Marxism
mailing list archive

Other Periods  | Other mailing lists  | Search  ]

Date:  [ Previous  | Next  ]      Thread:  [ Previous  | Next  ]      Index:  [ Author  | Date  | Thread  ]

AFL/CIO or AFL/ "CIA"



Dear curt,

Yes, of course you are correct about the "joint operations" of the AFL/CIO and
the
US state thru the CIA and various innocuous agencies al la the "peace corps"
AID, and NED. There are probably others.
Some good socialist journalist s and writers have well documented the aid and
assistance given by the AFL/CIO to US imperialisms foreign operations. These are
well backed up with proofs.
Of course about 20 years ago there was the defection of CIA agent Phil Agee and
then his famous book "Inside the company-CIA diary" Pelican 1975. Agee traces
his own actions and others at various CIA stations throughout latin america,
well in maybe 6 or 7 countries anyway.
A key section of t his book (his 1st of 3 he eventually wrote , I think)was how
the AFL/CIO works with CIA and ruling elites in latin america to set up
pro-capitalist and anti-communist unions Capitalist Dual unions if you will ,
but in this case more rightist , down right reactionary unions that preach class
conciliation, bourgeois democracy and support for the local capitalists and
cooperation with the US companies.

The CIA tries to outflank the leftist unions and drive them out of business with
well financed perks for pro US union officials. and local politicians. If
bribery and fanatical religious scented anti-communist campagns don't win out
and workers and farmers still join left unions -- and parties, then the CIA
uses more muscle. It works with the local secret police and cops to smash up the
leftist unions using banning orders, jailings and outright terror in some
countries.
It's organizers come to AFL/CIO training schools and various Union centers here
in the USA. There they are lectured to (probably the few skeptics are
harranged at) by Union officials and US government officers about the dangers of
opposing the "free enterprise system' and "democracy." They complete "courses"
and get an AFL/CIO Int'l. Affiars Dept. issued diplomas. they are then shot
back into their native lands , as recruits to do the slimy work of
"disorganizing" the latin american working class and breaking apart any serious
challenges to capitalist rule and American hegemony coming from the workers.

Agee also shows how the CIA uses a lot of dirty tricks on their rivals, this is
the petty stuff though. At the back of Agee's book is a long list of CIA paid
operatives , many of them connected with bourgeois trade union centers. I think
then , the Democratic Party controlled congress in 1975 wanted Agee brought
back to the US to to be tried for revealing "national security secrets". He did
not come back for a long while, but the US got him expelled from the UK and I
think he ended up in Cuba or France?
This was circa 1975-76.
I remember a couple of biggies on his CIA agent list : George Meany- then
president AFL/CIO and J. Bierne, then president, Commuications Workers of
America, the list goes on --and on.
Agee later wrote another. book on the CIA operations in Europe. I think it was
called "Dirty Work" and came out about 1980.

Agee, I think, became sympathetic to Castroism for a while and then flirted
with some trotskyism later. I don't know where he stands today.

I think in the US , the IWW in Chicago also sells a well documented book by a
College prof. and labor activist who exposes a lot of the stuf fAgee did and a
bit more to about the degeneration of the AFL/CIO into a case-hardened agency
for US capitalist ruling class and state interests.

In 1975, no US major publisher would print Agee's book . Gee I wonder why is
this land of "democracy and freedom"? So he got it published by the British
Publisher Pelican, I think. For over a year, US Leftists that wanted the book ,
had to write to Canada or the UK to get it mailed to them. It was a book that
really sold quite well, and not just to socialists and academics either.

Ahh Yes , and some 'marxists" think the AFL/CIA union federation can still be
reformed internally into a real workers fighting organization today. And they
think the real communists are the utopians!!!! Ha! Ha! Ha!


NC



--- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---

------------------



Other Periods  | Other mailing lists  | Search  ]