AIFLD 'road show' fails on West Coast

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GRETCHEN MACKLER

HAYDEN PERRY Trade unionists in San Francisco were recently given a glimpse into the cloak-anddagger world of AFL-CIO intrigue in the labor movements of scores of nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The occasion was the arrival of a travelling show-and-tell exhibit by the AFL-CIO Department of International Affairs.

These foreign-policy "experts" have been travelling across the country trying to whip up support for their project to turn the international labor movement into cheering squads for U.S. business interests.

The speakers did not present their case in these terms, however. There was much talk about the need to raise the standard of living in the Third World, to foster democracy, and to oppose apartheid.

They were not acting as agents of the CIA, the speakers insisted in response to criticism from the audience. Their funds did not come from the CIA, they said. Nor did they slavishly carry out Reagan's policies when operating abroad. They were only unionists spreading the message of labor solidarity to the less fortunate people overseas.

Unionists on a picket line outside the hotel challenged these claims. "The AFL-CIO International Department spends $28 million in 'overseas organizing, '" they said in a written statement. "The money is spent to bribe foreign unionists, set up right-wing union federations, and subvert governments throughout the world, such as Nicaragua, Chile, and Guatemala."

Manipulating unions of Europe The International Affairs Department (IAD) had its beginning at the close of World War II, when unions in Europe were emerging from the ashes. AFL chiefs William Green and, later, George Meany viewed the radical mood of European workers with alarm. They determined to pull these unionists away from Soviet and radical influence.

They set up the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC) and proceeded to offer money, food, and mimeograph machines to any trade unionist who would help build a conservative pro-American labor movement.

At first, FTUC operated CIO money, but projects got bigger and bigger-splitting the French labor movement, installing an anti-communist regime in the Greek unions, and freezing out communists in the German movement. More money was needed-from somewhere.

Thomas W. Braden, CIA agent in charge of anti-communist fronts from 1950 to 1954, wrote of the key role of FTUC in setting up the conservative Force Ouvriere in France—an expensive operation.

"When they ran out of money," Braden wrote, "they appealed to the CIA. Thus began the secret subsidy of free trade unions. Without that subsidy, postwar history might have gone very differently."

"An end to class struggle"

Soon FTUC's operations spread to Africa and Asia. They spawned a plethora of subsidiary organizations on the way. Typical was the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIPLD), set up in 1961.

Meany and other union chiefs sat on the board of directors of AIFLD. But so did representatives of the Rockefellers, Juan Trippe of Pan American Airways, and J. Peter Grace-who has vast holdings in Latin America.

Grace set the agenda for AIFLD, which was to preach "cooperation between labor and management and an end to class struggle." AIFLD also aimed to "prevent communist infiltration and, where it exists, get rid of it."

AIFLD's area of operation 1 Latin America. Similar subsidiaries wel set up for Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. increased To oversee these projects, other organizations were established. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is one where Republicans, Democrats, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the AFL-CIO sit together to dole out funds for operations from Africa to the South Pacific. Another agency, the Agency for International Development (AID) channels direct government grants to these projects.

In 1985 the AFL-CIO spent $41 million for overseas "organizing." This is more than is spent at home for 13 million union members. A hundred full-time operatives all around the world supervise a network of local agents and mercenaries.

AIFLD maintains a training school in Virginia for Latin American union leaders. The school is considered an ideal source of recruits for the CIA.

Radosh vs. Radosh

A keynote speaker in San Francisco was Ronald Radosh, Professor of American History at the City University of New York. Radosh lauded Reagan's goal of "preventing Nicaragua becoming a Soviet base. " He supported aid to the contras if outside aid to the Sandinistas was not (continued on next page)

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