Joining Hands with Washington

excerpted from the book

Workers of the World Undermined

American Labor's role in U.S. foreign policy

by Beth Sims

South End Press, 1992, paper

p21
Publicly, the AFL-CIO and its institutes stress their independence from government. A closer look, however, tells a different story. The current partnership between the AFL-CIO and the U.S. government has historical roots dating to the early part of this century. Now, dependent on Washington for funding and logistical assistance, the institutes often function as vital appendages for the government in international labor affairs. Without these government resources, the institutes would be unable to carry out their projects overseas.

p22
... the international institutes of the AFL-CIO get the overwhelming majority of their funding from the U.S. government, a fact which belies their claim to be private organizations independent of Washington. The funds are channeled through the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and AID, an arm of the State Department. In 1987, for example, direct grants from AID, together with USIA grants which were passed through the National Endowment for Democracy, accounted for 98 percent of the institutes' funding, while the labor federation itself contributed a mere 2 percent toward its foreign activities.

p26
... The White House in June 1986 asked for AIFLD's assistance in Haiti "because of the presence of radical labor unions and the high risk that other unions may become radicalized." But radicalization of the Haitian labor force seems a quite reasonable response to Haiti's dire poverty (the country is the poorest in the western hemisphere), stupendously skewed income distribution, and dismal working conditions. Even after the flight of longtime dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in February 1986, workers were fired for seeking to organize, and their strikes and protests were met with violent repression by the armed forces and by groups of thugs hired by employers. The main targets of these anti-labor activities have been workers associated with the Autonomous Central of Haitian Workers (CATH), an outspoken proponent of political reform as well as labor rights and the most militant of Haitian union groupings. CATH is not aligned with any international union confederation, and its neutrality in the Cold War and militancy on the labor front have made it suspect in the eyes of the U.S. federation. Another major target of repression has been a CATH breakaway faction, the Autonomous Central of Haitian Workers-Confederation of Latin American Workers (CATHCLAT), so named because of its affiliation with the association of Christian Democratic unions in Latin America known as the Confederation of Latin American Workers (CLAT).

In stark contrast to the treatment of these two more militant federations, the conservative Federation of Trade Union Workers (FOS) has largely been allowed to continue its organizing and institution-building activities. The American Institute for Free Labor Development helped to establish FOS in 1984 in order to qualify Haiti to participate in the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). CBI is a U.S.-sponsored regional development program that permits qualified countries to export products to the United States without paying the usual duties, assuming they meet certain requirements such as allowing workers to join unions. FOS was the only recognized union grouping under Duvalier, a cosmetic formality that allowed Haiti-and U.S. assembly plants-duty free access to the U.S. market under CBI. FOS continues to be the major recipient of U.S. funding for labor in Haiti.

p27
... the labor institutes historically have provided a channel through which the CIA could penetrate foreign labor sectors. They have offered a useful cover for intelligence operatives and supported undercover operations. In fact, both mid-level field staff and top level members of each of the institutes have been identified as intelligence agents who operated with the direct assistance of U.S. embassies and the CIA overseas. Such channels continue to be available today even if actual revelations of CIA labor operations and disclosure of active operatives working under CIA cover have not been forthcoming under the conservative U.S. governments of the 1980s.

p32
In keeping with this pattern of secrecy in the AFL-CIO's international operations, decision-making regarding the choice of priorities and the general thrust of institute programs occurs in the shadows of the AFL-CIO's executive offices and its International Affairs Department (popularly known as the DIA).

p35
In conversations with unionists and labor analysts, it was impossible to get a firm grip on the exact relationship of these top level labor bureaucrats to the State Department, CIA, and other policy-making and operational arms of the U.S. government. The secrecy surrounding the AFL-CIO's foreign policy decision-making process means that such links are well-concealed. So too is the direction of influence-whether from the AFL-CIO to the government, or the other way around.

p36
... [Samuel] Gompers, who helped found the AFL and headed the organization until his death in 1924, was a zealous internationalist who established the guiding principles of the labor federation's foreign policy. Gompers was anti-colonial, but he did not oppose U.S. expansionism if outright territorial acquisition was not the objective. On the contrary, he approved the gradual, non-military extension of U.S. commerce and influence around the world. "The nation which dominates the markets of the world will surely control its destinies," he told the Anti-Imperialist League in 1898. In the same speech he urged the United States not to annex the Philippines, arguing that "neither its gates nor those of any other country of the globe can long be closed against our constantly growing industrial supremacy." By the turn of the century, the AFL backed the gradual enlargement of the U.S. sphere of influence, while formally disavowing U.S. annexations of the spoils of the Spanish-American War, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

These early years of the AFL were not marked by any special closeness with Washington. The federation was then preoccupied with pulling itself together as a unified body, a process that involved purging radical elements or diluting their influence. Domestic matters and organizational requirements were far more important than international affairs in terms of occupying labor's time and resources. Support for or opposition to U.S. foreign policy were acted out in the battle for public opinion and in vote mobilizations during electoral campaigns.

But the erosion of U.S. labor militancy-spurred by Gompers' growing belief in business unionism, government support for AFL unions, repression of left-wing unions, and increasing affluence in the United States-gradually tightened the bonds between the AFL and Washington. At the turn of the century sharp divisions existed between politically radical elements of the U.S. labor movement such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and more conservative associations, such as the American Federation of Labor. Government suppression of the IWW in favor of the American Federation of Labor during World War I cleared the playing field of many of U.S. labor's most militant factions.

The general contours of the modern-day alliance between organized labor and the U.S. government were forged during World War I under Gompers. In a departure from the labor internationalism which had characterized both the left-wing and procapitalist union movements until that time, the war inflamed nationalist sentiments among workers around the world. In the United States, Gompers engineered a mutual-support deal With Washington, delivering a loyal and disciplined workforce in exchange for government recognition of its right to organize.

p38
By the beginning of World War II, the American Federation of Labor-which had not yet merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations-was positioned to become deeply involved as an operations arm of U.S. foreign policy. Although both federations had offices and operations in Europe, it was the more conservative AFL that was closely tied to Washington both politically and financially.' The AFL coordinated its war effort with Washington and with allies overseas through its International Affairs Department, created at the onset of the war, and through the Free Trade Union Committee, established in 1944. These entities in turn cooperated with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS-precursor to the CIA) in programs in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

From the beginning, the international affairs department and the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC) were wedded to a militant anticommunism which aligned them neatly with the long-term political objectives of Washington.

... Drawing on its solid links to U.S. government agencies, the AFL stepped into the postwar vacuum of war-devastated Europe. It became an ardent backer of the Marshall Plan and mounted a CIA-funded struggle for control of European trade union movements. The European labor arena during the immediate postwar years was the site of an intense Cold War competition for the region's workers. Communist unions and left-wing social movements, their legitimacy enhanced by years of resistance to Europe's fascist dictatorships, faced off against U.S.-backed unionists intent on achieving ideological and institutional dominance in European labor movements.

Labor leaders from the United States-funded by U.S. corporations and the CIA and supported by the State Department and U.S. embassies-were instrumental in these efforts. They financed organizing and propaganda activities, selected candidates to lead foreign unions, financed their campaigns, paid off supporters, and helped

build pro-western union infrastructures. The Free Trade Union Committee, created to "help [foreign] unions resist the new drives of totalitarian forces," acted both during and after the war as a branch of U.S. intelligence operations to win the battle for these unions.

Workers of the World Undermined

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