HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1952
The increase in the number of registrations was caused partly by the growth of the breakaway move- ment from unions previously affiliated to the Federation of Trade Unions, which had begun last year. The cause of the breakaway was still the same, the extremely political nature of unions dominated by the left-wing Federation. More unionists became aware of the need, at least in theory, for developing trade unionism on non-political lines. In practice many of the new organizations have merely exchanged one patron of the extreme left for another of the far right, partly because they see in the Trades Union Council the only effective opposition to the Federation. A few unions are endeavouring to remain independent of either fac- tion but they are weak and inexperienced and political pressures are strong.
The Federation has suffered severe setbacks during the past year by losing a considerable number of mem- bers from its affiliated unions. The attempt to whip up enthusiasm on the purely political issue of a visit to the Colony by a Canton "comfort mission" on behalf of the victims of a large squatter fire, which led to riots in Kowloon on March 1st, (See p. 5) caused a large number of the more conservative workers to break with the Federation and the Trades Union Council has profited by this, not only in membership but in prestige.
The development of trade unionism is still hinder- ed, not only by politics and the multiplicity of unions within the same trade or industry but also by the failure of the unions to adopt recognized union methods, to frame a clear union policy, by extravagance in the use of union funds and by repeated disregard by the unions of their own rules. During the year the Labour Department again tried to counteract these failings by
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