Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO, told Japanese labor leaders in Tokyo last week that an impending visit to Japan by Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat at the invitation of some Japanese parliamentarians was one they should shun. He expressed his personal revulsion against the PLO.
Kirkland’s reiteration of his sentiments about the PLO–sentiments frequently expressed in both domestic and foreign speeches–were made known to DOMEI and SOHYO labor officials, counterparts in Japan of the AFL-CIO.
Kirkland expressed dismay that Arafat was scheduled to meet with the Japanese Premier and stressed to his labor hosts that the expected visit could be interpreted as violating the spirit of the Camp David accords as well as giving respectability to terrorism.
Kirkland’s intercession against the PLO and Arafat were reported by Donald Slaiman, president of the Jewish Labor Committee and an AFL-CIO official.
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