AFL-CIO leaders launch drive to counter antiwar mood in unions

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"There's more heat than ever before to follow the State Department line."

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 campaign is scheduled to wind up at the Oct. 28-31 AFL-CIO national convention in Anaheim, Calif., where 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.

1. Cant 11 1006 ACT MIn laden ta 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 ONOIAC LABOR NOTES 1985 ... AND HERE'S BROTHER •СИТОЛІ AREDIT Human Rights in El Salvador was formed. This committee includes the presidents of 24 major international unions. It has issued two fact-finding reports-the latest one in July 1985— strongly opposing the AFL-CIO line on Central America.

The committee's July 1985 report, entitled "The Search for Peace in Central America, recommended that all U.S. military aid to the government of El Salvador be stopped on the grounds that "the human rights situation in El Salvador has not improved and tradeunion and political rights are still being violated."

The report also stated that "the 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, July KIRKLAND MODELING A GORGEOUS LITTLE DESIGNED BY Taken from August 1985 issue of Labor Note National Labor Committee report recommended that the U.S. government "end all military support for the counterrevolutionary groups groups (contras) attacking Nicaragua from Honduras and Costa Rica."

The report stated that Nicaragua is not "the totalitarian government of Reagan's pronouncements." It also noted that "the contra forces are not supported by the vast majority of the Nicaraguan people."

The Doherty/Brown road show The fall AIFLD road tour featured keynote speeches by Irving Brown, head of the labor federation's International AIl.i.. N.- - da an e -- d T1:11:-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-AIFLD 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 hue was able to convince the resolutions committee to recommend a "yes" vote on his Central America resolution and a "no" vote on the two opposing resolutions.

When it came time to vote, the Kirkland line was overwhelmingly defeated. "There were almost no 'yes' votes for the Kirkland resolution—at most 10 to 15 out of 729 delegates" said the union official.

Moreover, the two opposing resolutions calling for an end to U.S. military aid to the Duarte government and an end to U.S. support to the contras won by a large majority.

Compromise reached in Massachusetts On Oct. 3-5, the Massachusetts State AFL-CIO convention was the scene of a similar confrontation between the two opposing wings of the labor movement.

But the character and the outcome of the debate were different because of the different strategy adopted by the Massachusetts Labor Committee on Central America, a group of 45 local union presidents who support the conclusions of the National Labor Committee's latest report.

Dave Slaney, president of the United Steelworkers of America Local 2431 and the labor committee's chairperson, explained that the oppositionists had proposed a compromise to Dave Jessup, AIFLD's official representative at the convention, in the hopes of helping to "educate the ranks about U.S. interventionist policy in Central America."

"We said we'd withdraw our resolution if they withdrew theirs,' Slaney said. "I think they didn't want a floor fight and were afraid we'd win, so they accepted our proposal."

Slaney said the compromise also involved a public debate at the time of the convention between Frank Hammer, whom the committee had flown in from

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AND THE PIRATES TELL THE PRIME MIRISTER WE'VE GOT THE THUGS AND WERE BRINGIN' 'EM IN! transform the other countries of the world into colonies of the American empire.

"This is a program of madness, and it is doomed to failure. The great majority of the people of the world do not want to be slaves of America. That is to their credit