Nogroops Central America
1987 1987-10Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 7 →
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cleverly disguise the AFL-CIO leadership's support to the U.S. government's Cold War policies in Central America. It does this by supporting both the Arias peace plan and major planks of the so-called Reagan peace plan.
These two plans differ, however, on key issues. While neither peace plan prohibits continued U.S. military aid to El Salvador's President Jose Napoleon Duarte, they diverge substantially on the question of contra funding. The Arias plan calls for an end to contra aid by Nov. 7. The Reagan plan, on the other hand, places such unacceptable demands on the Nicaraguan government that it has been almost universally denounced as a veiled attempt to secure further contra funding.
The only aspects of the Arias peace proposal which interest the AFL-CIO Cold Warriors are those which insist that the Nicaraguan government give free rein to opponents of the revolution-all in the name of "democratizing" Nicaragua.
The AFL-CIO officialdom conveniently ignores other parts of the Arias plan which require a cutoff of contra aid.
This alleged concern for a negotiated settlement in Central America echoes that of President Reagan, who welcomed peace negotiations while at the same time asking Congress for $270 million in military aid to the contras—the largest request to date.
The top AFL-CIO leadership, like the U.S. government, will only be satisfied with a "political solution" that is able to force more concessions from the Nicaraguan government than the contras have been able to win on the battlefield.
Still, the difference between the two plans on contra funding lays the basis for a political confrontation which may filter into the AFL-CIO convention itself.
Fears of open debate It is very possible, however, that the labor federation's position on peace negotiations and contra funding may be resolved behind closed doors before hitting Joe Ryan/Socialist Action ine convenuion noor. Inis is standara 11 - ...... rl:. : - -- 1--1 practice for the heavily bureaucratized AFL-CIO.
The AFL-CIO bureaucrats don't want a replay of what happened two years ago.
An unprecedented foreign policy debate occurred at the 1985 AFL-CIO convention. The media gave it prominent play. Anti-intervention speeches by then Screen Actors Guild President Ed Asner and others were widely circulated. Never before had the foreign policy positions of the AFL-CIO been so openly challenged.
Although the debate reflected growing opposition to the union federation's overall reactionary views, the discussion centered on policy in Central America. The 1985 resolution on Central America supported a