WESTERN EUROPE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00865A000800170001-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 19, 2005
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: April 22, 1975
• Content Type: NOTES

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Icelandic Media Reacts to Foreign Minister's
Moscow Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Italian Labor Unity Question Still
Unresolved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
DOS review(s) completed.
April 22, 1975
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Icelandic Media Reacts to Foreign Minister's
Moscow Trip
Icelandic Foreign Minister Agustsson's visit
to the USSR from April 1-9 has generated com-
plaints and allegations in the media of increased
Soviet influence in Iceland.
In a television interview on April 18,
Agustsson was questioned closely about the new
Soviet-Icelandic cultural agreement. He denied
that the agreement would facilitate Soviet in-
volvement in Nordic affairs, and rejected specu-
lation that the USSR expects Icelandic support for
membership in the Nordic Council.
The US Embassy in Reykjavik has learned
that the Soviets intend to initiate a "massive"
information and cultural program in Iceland and
reportedly have put out "feelers" for an insti-
tutional link to the Nordic Council.
The conservative daily Morgunbladid, the
official newspaper of one of the government
coalition partners, began a campaign immediately
following Agustsson's return from Moscow criticiz-
ing Icelandic-Soviet relations. Morgunbladid's
latest barrage was directed at the new Soviet
Ambassador's alleged espionage career.
The media campaign has been an embarrassment
to the Icelandic government. Although relations
as a great success.
with the Soviets have been strained at times,
Reykjavik has tried to bill the Agustsson trip
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April 22, 1975
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Italian Labor Unity Question Still Unresolved
A majority of Italy's top labor leaders
last week endorsed in principle the eventual
formation of a single national labor organization,
but the minority that fears Communist domination
of the labor movement is strong enough to
block implementation of the plan in the near
future.
The majority vote for unification resulted
mainly from the unanimous support given by
representatives of Italy's largest labor
organization.--the Communist-dominated General
Confederation of Italian Workers (CGIL).
Their support alone accounted for 65 percent
of the vote in favor of unification.
Any effort to put the plan into effect,
however, will be hindered by dissent within
the other two major labor organizations--
the Christian Democratic-oriented Confederation
of Trade Unions (CISL) and the Union of Italian
Labor (UIL), a mixture of Social Democrats,
Socialists, and Republicans. Opponents of
labor unity have enough strength within both
organizations to prevent either from taking
the next step on the way to a single national
labor union-,-the dissolution of the existing
confederations.
Apart from the bitter personal rivalries
that divide Italian labor leaders, opposition
to merger of the three confederations centers
on the question of whether they can achieve
genuine separation from the country's political
parties. Those against merger maintain that,
without such autonomy, Communist control
of the new organization would be assured.
April 22, 1975
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Communist labor leaders have gone through
the motions of resigning their party positions,
but labor unity opponents remain unconvinced.
Their skepticism was undoubtedly reinforced
by the prominent role given to the top Communist
labor leader in the party's recent national
congress.
The Communist answer to opponents of
the merger has been a call to press ahead
toward unification with ?'those who are willing,"
even at the risk of a split in the labor
movement. In addition to the enhanced economic
leverage it would give them, the Communists
see labor unification as another way of conditioning
the Christian Democrats to eventual acceptance
of Communist participation in the government.
Further decisions on labor unification
are likely to be deferred until after the
important nationwide local elections this
June. In the meantime, the labor leaders
will at least be able to present a unified
front in reacting to the recent upsurge in
violence by right and left-wing extremists.
They voted to protest the "fascist" provocations
by calling two brief general strikes one
last week and the other yesterday.
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April 22, 1975
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