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«In the Interest of Democracy»
The Rise and Fall of the Early Cold War Alliance Between the American Federation of Labor and the Central Intelligence Agency
Series:
Quenby Hughes
Until recently, there has been little concrete evidence linking the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to the U.S. government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In this book, based upon recently opened archival collections, the author investigates this controversial and complicated early Cold War relationship. Contrary to arguments that the AFL’s international activities were entirely controlled by the U.S. government to the detriment of the independent international labor movement, or that the AFL acted on its own without government involvement to foster legitimate anti-communist trade unions, the author’s examination of the archival sources reveals that the AFL and the CIA made an alliance of convenience based upon common goals and ideologies, which dissolved when the balance of power shifted away from the AFL and into the hands of the CIA.
In addition to tracing the complicated historical threads which resulted in an apparently unlikely relationship, three specific examples of how the AFL worked with the CIA are investigated in this book: the development of the anti-communist trade union federation Force Ouvrière in France; the AFL campaign against the Soviet Union’s use of «slave labor» at the UN; and labor’s role in the activities of the National Committee for a Free Europe, including Radio Free Europe and the Free Trade Union Center in Exile.
In addition to tracing the complicated historical threads which resulted in an apparently unlikely relationship, three specific examples of how the AFL worked with the CIA are investigated in this book: the development of the anti-communist trade union federation Force Ouvrière in France; the AFL campaign against the Soviet Union’s use of «slave labor» at the UN; and labor’s role in the activities of the National Committee for a Free Europe, including Radio Free Europe and the Free Trade Union Center in Exile.
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Index -199
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Index Altschul, Frank, 118–122, 138–139 American Federation of Labor (AFL), 7–8 Central Intelligence Agency, relation- ship with, 69 reports about, 1–5 See also Central Intelligence Agency creation, 12–13 exceptionalism, 14–17, 55, 82, 187 ideals of anticommunism, 24–25, 59, 81, 84, 178 craft unionism, 13–14, 26, 42, 177 political independence, 43 industrial unionism, 42, 44–45, 68 internationalism, 19–20, 57 National Committee for a Free Europe, relationship with, see National Committee for a Free Europe significance, political, 65, 97, 108, 174 socialism, and 16–19, 56 WFTU, opposition to, 98 United Nations, role at, 99–101 US government, relationship with, 20, 181, see also Central Intelligence Agency World War II, 57, 55–56, 82–83 See also Free Trade Union Committee anticommunists, 5, 8, 11, 178 1920s, 28–29 anti-Bolsheviks, 23–24 France, in; see Confederation Francaise des Travailleurs Chretiens (CFTC); Confederation Générale du Travail – Force Ouvriere (CGT-FO); and Jouhaux, Leon labor movement, in, 41 US government, 27, 58–59 See also individual anticommunists and anticommunist organizations Berle, Adolf, 119, 148–150 Braden, Thomas, 1, 3 Brown, Irving, viii–ix, 9, 106, 162 activities in France, 83–86, 90–93, 95 biography, 63 CIA, relationship with, 163–168, 171–188 NCFE, negotiations with, 149–152, 157 reports about, 3, 68 death, 11 émigrés, relationship with, 127, 137, 141, 142 n.21, 145–146 Radio Free Europe, role in creation, 120, 122 Bukharin, Nikolai, 34–35, 36–37 Caffery, Jefferson, 3,...
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