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| [Some introductory remarks sniped --risephoenix] What is the AFL-CIO doing in the third world? Right now, quite frankly, I do not know. I hope Sweeney and his administration have made a TOTAL REPUDIATION of the policies and operations that were the hallmark of Lane Kirkland's administrations (and George Meany's--as well as Samuel Gompers' in the AFL). I have been challenging the AFL-CIO's foreign operations for a number of years, particularly while a shop floor worker and printer in the Graphic Communications International Union. I have also long believed that building international labor solidarity is an incredibly important task in the larger struggle for social change: I was the North American representative of the British-based journal INTERNATIONAL LABOUR REPORTS for over five years. What I have found over the years is that, to the best of my knowledge, with very few and basically insignificant exceptions, the AFL-CIO has ALWAYS acted as a reactionary force in the third world. This is not a new policy--it extends back to 1919, when the AFL under Gompers set of the Pan American Federation of Labor as a means to control progressive/radical labor movements throughout the entire hemisphere. The AFL helped overthrow the democratically elected Arbenz regime in Guatemala in 1954, and through its AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), the AFL-CIO helped overthrow democratically elected regimes in Brazil in 1964 and that of Allende in Chile in 1973. This stuff has been strongly documented. Beth Sims, in her excellent 1992 book, WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNDERMINED: AMERICAN LABOR'S ROLE IN US FOREIGN POLICY (Boston: South End), also claims involvement in destabilization efforts in the Dominican Republic and Guyana (p. 56). Of course, the AFL-CIO was operating in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and many other countries, and there's no indication that their efforts differed in any significant aspects from the ones we know about: in every case, the AFL-CIO worked to undermine, attack and/or destroy any union/labor movement that was struggling for systemic social change. We also know that the AFL-CIO worked AGAINST the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) for many years. COSATU has been a key played in the liberation struggle in South Africa, and is widely seen as perhaps the key force in enabling the anti-apartheid movement inside the country to survive the state of emergency of the late 1980s. The AFL-CIO supported the development of UWUSA (United Workers Union of South Africa) which was created by Gatsha Buthelezi in 1986 to oppose COSATU. And, in fact, the AFL-CIO later gave Buthelezi the "George Meany Human Rights Award" (sic). This support also has extended specifically to Brazil (to counter the CUT, Central Unico do Trabalhadores), to South Korea (supporting the government supported Federation of Korean Trade Unions against the Korean Trade Union Congress, which has now changed its name to Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and is leading the ongoing strikes in Korea right now), and to the Philippines (where it has supported the Marcos Dictatorship-initiated Trade Union Congress of the Philippines against the KMU, Kilusang Mayo Uno). I also have heard rumors that they have been supporting the government-sponsored trade unions in Indonesia against the insurgent unions, but I lack details. But I have EXTENSIVE details on the AFL-CIO's operations in the Philippines, through its Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI): this has been documented in my 1996 book, KMU: BUILDING GENUINE TRADE UNIONISM IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1980-1994, which was published in Quezon City (Philippines) by New Day Publishers but is being distributed in the US by Sulu Arts and Books in San Francisco. Some highlights: between 1983-1988, the AFL-CIO, through AAFLI, gave more money to the Marcos-initiated Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) than it gave to any other trade union in the world: over $5.7 million! (And if you think $5.7 million is a lot in the US, believe me it goes one hell of a lot farther in the Philippines....) The major affiliate of the TUCP is called ALU, Associated Labor Unions. ALU is run by a man named Democrito Mendoza, who has also been the president of the TUCP since 1978. I have extensive eye-witness reports detailing ALU's affiliation with death squads in a struggle to remove a KMU-affiliated local union from Atlas Mines, the largest copper mines in Asia between 1987-90. A considerable number of the KMU unon's leaders, members and, in some cases, even relatives, were wounded and/or killed during this struggle by the death squads. (The good news is that, in a contest with 12 other unions--including ALU--over who would represent the Atlas workers, and in the face of violence by the death squads and the Philippine constabulary, management and local government opposition, the KMU union won by 68%!) And in 1991, when the US was trying to get the Philippine government to extend the lease on the US military bases (from which every US invasion of Asia was launched since 1898), Philippine Senator and the Secretary General of the TUCP, Ernesto Herrera, accepted a $3.7 million bribe from AAFLI to vote for retention of the bases--which, when confronted, Herrera admitted! I could go on. The point is that the AFL-CIO operations in the third world have been overwhelmingly reactionary. There has also been documentation of outright collaboration with the CIA; there has also been documentation (starting in 1919) of getting massive financial support from the US Government to carry out its foreign operations. Accordingly, as perhaps many of you know, there have been a number of claims that the AFL-CIO was carrying out the operations of the CIA, US Government, and/or the State Department. Haven't we all heard of the AFL-CIA? Obviously, this needs to be further researched, but based on my research, I reject this claim: I believe the AFL-CIO (like the AFL before) has its own imperialist foreign policy, and thus has been operating in furtherance of this policy on its own behalf, even when collaborating with the CIA and/or getting funding from the US Government. In any case, the AFL-CIO has been carrying out an extensive policy of what Hobart Spaulding and others have called "Labor Imperialism." So, what do we, as progressive intellectuals/activists do in this situation? Obviously, we support progressive, democratic struggles by rank and file activists, members and progressive staffers. But regarding the AFL-CIO itself? I think we should push John Sweeney, et. al., to reveal the details of the AFL-CIO's foreign operations historically and currently; to repudiate any policy and operations that are based on any type of labor imperialism; to refuse any funding from the US Government for foreign policy and/or operations; to disband the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AFFLI) and African-American Labor Center (AALC) and immediately order any AFL-CIO staff person to refuse any connection with the CIA and/or related organizations and operations; to cease and desist any foreign operations until they have provided a written description of all foreign operations, with funding by source for each, for every member of every AFL-CIO affiliated federation, union and labor council and related organizations, and until they have won endorsement for proposed foreign operations by at least a 60% vote in an open convention after full and complete presentations and discussions on the issue by everyone who wants to talk.
In my opinion, based on past practice, the AFL-CIO's foreign policy
and operations are guilty until proven innocent. I would urge the AFL-CIO
to release documentation and discuss these and other related points to
prove its challengers on this issue wrong. I hope things have radically
changed since Sweeney took office, but I must say I'm skeptical--again,
I hope he will prove me wrong. More on this subject, focusing on Latin America, can be found here. |
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