Common Sense for the Twenty-First Century

The Disgrace of the AFL-CIO

26 The Disgrace of the AFL-CIO May 22, 2002 As a member of the AFL-CIO College Faculty Guild, I wish to object to the foreign policy of our union. For years we were subject to the embarrassment of the American Institute for Free Labor Development known as AIFLD. AIFLD was internationally known as a CIA labor front that was dedicated to subverting independent militant unions and provoking labor unrest in governments at variance with Washington. And now AIFLD has changed its name to the American Center for International Labor Solidarity or ACILS, which was recently providing aid and technical advisors to the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers. That’s right . . . ACILS was one of the key participants in the recent attempt to overthrow president Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The Confederation of Venezuelan Workers joined with the largest business association in Venezuela to organize the anti-government march on the Presidential Palace. More than a dozen people were shot to death and most of them were Chavez supporters. The leader of the business group, Pedro Carmona Estanga was proclaimed President and he quickly ordered the disbanding of the national legislature, the elimination of the Constitution and the repeal of all laws passed during the previous four years of Hugo Chavez’ presidency. AFILD, became internationally known as a CIA front and was operative in organizing compliant company unions among the banana workers in Guatemala, it assisted company unions in Brazil to help the military seize power in 1964, it aided the 1973 coup in Chile by supporting a strike of the truck drivers leading to the take-over of General Augosto Pinocet Ugarte, it worked in El Salvador to build a pro-military peasant association under the guise of land reform which was modeled on the counterinsurgency programs of the Vietnam War. 27 The cosmetic change of name for AIFLD came with John Sweeney who inherited the personnel and world wide offices as the group was christened with a new name, The American Center for International Labor Solidarity. So ACILS is a clone of AIFLD. A rose by any other name still smells sweet and the same applies to things that are foul smelling. How similar all of this is to the situation at the School of the Americas? Just as the terrorist training camp at Fort Benning, Georgia has changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation with the hope that Congress would not hold it responsible for the School of the Americas’ lethal record . . . so the disgraceful history of AIFLD is covered by changing its name. As a member of the AFL-CIO College Faculty Guild, I object to the foreign policy of our union and I urge all members and non-members to do the same. ...