WESTERN EUROPE CANADA INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A000600190001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 27, 2001
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 24, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

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Confidential
No Forei~n Di.r.rem
gul
EELiJ
E
Western Europe
Canada
International Organizations
Confidential
1.19
No. 0159-75
March 24, 1975
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Warning Notice
Sensitive Intelligence Sources and Methods Involved
NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
Unauthorized Disclosure Subject to Criminal Sanctions
Classified by 005827
Exempt from general declassification schedule
of E. 0. 11652, exemption category:
? 5B (1), (2), and (3)
Automatically declassified
on: Date Impossible to Determine
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This publication is prepared for regional specialists in the Washington com-
munity by the Western Europe Division, Office of Current Intelligt nce, with
occasional contributions from other offices within the Directorate of
Intelligence. Comments and queries are welcome. They should be directed tr,
the authors of the individual articles.
New Economic Measures Fail to Appease
Icelandic Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
ICFTU's Latin American Regional Organization
May be Restructured . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
NATO Consideration of Public Relations
Aspects of CSCE . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 5
March 24, 1975
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New Economic Measures Fail to Appease
Icelandic Workers
The Icelandic Federation of Labor's luke-
warm reaction to a package of government econ-
omic proposals suggests that a general strike
on April 7 is still under consideration.
The economic proposals are designed to
cut government spending and assist low-income
workers. Income tax laws will be adjusted
and some import duties will be reduced or
eliminated. The government claims that the
proposed tax reduction will mean a six to
seven percent increase in wages. Forced
savings measures will require those with high
income:.a to purchase government bonds. The
government also proposes a tax on departing
travelers and an increase in landing charges.
Current wage negotiations between the
government and labor under way for weeks have
made little progress. Labor had hoped that
the government's package would contain tough
measures to ease the economic pinch. Labor
claims that a 20 percent devaluation of the
kronur last month, a one percent sales tax
hike, and recent rate increases for utilities
have contributed to nearly a 50 percent loss
in purchasing power over the last year.
The Icelandic Federation of Labor must
give notice by March 26 in order to strike on
April 7. A Labor spokesman said that after
a thorough examination of the government's
package, the IFL would inform the government
of its reaction.
March 24, 1975
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Labor's patience is wearing thin. The
unions probably believe that a strike is their
only remaining option following the frustrating
wage negotiations and the disappointing tax
bill. (Confidential)
March 24, 1975
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ICFTU's Latin American Regional Organization
May be Restructured
An International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions (ICFTU) delegation--composed of
the organization's President, Secretary
General and top officials of the Mexican and
certain West European affiliates--are winding
up a two-week "special mission" to Latin
America. The main purpose of the trip is to
discuss the policies and future of ICFTU's
Interamerican Regional Organization of Workers
(GRIT) with Latin American affiliates.
ORIT has been in a deep crisis for some
time as a result of financial and administra-
tive problems coupled with widespread member
dissatisfaction over the organization's poli-
cies and general ineffectiveness. In particular,
there are sharp differences between ICFTU and
ORIT regarding Chile. Various European trade
union leaders believe that ORIT has shown in-
sufficient concern over the coup and subsequent
developments. There has been considerable
pressure on ICFTU to either reorganize or dis-
band ORIT and the leaders of the Mexican,
Colombian, Venezuelan, and Argentinian affili-
ates agreed last December to work toward the
creation of a new regional organization.
During their visit to Caracas, the ICFTU
delegation held substantive talks with local
trade unionists and a consensus was reached
that the Latin American democratic trade
union movement badly needs restructuring in
order to give it a new impetus. To this end,
it was agreed that representatives of the key
ORIT labor centrals--Canada, Mexico, Colombia,
March 24, 1975
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Venezuela, and the US--would get together
before the ICFTU World Congress in Mexico
in October in order to discuss what form the
hemispheric organization should take. It
was implicit during the discussion that the
end result of this process might be a simple
reform of ORIT, and a replacement of its
present leadership, rather than the creation
of an entirely new organization.
The Venezuelans had been in the fore-
front of those pushing for a new organization
and their readiness to retain the ORIT
structure may result from the fact that the
Mexicans have paid up their back dues and
an expectation that a Venezuelan would take
over the Secretary Generalship as a part of a
prospective reorganization.
ICFTU and the Venezuelans also agreed
that it is essential that the AFL-CIO and the
Canadian union organization should continue to
participate in the hemispheric labor organiza-
tion. (Confidential)
March 24, 1975
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NATO Consideration of Public Relations
Aspects of CSCE
-NATO's political committee last week
approved the US proposal that basic guidance
be drawn up for members to use in explaining
the results of CSCE to their publics.
The representatives seemed to agree
on several points:
-The West should strike a balance be-
tween the positive and the negative.
While it should be stressed that CSCE
is only an element of detente and does
not necessarily represent a turning
point in East-West relations, Western
participants should not appear to be
"poor losers" by overemphasizing the
conference's limited results.
--This balance will be difficult to
achieve. As the Danish representa-
tive put it, the West will have to
overcome the "paradox" of saying that
CSCE results are positive enough to
permit a summit-level conclusion
while at the same time emphasizing
that the conference's achievements are
not earth-shaking.
Western participants should stress
that the ultimate importance of CSCE
can only be judged after it is seen
how agreements are implemented.
-Each Western participant, within the
March 24, 1975
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limits of the basic guidelines
agreed upon, will wish to stress
different themes in different ways.
The French representative illustrated
this last point when he said that, unlike
other Western participants, France will not
be able to emphasize that MBFR is the key
to military detente in Europe. The French-
man thought his country would also wish to
stress that detente is as much a bilateral
as a multilateral exercise. The West Ger-
man representative said that, in order to
counter likely Soviet propaganda claims
that the conference had codified the ter-
ritorial status quo in Europe, Bonn would
wish to point to the CSCE provision endorsing
the peaceful change of borders. (Confidential
No Foreign Dissem)
March 24, 1975
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Confidential
Confidential
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