Summary
British inspector of the government of Palestine’s Labor Department, a veteran of the English trade union movement, who in 1942-43 urged and oversaw the establishment of Arab unions across Palestine (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3349).
Details
- Chudleigh devoted much of his time and energy in 1942-43 to urging and overseeing the establishment of Arab unions in many parts of Palestine. Some observers, especially Histadrut officials, felt he was particularly supportive of labour organising by communists or those close to them; Lockman writes this may well have been the case, in part because Chudleigh thought communists the most effective organizers and in part because in 1942-43 the Arab communists in Palestine strongly supported the Allied war effort (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3349).
- In September 1943 Chudleigh summed up relations between the Arab and Jewish labour movements: common economic interests were overridden by political considerations, possibilities of cooperation in the army camps and workshops, the Jaffa municipality and elsewhere had been allowed to pass, and only the Jerusalem municipal dispute had achieved any degree of working together (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3445-3447).
- During the Wagner factory arbitration in Jaffa, Chudleigh added to R. M. Graves’s statement: “we are interested in and support organizations of Arab workers led by [Arabs] themselves. Moreover, we are interested in unifying the [Arab labor] organizations in order to create a united Arab workers movement. The PLL creates divisions, it divides rather than unites” (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3489).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Labor Department, R. M. Graves, Palestine Labor League, Histadrut, Palestine Arab Workers Society