News :: Labor
AFL-CIO, Solidarity Center, NED and the Neocons—The Unholy Alliance
This is a 14-months investigative report by Lee Siu Hin, for the upcoming AFL-CIO convention in Chicago, IL later this week.
Labor's
China Syndrome
AFL-CIO, Solidarity Center, NED and the Neocons¡ªThe
Unholy Alliance
By: Lee Siu Hin
June 2005
"...the California Labor Federation [and the]
AFL-CIO ... urge the national AFL-CIO and its
Solidarity Center to exercise extreme caution
in seeking or accepting funding from the U.S.
government, its agencies and any other institutions
which it funds such as the NED...and to accept
these funds only to further the goals of honest
international labor solidarity, not to pursue
the policies of Corporate America and the United
States government¡"
- Resolution: "Build Unity and Trust Among
Workers Worldwide" from the 25th Biennial California
State AFL-CIO Convention in July 2004
At the upcoming AFL-CIO convention in Chicago
in July 2005, thousands of labor activists will
stand up to question their president John Sweeney's
failed labor leadership, and his policy of accepting
money from the notorious National Endowment of
Democracy (NED), a supposedly independent private
organization which is fully funded by the U.S.
Government and known for its clear ties to the
CIA in many covert and overt campaigns against
other countries.
While many articles have been published previously
focusing on NED's connections with U.S. covert
operations around the world, few have discussed
NED's ties to U.S. labor, or the AFL CIO's American
Center for International Labor Solidarity (commonly
known as "Solidarity Center") connections with
NED funding, or NED-Labor¡¯s relations with the
CIA's covert operations against Venezuela, or
with their recent covert and overt campaigns against
China.
AFL and CIA: The Strange Bedfellows
For many labor rank-and-filers, the connections
between organized labor and the U.S. State Department
are hard to put credence in; but behind the scenes
the AFL-CIO does have a very close relationship
with certain high-ranking members of the U.S.
diplomatic and intelligence communities, and has
directly supported neoliberal/neocon policies
since World War II, regardless of who is in the
White House.
One such beneficiary of behind the scenes AFL-CIO
support is the Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy
(ADLP), a little-known agency of the State Department.
It created in May 1999 during Clinton era, and
became very active since Bush presidency, the
ADLP has proudly proclaimed itself to be an
"advisor" for the Secretary of State and the President
of the United States, on the "resources and policies
necessary to implement labor diplomacy in a manner
that ensures U.S. leadership is promoting the
objectives and ideals of U.S. labor policies,"
according to their charter.
According to their web page, they have several
"Open to the public" meetings a year. In addition
to John Sweeney, their key committee members include
some of the most right wing, neo-con and anti-communist
elements of the U.S. labor movement:
Thomas R. Donahue: Vice-Chair of the NED, former
secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to
1995 and AFL-CIO president in 1995. Donahue is
known for his close association with the anti-communist
right wing of U.S. organized labor.
Ray Marshall: Board member of the League for Industrial
Democracy (LID), which is comprised mainly
of intellectual members of the anticommunist,
neoconservative coalition.
John Joyce: Board member of The Friends of the
Democratic Center in Central America, better known
as PRODEMCA, founded in late 1981. According to
its promotional literature, the organization was
established in order to support ¡±incipient democratic
processes¡± in Central America. Its projects have
focused primarily on Nicaragua, especially on
the construction of anti-Sandinista media and
public relations campaigns and on support for
the political opposition inside Nicaragua. In
carrying out these campaigns, PRODEMCA relied
on funding from Carl Channell's National Endowment
for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL).
NEPL was one of the important conduits for funds
from the contra supply network coordinated by
Oliver North. Joyce is also the chair of the AFL-CIO's
Military Affairs Committee and is on the USO World
Board of Governors.
Frank P. Doyle: Former executive vice president
of the General Electric Company. He is also the
board member of United States Council for International
Business (USCIB), a powerful elite business trade
group promoting neoliberal policies.
Anthony G. Freeman: Washington Office of the International
Labor Organization, or ILO. Between 1983 to 1992,
he served as Coordinator for International Labor
Affairs and the Agency for International Development,
and was Special Assistant to three Secretaries
of State, ILO was known for their close ties with
the CIA in launching covert operations to overthrow
foreign governments under the guise of "humanitarian
aid" to Central America, Eastern Europe and Asia.
William Lucy: Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME, an
AFL-CIO Executive Council Member, and oversees
the International Affairs Department (IAD) for
the Executive Council. The IAD, along with the
Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC), were historically
known for their adherence to a militant anticommunism
which aligned them neatly with the long-term political
objectives of Washington [On last May, AFL-CIO
had announced they will closed the IAD office
in Washington D.C.]
Labor writer Kim Scipes points out that labor
leaders sitting down with hard-core right wing
anti-communist organizers to talk about "labor
rights" is an unholy alliance. Right-wing anticommunist
labor leaders are in cahoots with Bush's foreign
policy officials, helping them develop a strategy
with which to target foreign unions for political
control.
Labor Imperialism
Throughout much of its history, the AFL-CIO
and the U.S. labor movements has carried out a
reactionary anti-labor program around the world.
They work with CIA and multi-national corporations
to overthrow democratically-elected governments,
collaborating with dictators against progressive
labor movements, supporting reactionary labor
movements against progressive governments, working
with Corporate America to organize racist and
protectionist campaigns against foreign countries,
and encouraging racist campaigns against immigrant
workers.
When John Sweeney became the AFL-CIO president
in 1995, he promised to end former President Lane
Kirkland's legacy of connections between labor
and the CIA, and created the Solidarity Center
in 1997 to foster a new era of international labor
solidarity. But Solidarity Center has merely continued
to operate in the same way.
Oddly enough, Solidarity Center, supposedly a
pro-labor organization, is one of the four major
grant recipients of money from the NED, along
with three other key right-wing neocon think-tanks.
The others are: the Center for International Private
Enterprise (CIPE), the International Republican
Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute
for International Affairs (NDI).
These four groups make for a strange combination
of purpose: labor rights, free enterprise, right
wing Republican values, neocon and neoliberal
economic policies. Yet, just like the anti-communist
labor movement Cold Warriors of the past, this
new generation's labor-far right alliance works
against progressive labor movements around the
world, supporting multi-national corporate interests
while wearing a mask of "liberal-left labor activism."
Solidarity Center then uses the NED grant money
to create ideological guidance and logistical
support for activist labor groups and anti-globalization
movements across the country, promoting "international
labor campaigns" with hidden CIA and U.S. government
agendas.
One such example: during the recent failed U.S.-backed
Venezuela military coup in April 2002, according
to an April 25, 2002 report by New York Times'
Christopher Marquis, the Solidarity Center received
$154,377 from NED to give to the Confederation
of Venezuela Workers (CTV), the union that led
the work stoppages that galvanized the opposition
to Ch¨¢vez¡¯s Government. The CTV 's leader, Carlos
Ortega, is known to have worked closely with Pedro
Carmona Estanga, the businessman behind the failed
coup attempt to overthrow President Ch¨¢vez.
And according to another New York Times article
of March 11, 2004 by Juan Forero, prior to leading
the coup NED channeled nearly $350,000 to the
Solidarity Center, the international wings of
the Republican and Democratic parties, the International
Republican Institute, and the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs. These organizations
ran workshops and training sessions and offered
advice to three Venezuelan political parties ¨C
Democratic Action, Copei and First Justice --
as well as the CTV union.
Solidarity Center's operations in Venezuela, far
from benefiting labor in any way, are focused
solely on overthrowing the democratically elected
President of Venezuela, who is seen by the U.S.
as an enemy, and on protecting the interests of
U.S. multinational corporations (in this case,
oil companies), with the covert help of the AFL-CIO.
So long as no U.S. jobs are lost, Solidarity Center
maintains silence with regards to its role in
the Venezuela debacle.
U.S. Labor's Repeated Attacks on China
In contrast with the secretive AFL-CIO
Venezuela operations, attacks on China are open
and above-board. Many union leaders have pandered
to the protectionist sentiments of their members
instead of educating them on the need for international
solidarity against corporate rule. At a time when
U.S. corporations are shipping jobs overseas,
instead of holding the corporations and the government
policy accountable, Big Labor chooses to work
with the very corporations responsible for the
American job losses, and participates in blindly
attacking China as a job stealing, union busting
monster, at the expense of members of the working
class on both sides of the ocean.
Big Labor's China bashing campaign is nothing
new. Historically, with a few notable exceptions,
most union and federation leaders do not base
their policies and actions on furthering class
solidarity but instead follow the path of least
resistance to achieve dubious short-term goals.
Their periodic outbursts of racism and protectionism,
such as direly-worded warnings against immigration
and the industries abroad that dare to compete
with American companies, follow in a direct line
from America's 19th century anti-China campaigns
and the Chinese Exclusion Act, both brought to
you courtesy of American Big Labor (See: Supplement One)
A new right wing/labor alliance against China
is emerging, and this alliance is hijacking the
labor and anti-globalization movements in order
to attack China.
Even today, the AFL-CIO and its president, John
Sweeney, maintain a policy of refusing to meet
and talk with the All-China Confederation of Trade
Unions (ACFTU, which has approximately eight times
as many members as does the AFL-CIO), on the grounds
that it is a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party.
And, as labor activist/writer Jim Smith points
out, in matters of labor and human rights the
United States does not have clean hands. The U.S.
has the largest prison population in the world,
has by far the largest military in the world,
is in the midst of the brutal invasion and occupation
of two countries¡ªIraq and Afghanistan, and goes
about its daily business ignoring racism in its
own society, its own hundreds of thousands of
homeless, the decline of its union membership
and its workers' real wages, its millions without
health care, and one of the worst income distributions
in the developed countries. Critics of China in
the U.S. labor movement would do well to look
to their own backyard.
As many labor activists are
aware, the biggest problem of labor's cold war
against China is not labor's failing effort to
protect U.S. jobs: it is that labor has been co-opted
into becoming a front for U.S. multinational corporations
to control China, with grants from NED to achieve
it.
According to the latest information on the NED
website, in 2003 it gave $3,413,163 to 26 projects
related to China (See: Supplement Two). Solidarity
Center receives only a tiny portion of these funds
($65,160, or 1.91%); the majority of the funding
for labor's China campaign comes from different
AFL-CIO member organizations. However, the biggest
current project in labor's campaign against China
is not an attempt to protect U.S. jobs: it is
the formation of a mysterious coalition to protect
U.S. currency.
It's the Money, Stupid
Talk about strange bedfellows! Another key
ally of Big Labor in its campaign against China
is those good buddies of workers everywhere: the
multi-national corporations. The China Currency
Coalition is "an alliance of industry, agriculture,
and worker organizations whose mission is to support
U.S. manufacturing by seeking an end to Chinese
currency manipulation, and forcing China to devalue
its currency," according to their webpage.
Members of the Coalition hail from organized labor,
business and trade groups, and neocon/neoliberal
think-tanks (See: Supplement Three). Forcing
China to raise the value of the Yuan and thus
make it more costly to buy Chinese products, in
order to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China,
will obviously not have the desired effect of
forcing manufacturers to relocate manufacturing
jobs back to "cheaper" U.S. factories. Such a
strategy is completely unrealistic; but the few
voices in the Western media who recognize this
seem unable to prevent leaders of big unions from
joining with big business to lobby Congress.
Who will be the beneficiary if China is made to
revaluate its currency? Certainly not the American
and Chinese working people. Many economists point
out that the biggest winner in such a scenario
would be the Wall Street currency speculators,
who have been sending billions of dollars in "hot
money" to Hong Kong and China, waiting to profit
handsomely form the possible revaluation. During
the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it is estimated
that currency speculators like George Soros and
others pocketed millions, even billions of dollars
from the Asia currency devaluations, at the expense
of Asian people's life savings.
So Who Is Solidarity Center Really In
Solidarity With?
All this is not to say that Solidarity
Center doesn't do some meaningful good work; but
with its acceptance of NED money and the AFL-CIO's
racist right-wing policies, it's not helping
the working class across the world advance labor
rights or fight for a better life for workers.
Rather, Solidarity Center's activities, covert
and overt, serve the opposite goal: to prolong
the oppression of working people and to promote
the interests of multinational corporations and
U.S. government.
In the final analysis, it's very arrogant for
U.S. labor bosses to tell other countries what
to do when they cannot solve their own country's
labor problems.
Related Links:
National Endowment of Democracy (NED):
http://www.ned.org