In the May 2005 issue of Monthly Review, Purdue University sociologist Kim Scipes documents the imperialist foreign policy of the AFL-CIO since 1995 (under the leadership of John Sweeney).
The AFL (and subsequentlly the merged AFL-CIO) has a long history of reactionary labor operations outside of North America. Samuel Gompers, the first president of the AFL, lead the federations attacks on revolutionary forces in Mexico and against the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. AFL (and AFL-CIO) where involved in extensive anti-communist efforts, funded by the CIA from the 1940s and throughout the Cold War.
AFL operations like the American Insitute for Free Labor Development layed the groundwork for the military coups of democratically-elected governments in Brazil (1964) and Chile (1973). The AFL-CIO’s African-American Labor Center was involved in actions against anti-apartheid forces in South Africa and the Asian-American Free Labor Institute supported Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship in the Philippines.
[A booklet by George Schmidt, The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA (1978) details how Al Shanker and his fellow Cold Warriors were deeply involved in union-busting operations by the U.S. spy agency even before taking the helm of the AFT.]
Scipe’s “Labor Imperialism Redux?: The AFL-CIO’s Foreign Policy Since 1995” is not good news for labor activists who hoped that Sweeney’s election would radically reform US Labor’s foreign policy.
Note that Scipe’s web site is a good resource, partiularly his bibliography on contemporary labor issues.
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