Fraternity-Testvériség, 1956 (34. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1956-12-01 / 12. szám
8 FRATERNITY LABOR AIDS HUNGARIANS* Free workers in the United States were quick to rally to the support of the Hungarian people in their attempt to throw off their crushing domination of the Soviet Union. Financial support which was to be used to strengthen Hungarian workers in their fight for freedom will now be used for the relief of refugees from that unhappy country, as the quick march of events turned the hope for immediate freedom to a renewed slavery under the Soviet Communists. Twenty-five thousand dollars were donated by the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO to the solidarity fund of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions as “a token of our friendship, our solidarity and our support of the workers of Poland, Hungary and other countries behind the iron curtain.” The contribution was made on behalf of the leadership and membership of the Industrial Union Department, of which Walter Reuther is president and James B. Carey secretary. “Recent events both in Poland and in Hungary, beginning with the Poznan strikes, the fiasco of the Poznan trials culminating in the Polish and Hungarian uprisings against Soviet occupation and against local Communist authorities, have aroused deep sympathy and concern among our members”, said Reuther when he announced the contribution. George Meany, AFL-CIO president, has asked authority from the OFL- CIO Executive Board to contribute another $25,000 to the AFL-CIO International Free Labor Fund to aid overseas workers “now engaged in the decisive fight for free labor and human freedom.” The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has allocated $9,000 from its solidarity fund to work in Hungary. The Austrian Trade Union Federation has contributed $20,000 to the fund, and gathered and transmitted thousands of pounds of medical supplies, and organized the collection of food for the Hungarians just across their border. The German Federation of Trade Unions, with armed dictatorship on its doorstep in East Germany, donated $25,000 to the fund. IUE President James Carey in a Voice of America broadcast on November 2nd noted that “the most rigid domination of everything printed or broadcast in Hungary was a complete failure when it came to controlling what the Hungarian people thought and what they eventually said and did. “Controlling the textbooks in the schools did not stop the students from taking their brave thoughts of freedom into the streets. Controlling the trade unions and cooperatives, and denying the right to strike did not stop the working people of factory and farm from leaving work and taking part in this revolutionary action against the Soviet bosses and their local puppets. Not all the political commissars and Politburo fake generals in the Army could stop the sons and brothers in the uniform of Hungary’s workers and students from joining them in action.” * This article is reprinted from the “IUE, AFL, CIO NEWS” as a splendid example of the international workers’ solidarity.
