Public Employes’ Union Condemns Soviet Union’s Refusal to Permit Jews to Emigrate

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, largest of the nation’s public employe unions, has condemned both “the refusal of the Soviet Union to permit Jewish emigration to the Republic of Israel and the simultaneous resurgence of official and unofficial anti-Semitism in the U.S.S.R.” The 500,000-member union urged the State Department to make appropriate representations to the Soviet Union with a view toward permitting Jews in the U.S.S.R. and its satellites free emigration to Israel with their families and belongings. The union also urged the AFL-CIO and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions “to continue and intensify their humanitarian efforts within the court of public opinion and through any other feasible channels to effect the free emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union and satellite countries to the Republic of Israel.”