[Marxism] Re.: Bob Pollin appearance on Bill Moyers

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Now it has come back on them.  What goes around...

One of the reasons labor costs abroad remained so "competitive," shall
we say, is because US big labor colluded with the US Government to keep
wages low abroad through such rackets as AIFLD (the American Institute
for Free labor Development).

Quote:
AIFLD drew 92% of its budget of $6 MILLION from USAID and the State
Department and reported receiving sizeable funds from the CIA. The money
was used to train 300,000 [?] at its FRONT ROYAL SCHOOL in VA. where
courses [were] heavily spiked with pro-U.S. anti-communist propaganda.
AIFLD used funds and personnel to support MILITARY COUPS IN GUATEMALA,
BRAZIL, AND CHILE, and terrorism and racial violence against the Jagan
governement in GUYANA. [this happened again when Cheddi Jagan?s widow,
Marxist Janet Rosenburg Jagan was elected]
 LERNOUX, P. (1982). CRY OF THE PEOPLE  p.211

In other reports, AIFLD connected with Freedom House and the ARENA Party
(founded by death squad leader Roberto d?Aubuisson) to combat
independent unions in El Salvador.  AIFLD mixed in Mexico's notoriously
corrupt labor union struggles, too.

AIFLD operated in Latina America, but similar outfits operated in Africa
and Asia.

"The federation?s four international institutes--the Free Trade Union
Institute (FTUI), the American Institute for Free Labor Development
(AIFLD), the African-American Labor Center (AALC), and the
Asian-American Free Labor Institute (AAFLI)--are perhaps best known for
undermining independent, left-leaning labor movements, and collaborating
with government agencies and conservative private organizations in
support of the expansion of U.S. business around the world. The
institutes were also widely accused of providing cover for CIA agents in
Central America and much of the developing world."
Rachel Hays, BorderLines 28 (Volume 4, Number 9, October 1996).

"These are nothing more than front groups for the CIA, and their sordid
record includes assisting repressive regimes persecute and murder
indigenous labor leaders." said Matthew Rothschild, editor of THE
PROGRESSIVE, in Social Policy, Winter 1995.

Colonial wars and comprador elites in general, that is supported by
imperialists in London as well as New York/Washington, Paris, and other
capitals, repressed workers around the world, and kept their wages
(costs) down until they could be used against their benighted brothers
and sisters in the metropole.  If all workers got together for their
common benefit, their mutual exploitation could be terminated.  (I think
I've read the same idea elsewhere in different words.)  How long shall
US labor be enthralled to capital?  CAN it wake up?  Will the history of
resentment among the repressed abroad be too high to surmount?