The International Trade Union Movement

During the Cold War

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was established in 1945 in Paris. Its co-founders were the confederations in those countries where trade unions had been set up and had functioned prior to the Cold War period.

At the beginning of the Cold War and on the initiative of the American Trade Unions, i.e. the American Labor Federation and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO), some confederations left the World Trade Confederation. Throughout the Cold War period, the World Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was a dangerous weapon in the hands of international capital and of the governments of the powerful imperialistic countries. From its foundation until the 1990s, it enjoyed significant financial support from the CIA for its activities. This has been proven in numerous research papers. In an article, Kim Scipes mentions some of the activities of the international branches of the trade union organizations, members of ICFTU, which received financial support from multinational corporations and cooperated with the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s. Kim Scipes reveals their perfidious role in the overthrow of Allende in Chile. The AFL-CIO, with support from the CIA, led the ICFTU to secure the world within the embrace of American “big business”. The “protagonists” of that period were Jay Lovestones and Irving Brown, experts in conspirational work and in undermining the class trade unions. Jay Lovestones (1897-1990), a professional anticommunist, was the foreign policy advisor of the AFL-CIO immediately after the Second World War. It has been revealed that he worked with the CIA agent James Angleton for over 20 years. During the same period, Irving Brown (1911-1989) was in charge of AFL-CIO in Europe and Asia. It has also been revealed that he tried to undermine the trade unions belonging to WFTU not only with the support of CIA money, but also with money made by selling drugs on the black market. He also organized provocations against the trade unions in various Mediterranean ports in cooperations with the Mafia. All these activities were supported both by the President of AFL-CIO, George Meany (1955-1979), and by Lane Kirkland, who was second in command of AFL-CIO before becoming its president (1979-1995). Lane Kirkland, a personal friend of Henry Kissinger, supported the war in Vietnam.
In one of his articles, Makarios Drusiotis, journalist and writer, revealed the roles of ICFTU and the American Trade Unions (AFL-CIO) in Cyprus during the 1960s. He points out that these organizations had access to a goldmine of dollars to strengthen the right-wing trade union organization SEK as a member of ICFTU in its activities against the Pan Cypriot Labour Federation (PEO). PEO was the largest mass trade union organization in Cyprus and a member of the World Trade Union Federation. Financial support from ICFTU accounted for 25% of the operational expenditure of SEK. The salaries of its six secretaries were paid with the support of ICFTU. In his article, Makarios Drusiotis lists much evidence proving that there were dealings between ICFTU, AFL-CIO and SEK. Among other things, he reveals that the construction of the SEK offices was financed by the junta in Greece (1967-1974), which had been installed by the Americans. Their objective was not just to change the “trade union map”, but also to influence the political system in Cyprus, whose geostrategic situation would serve USA plans in the Middle East.

In his article, Hernardo Calvo Ospina writes: “The Washington Post newspaper of 26 February 1967 uncovered a sensational scandal with worldwide dimensions. It stated that the CIA financed trade unions, cultural organizations, the media and renowned intellectuals in foreign countries”.

The American Political Foundation was set up in 1979. It was a coalition of the Democratic and Republican Parties, leaders of the trade union movement and employers, and university professors. This Foundation dealt in foreign policy matters.
In 1983, a decree of the USA Congress ratified the establishment of the National Endowment for Democracy – NED. Four organizations formed the pillars of support for NED – the Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI), an arm of AFL-CIO, the Institute of the Chamber of Commerce of USA, and the respective institutes of the Republican and Democratic Parties. One of NED’s “historic victories” was in Poland in the 1980s through its support for Lech Walesa’s Solidarity. The aim of NED was to create so-called independent trade unions, newspapers and groups in support of “human rights”. In its first ten years of existence, NED disposed of 200 million dollars for 1,500 projects in support of “friends of America”. Thanks to its dollars and its “experts”, NED became successfully involved in the social, economic and political processes in about 90 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe in the course of the Cold War.

Other organizations which supported American imperialism were:
The Solidarity Center. According to Harry Kelber the Solidarity Center received 90% of its budget from the US State Department and 2% from AFL-CIO, supposedly the proprietor of this body. The Solidarity Center had offices in at least 26 countries, where it represented the “eyes and ears” of the State Department.
The American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) was set up in 1962 with the aim to undermine the trade union organizations in Latin America. It was financed by multinational corporations and had close ties with the CIA and with secret agents working for AIFLD. Its official cover was trade union training and education. Money from AIFLD was secretly transferred to ICFTU.

In the last two years, voices have increasingly been raised, calling fro the archives of AFL-CIO to be opened up in order to discuss its activities during the Cold War period. The archives concerning activities since the Reagan era should also be opened up.

From the 1990s until the present time

In 1989, the AFL-CIO recommended a Committee on Perestroika. In cooperation with the secret services of the USA, it put forward a plan for the trade union movement in the former USSR. After the overturns in 1989-1991, the Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI) of AFL-CIO aimed at creating “independent trade unions” in the countries of Eastern Europe which would support the investments of multinational corporations and the directives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Since the early 1990s, the leading forces of the new imperialist order have consciously prioritized as their strategic pursuits the dissolution, emasculation and capture of the labour trade union movement, in order to restrict the reaction of the working class to its schemes.
The Democracy Projects Database was set up. This coordinates 6,000 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) projects all over the world. NED itself is at the centre of the Network of Democracy Research Institutes (the network of networks, as it proclaims itself), in which “independent” institutes take part. They are concerned with trade unions, political parties (neo-liberal and social-democratic), universities and “movements” all over the world. In this period, they have been planning a new international trade union map. Dollars are poured in abundance into Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East to buy off trade unions and trade union officials. ICFTU has given financial support to the Confederation of the Workers of Venezuela (CTV), which is linked with the business elite of Venezuela and is pursuing the overthrow of Hugo Chavez.
In January 2004, the Global Union Research Network (GURN) was established by ICFTU, and also the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC), the World Union of International Branch Federations (GUFs), the International Institute of Research (IILS) of the International Organization of Labor (IOL). At the present time, the representatives of ICFTU, ILO and TUAC form the executive committee of GURN. The President of the Trade Union Advisory Committee of TUAC is John Sweeney, who is also the President of AFL-CIO.

At that time, the Global Labor University (GLU) was also created with partners such as ICFTU, IOL and universities in Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Brazil and South Africa. Its task is to organize “trade union studies” and give diplomas to “the workers’ godfathers”.

On November 1st-3rd 2006, in Vienna, ICFTU united with the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), a church-based organization, to create the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). This “new” organization is an engine and a co-partner of the capitalist system, as can easily be discerned by their positions on Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and by their slanders against Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. We might also mention that the leadership of AFL-CIO and its president, John Sweeney, have placed a total blackout on criticism of the foreign policies of the USA and on any reference to the war in Iraq.

It should be pointed out that some trade union organizations that are former members of WFTU have been playing a very negative role in these developments. CCOO from Spain, CGIL from Italy and CGT from France nowadays represent the long arm of ITUC.

The Current Situation

It is well know that many African countries are under pressure from the strenuous policies of the USA and its allies. The same is true for countries in Latin America. The imperialists also aim to reshape and form a “new Middle East” with puppet governments to serve their geopolitical interests.

The picture is no different in the former socialist countries of Europe, where the working class toils under feudal working conditions.
In the developed capitalist countries, the number of low-paid jobs in the area of services is being increased, thus creating a new proletariat. The rights of workers (stable work, social insurance, working hours, collective contracts etc.) are being overturned. Hundreds of thousands of working people are sacrificing their health in sweatshops.
At the dawn of 21st century, imperialism continues to divide the world into spheres of influence and to interfere in those countries that dare to resist.

On a political level, it wants governments to be substations of the new Euro-American imperialist order.
On a military level, it has the multinational corporations, NATO, the UN Security Council, and the military engine of the USA and its allies.
On an economic level, it has the multinational corporations, the international banks, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, all plundering and exploiting the wealth produced by toiling workers.
On an ideological level, missionary work as an extension of colonialism has been replaced by the policies of social democratic forces and opportunism, the ITUC, the NGOs and the mass media creating the news agenda.

The overthrow of regimes in the socialist countries in 1989-1991 brought about new alignments leading toward the supremacy of the USA. Though we believe this is a temporary phenomenon, it has succeeded in creating wars, changing state borders, creating millions of refugees, killing innocent people, abolishing the sovereignty and independence of nations, enslaving peoples, and transforming the UN into an umbrella for the illegal actions of American and European imperialists. The official facts speak for themselves. As a result of current wars, there are 8.5 million refugees, and 21 million of people have been displaced inside their own country. There are over 20 million economic refugees in Europe alone. Tens of thousands of human beings are held in detention centers for economic refugees in the modern concentration camps in our old continent. Racism, neo-fascism and xenophobia are slowly and gradually surfacing in social relations. The excuse of fighting terrorism has been used to curb democratic and trade union rights. Our human rights are being eroded. Peoples, states and governments are being threatened. According to UNESCO statistics, at least 100 million people live in shanty towns all over the world. Over 30 million people are unemployed in the European Union alone. Control is being exercised over agricultural production. Movements of food and genetically modified products are also controlled. Research reported recently in the journal Foreign Affairs has shown that the business of biofuels may lead our planet further into starvation. Even the organizers of the Economic Forum in Davos had to admit that “the world system of food production has been put to a critical test”.

The number of illiterates in the world has never been higher. The number increased by 24% from 1950 to 2000, i.e. from 705 million people to 875 million, mainly in South Africa (124 million) and Africa (by 74 million). Millions of children remain uneducated. Unfortunately, in the global village of our planet, knowledge and education are becoming goods and trade products, representing an enormous market that needs to be controlled. In the countries of the European Union, the number of illiterates has increased in the last three decades due to economic refugees, population movements and demographic changes. The countries of southern Europe have suffered most (mountainous and sparsely populated areas), as have the more vulnerable members of the population (economic refugees, women and children), even in countries like the USA (one in five adults), Britain and Ireland. An article in the Economist has described in the most somber colors the extent of illiteracy in present-day Britain. It stated that one in five adults is not able to use the telephone directory, while one in four adults is considered functionally illiterate!

According to World Health Organization Statistics, there are between 80 million and 120 million of working people suffering from work-related diseases. It is especially worrying that work-induced cancer often accounts for over 5% of all cases of cancer. More that 350 carcinogenic factors have been identified to which working people are often exposed – benzol, asbestos, chromium, nitrosamines, ionizing radiations, etc.

There are many problems leading to musculoskeletal disorders. These are connected with the changes in the organization and content of work that have taken place in recent years. It has been proven that 24% of the working people in the European Union suffer from lumbago and 22% from muscular disorders. One-third, and in some categories as much as one half of all lost working days are due to musculoskeletal disorders.
The African countries continue to pay up to five times more for their foreign debts that for health services for their populations. There are innumerable victims of AIDS, malaria, etc., due to the policies of the pharmaceutical corporations. In sub-Saharan Africa millions of children have become AIDS orphans. This is the present-day picture of the world we live in.
Every day, fabulous wealth is gathered for the international oligarchy due to the increase in the exploitation of the working class of our planet. New billionaires appear from trade in weapons, drugs, prostitution and black-marketing. Today, the few get richer through exploitation of the majority. The property owned by the one hundred wealthiest people in the world is more that the GDP of many countries. In this state of affairs, the demand for “dignified work”, as propagated by the World Social Forum, the trade union bureaucracy and the ITUC, is mere hypocrisy.

Certainly, all these developments have negative consequences for the working class. This is the reality and we should take on the responsibility to react, to resist, to demand our rights and the satisfaction of our demands en masse.

In our times, the objective conditions for a society without exploitation of man by man are maturing within the capitalist development of the imperialist system itself, and in these conditions the role of the working class is irreplaceable. It represents the moving force of history toward building a society without social injustice, without wars, with democracy and freedom.

Therefore, many questions arise for consideration by the International Trade Union Movement:
· What kind of trade unions do working men need today?
· What strategy and tactics are needed?
· What needs to be strengthened and what needs to be changed in this movement?
· How new are some theories that have been repeated over 150 years?
· Who does the future belong to?
· Shall we judge the Trade Unions by their words or by their deeds and their omissions?

The struggle should not be judged only on the level of an analysis of the problems, or by a description off the sufferings and anguish of the working class. Today, a large part of the working class all over the world is ready for “something to happen now”, so that the remnants of past achievements are not all lost. This is the stage when the workers must counterattack in an intelligent and well-prepared fashion, with a well-prepared gradual plan of work leading to a climax. The movement should be ready to grab every opportunity it has, but it should also have the ability and the courage to secure its past achievements under the conditions of generally negative alignments on the social and political levels.

For this reason it is necessary to strengthen the World Federation of Trade Unions, the organization which has stood by the working people since its establishment in 1945. It has always stood at the side of the peoples fighting against the exploitation of man by man. It has had and continues to have a significant part to play in the movements in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and Australia. The working people all over the world remember the international activities of the WFTU. Its struggle against the multinational corporations and monopolies is historical. Many books have been written on its work, there are documents as yet unpublished, there are thousands of leading personalities still alive who have contributed to political history, and no one can overturn these historical facts. Certainly, this march cannot be only in a straight line, without zigzags and temporary reverses. In this march of over 60 years there have been omissions and mistakes. These however do not refute the positive and action-rich course of the WFTU. The WFTU faced serious difficulties and problems between 1990 and 2000. However, it withstood attempts by the bodies of imperialism to dissolve it. After the 15th Congress (Havana, December 2005), the WFTU finds itself on a new course.
· It counterattacks the forces of opportunism
· It develops, strengthens and maintains a wealth of activities
· In the last two years, there have been 47 new applications by national trade unions wanting to become members of WFTU
· To date, the WFTU has embraced in its ranks 180 trade unions with 65 million members in 80 countries all over the world.

The WFTU has been reorganizing the International Branch Trade Union Organizations in the areas of energy, transport, metals and tourism.
In 2006, in Brussels, the WFTU organized an international meeting on the problems of economic refugees. In the same year, in Athens, it organized an international meeting on the problems of young workers.

In 2007, the WFTU organized a World Conference on the problems of women (the last conference of this king had taken place in 1977 in Paris.)
We do not overestimate the opportunities, but neither do we underestimate them. However, we repeat that today there are more opportunities than before.
The WFTU with its wealth of experience and activities, and with its renewed and updated class perception, represents the hope for the revival of the world labour trade union movement. (Platform of WFTU, January, 2007)

March, 2008

Bibliography

Beacon D., The AFL-CIO in Moscow. The Cold War that Never Ends
Foster W., The History of the World Trade Union Movement
Kelber H., Solidarity Center, 2 July 2005
Mavrikos G., in Communist Review, 3/2004
Morgan T., A Covert Life – Jay Lovestones
Rathbun B., The Point Man Irving Brown and the Deadly Pot – 1945 Struggle for Europe and America
Scipes K., CIA, AFL-CIO and Pinochet, 2 December, 1998
The Economist