Opposing views on C. America aired at CLUW symposium

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From left: Gretchen Mackler, Dave Jessup, and Daniel Cantor OAKLAND, Calif.—An unusual symposium on the role of U.S. labor in Latin America took place here on Sept. 19. The meeting, which was hosted by the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), was attended by 125 union and anti-intervention activists.

The two featured speakers were David Jessup, staff organizer of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), and Daniel Cantor, national staff member of the National Labor Committee for Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador. The third speaker was Gretchen Mackler, a founder of CLUW and a steering committee member of the Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice.

The national AFL-CIO operates in Central America through AIFLD, which receives over 80 percent of its funding from the U.S. government and generally mirrors State Department and CIA objectives. The Daniel Cantor:

The following are excerpts of Daniel Cantor's speech to the CLUW meeting.

We have learned a great deal over the last 15 years about some of the less savory aspects of U.S. foreign policy. Now let's look at the labor movement and foreign policy. Listen to AFL President George Meany after he heard the news of the 1954 military takeover in Guatemala.

"The American Federation of Labor," Meany said, "rejoices in the downfall of the communist-controlled regime in Guatemala and in the refusal of the army to serve any longer a government that has betrayed the democratic aspirations of the people and has transformed the country into a beachhead of Soviet Russia in the Western hemisphere."

What a sad day for American labor. President Meany suffered from tunnel vision, his view obscured by images of the communist threat. The Arbenz government was not a threat to Guatemala. It was a National Labor Committee, on the other hand, is composed of top officers from 26 unions who oppose U.S. intervention in Central America.

Cantor was the first speaker. He criticized the AFL-CIO leadership for actively supporting U.S. foreign policy at the expense of and in opposition to the unions most representative of the workers there. His strongest statements were against the contras, who he called "the blood suckers and vampires of Central America."

Jessup's speech was a carefully crafted attempt to prettify AIFLD's role in Central America and paint it as one of labor solidarity with "independent and democratic" unions. He criticized those unions not aligned with the AFL-CIO as "communist fronts" and tried to portray them as illegitimate.

Jessup described as "McCarthyite slanders" the charge that AIFLD acts as a front organization for the CIA. But during the question period many anti-intervention unionists came prepared with the facts, quotes, and press clippings to prove this charge.

Mackler reviewed CLUW's long-standing opposition to contra funding and U.S. intervention in Central America and urged that the money allocated for war spending be directed toward meeting human needs in this country.

We are reprinting below excerpts from the speeches of these three speakers. We've included lengthy quotes from Dave Jessup to familiarize our readers with the lies and distortions propagated by AIFLD.

threat to the United Fruit Company. Meany equated United Fruit with the United States, a connection that most trade unionists and most citizens would not be comfortable with.

Emil Mazey, secretary-treasurer of the Auto Workers union, UAW-CIO, also noted the events in Guatemala. He said that we have been supporting the wrong people. The State Department and the United Fruit Company manipulated the politics of that country. They organized revolutions against the best interests of the people. They opposed land reform. They opposed any special progress for the people of Guatemala.

George Meany saw the upheaval in Guatemala in 1954 and saw communists. Emil Mazey looked and saw poverty and exploitation and anger. Two competing views of the world, two views that are still competing inside the American labor This brings us in a roundabout and necessary way to the question before us. What should U.S.labor be doing and saying about Central America? What should PEOPLE ACE ARE CO 20:2222 PEOPLE « V0 " na Beacock/Socialist Action David Jessup:

The following are excerpts from David Jessup's speech to the CLUW meeting.

On the issue of the contras, the AFL-CIO has not taken a position either for or against contra aid. That is exactly what the resolution stated at the 1985 convention. Why is that? As I said in my opening remarks, our major responsibility, the reason we are in business, is to help the struggle of the democratic trade unionists in Nicaragua.

We make our policy in response to and in consultation with the unionists in the country that we are trying to help. In the current case, they have made it very clear what they would like us to do.

What they would like us to do is to cut off aid to the contras simultaneously with a cut-off of Soviet and Cuban aid to the Nicaraguan Sandinistas because it is not U.S. bullets that are killing people in Nicaragua.

If you want an end to the war you have to cut off support from both sides. The democratic Nicaraguan unionists have also asked us to help pressure the Sandinista government to go back to the promises that they made when the revolution first took place.

They ask us to pressure the Nicaraguan government to have dialogue with the opposition. If they did that this war would be over and would have been over a long time ago.

The peace proposal which has been signed by five Central American presidents is a very important step forward. Why is the accord so important?

For the first time, the peace accord has