People of Vietnam, December 20, which coincided with the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, provided an opportunity for qualms and for fresh manifestations of the traditional support by the world prolet=riat to the struggle of peoples for freedom, peace and a better life. We said qualms because, frankly, the worldts trade union organisations could not be said to have fully discharged their duty when it comes to Vietnam, Solidarity Day was where they ought to have laid aside their petty worries and direct local and national concerns and interests for a moment to scrutinise the big dangers menacing the far more important all-humanity interests of peace, freedom ond the survival of mankind, "The forces of reaction and imperialism, acting under the leadership of the U.S. ruling circles, are going 211,out to prevent the heroic people of Vietnam fron Wid et hts and decid Hts destiny itself, In resisting that aggression, an agression gravely imperilling not only their own freedom and independenne, but the peace of the whole world, the Vietnamese are rendering a huge service to all the people which, tomorrow, might themselves come to face the same peril....Hence the representatives of every trade union movement in the world should ask themselves whether they have really perceived the gravity and potential danger of what is today going on in Vietnam and what they ought to do in order to check the menace looming over Vietnam and the worlds "There are significant contrasts in the attitude of different trade union movements on the subject of the Vietnam war, Some of the movements in the West have been shutting their eyes to the dangers ind confining themselves to pious opining that the war ought to be terminated at the conference table, by negotiation, But what, in reality, they do mean by a peaceful settlement is that the people of Vietnam should make sacrifices for the sake of their, not its own, peace, that it should consent to the partition~ ing of the country and deliver its southern portion into the hands of a reactionary and corrupt regimeeeseehn attitudeof the described kind has been: adopted, for example, by ICFTU and by the principal members affiliated .to that trade union headquarterse It is true that such a stand obviates an unpleasant confrontation yet it certainly fails to serve the cause of the working classe eseee™