American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is an anti-communist, imperialist federation of labor unions in the United States, sometimes referred to critically as the "AFL-CIA". The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center which conducts activities internationally is one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy.

History

The AFL-CIO was formed out of a merger of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955.

The AFL-CIO established the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) in 1962 to conduct activities and train labor leaders, supposedly in support of "democracy" in Latin America. According to a journal published under the US Department of Labor, AIFLD was backed by the US Goverment and by "U.S. firms with interests in the area" and received financial backing from USAID, various foundations, and from AIFLD's business members, with its activities incorporating the aims of Alliance for Progress, an anti-communist initiative launched in 1961 under US President John F. Kennedy. AIFLD established training centers in Latin American and Caribbean countries where trainees learned about the supposed "dangers" of communism and "other totalitarian threats" as part of their courses. AIFLD also had a union leadership and administration school in Washington, D.C. where it gave training to students from countries throughout Latin America, "including exiles from countries where the free labor movement has been suppressed". Students at the school would spend most of their training time in the US, with occasional classes and field trips conducted in cooperation with organizations in Israel, West Germany, and Italy. Sociologist Kim Scipes summarizes that AIFLD was involved in laying the groundwork for the military coup of João Goulart's government in Brazil in 1964 and of Salvador Allende's government in Chile in 1973, among other activities.

In 1964, AFL-CIO established the African-American Labor Center (AALC). It established the Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI) in 1967.

In 1975, a book by Carl Gershman, the first director of the NED, titled "The Foreign Policy of American Labor" was published, which commented extensively upon the AFL-CIO's history, its international involvements, and its opposition to communism.

Commenting on AFL-CIO's activities during the 1980s, historian Jeff Schuhrke noted that athough the organization's domestic activities appeared to be in opposition to the policies of the Ronald Reagan administration, "they partnered with it to wage aggressive counterinsurgency wars in Central America in the name of anti-communism."

In 1997, AIFLD, AALC, and AAFLI were disbanded and replaced with the more centralized American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), now known as the Solidarity Center.