The emergence of anti-Semitism in a strike at a Jewish-owned leather factory in Paysandu, Uruguay, has aroused the country’s Jewish community, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith reported today.
According to ADL, posters mounted on the entrance gates and on the walls of the factory carried such anti-Semitic slogans as “Hitler was right; Too bad he is not here.” The Central Jewish Committee of Uruguay called upon the nation’s unions and union leaders to denounce this injection of anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi propaganda into a dispute between labor and management.
The anti-Semitic action has been repudiated by the national leather workers union even though the local Paysandu chapter, which represents 600 employees, has not yet issued a statement, the ADL reported.
Luis Brezzo, Uruguay’s Director of Labor, denounced the posters in a report to the Labor Committee of the Uruguayan House of Representatives in Montevideo.
In the discussion on a motion for the House to condemn the anti-Semitism, Deputy Dr. Pablo Miller of the Union Coloraday Batillista declared that “the clear anti-Semitic content is repugnant” and an impediment to the negotiating process. The motion to condemn the anti-Semitism was blocked, however, by the leftwing coalition party, Frente Amplio (Broad Front).
The Anti-Defamation League is monitoring developments with the Central Jewish Committee and the B’nai B’rith of Uruguay.
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