AFL-CIO leaders launch drive counter antiwar mood in uni‹

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For the past two months, the AFL-CIO top leadership, in close collaboration with the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), has conducted a national campaign aimed at countering the growing opposition within the labor movement to U.S. policy in Central America.

the AFL-CIO leaders hope to push through a resolution supporting the U.S. war in Central America.

AIFLD, the labor federation's arm in Latin America, has been an active supporter of the State Department's policy toward this region. It is an official institute of the AFL-CIO but it receives about 90 percent of its funds from the U.S. government's Agency for International Development (AID). Numerous mainstream publications—as well as exCIA agents like Philip Agee-have directly linked AIFLD to the CIA.

The AFL-CIO leadership's campaign has included two-day labor seminars in nine states, tours to AFL-CIO state conventions by high labor officials and union leaders from the federations AIFLD favors in Central America, and the distribution of a new 300-page AIFLD document and a documentary film on Central America.

At the previous AFL-CIO convention, which was held in October 1983 in Hollywood, Fla., the top AIFLD officials had organized an invited-guestsonly conference entitled "Threats to Democracy in Central America."

The purpose of this high-visibility conference was to "denounce Soviet interventionism in the region" and thereby to pressure all wings of the labor officialdom into accepting a more hawkish resolution on Central America.

This year the AFL-CIO and AIFLD leaders have devoted two full months to accomplish this same objective.

Traumatized by opposition

The scope of the fall AIFLD campaign is an indication that the top labor officials are seriously concerned about the increasing rift within the labor movement over U.S. policy in Central America.

A Sept. 11, 1985, AFL-CIO letter to all regional directors made this concern explicit. In this letter, Donald Slaiman urged all the directors to inform him about the "campaign to challenge AFLBIONS rejected by the 729 delegates. CIO foreign policy." Slaiman was particularly anxious to know about "any efforts to introduce resolutions on Central America in state and local federation conventions that do not conform to AFL-CIO policy."

One reason the top AFL-CIO leadership is so concerned about the issue of Central America is that a split has occurred within its own ranks over what policy to adopt toward this region.

In 1982, the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and cratic society.

This position directly contradicts that of Lane Kirkland, the president of the AFL-CIO and of AIFLD. Kirkland, who served on the bipartisan Kissinger Commission on Central America in January 1984, actively supported the Commission's recommendations to send $400 million in military aid to El Salvador for 1984-85 and to increase the U.S. force against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Regarding Nicaragua, Doherty urged further U.S. military and economic aid to that country.

Doherty refrained from attacking the National Labor Committee by name, but indirectly included the committee among those non-AlFLD union delegations that had visited Nicaragua over the past two years and had "promoted the Sandinistas' misinformation and deception campaign."

In an Aug. 30, 1985, report circulated at the labor meetings, Doherty stated: "Most of these delegations have been given the regular 'Cook's tour.... Upon their return to the United States, these groups have issued reports on how great the Sandinistas were and what they had done for the workers."

Kirkland's ally defects

To Kirkland's great chagrin, even the AFL-CIO-supported union in El Salvador, the Popular Democratic Unity (UPD), has turned against the Duarte regime and AIFLD. The UPD had initially been one of the regime's big supporters.

In a Feb. 15, 1985, letter to Duarte's Christian Democratic Party, UPD General Secretary Ramon Mendoza indicted the Duarte government for failing to implement land redistribution and for "increasing the repression against legitimate trade unionists."

Soon after the UPD broke its pact with the Duarte government, AIFLD withdrew its financial support to the UPD. AIFLD then supplanted the UPD with the Democratic Workers Central (CTD), which is a totally fictitious organization consisting of a maximum of 1000 members.

According to the Labor Network on Central America, the CTD has been seeking an alliance with a new rightwing party, Patria Libre, which is an offshoot of Roberto D'Aubuisson's ARENA party. D'Aubuisson is one of "There's more heat than er to follow the State Departr the principal leaders of the Salvadoran death squads.

On Aug. 14, 1985, Mendoza wrote a letter to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland. "AIFLD's work is rapidly deteriorating in a process of corruption, manipulation, and false representation, Mendoza stated. He concluded his letter by demanding that "AIFLD get out of El Salvador."

Kirkland defeated in Minnesota A significant challenge to the Kirkland leadership's foreign policy occurred at two state AFL-CIO conventions held this fall.

On Sept. 22-24, the top labor officials took their tour to the Minnesota State AFL-CIO convention. Thomas Donahue, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, arrived in St. Paul, Minn., on the last day of the convention to present a resolution on Central America to the over 700 delegates.

"The resolution came in after the deadline and wasn't even part of the original published resolutions, said a local labor official who asked not to be identified.

The union official explained that despite the "irregular procedure", Donahue was able committee t on his Centr "no" vote o tions.

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