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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


Advisory Committee on Labor Diplomacy (ADLP): http://www.state.gov/g/drl/lbr/c6732.htm



China Currency Coalition: http://www.chinacurrencycoalition.org

The Solidarity Center: http://www.solidaritycenter.org


 
 

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