Omer Becu, secretary-general of the International Transport Workers Union, today commended the American maritime trade unions that are boycotting the Egyptian passenger-cargo vessel Cleopatra in New York Harbor, declaring their action was “justified.”
At the same time, Victor Larock, leading Belgian Socialist, expressed his support to American and Scandinavian dock workers for boycotting Egyptian shipping in retaliation for United Arab Republic blacklisting of ships trading with Israel.
“I have been apprised,” Mr. Becu said, “of the American dockers’ refusal to unload the cargo of the Egyptian freighter Cleopatra. The attitude of American and Finnish dockers has not surprised me. The reaction of the American dockers and Sailors’ Union, affiliated to our international, is justified.”
Mr. Larock, declaring that “the patience of American and Scandinavian dockers is at an end” because of the UAR’s actions, stated: “So long as the blacklisting policy lasts, Egyptian vessels will be boycotted, and their cargoes will not be unloaded, Should this reprisal action spread, and become general, Col, Gamal Abdel Nasser, president of the UAR, may possibly understand that aggression does not pay.
“It is to the honor of the New York, Stockholm and Copenhagen dockers that they took upon themselves the task of making a rejoinder. But it also not a little to the shame of the United Nations,” M. Larock concluded.
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