ARGENTINA: AIFLD Losing Its Grip
NACLA
ARGENTINA In the hour of the Furnaces The decision taken on November 6 by the Argentine government to declare a state of siege throughout the country virtually returned Argentina to the...
...In the federation, however, regional and provincial unions maintained a degree of autonomy, particularly in the negotiation of specific contract terms...
...AIFLD and the CGT Leadership In 1968, AIFLD opened an office in Cordoba, the second industrial center of Argentina and the site of operations of many U.S...
...Argentina was a prime example of domestic industrialization and subsequent denationalization of these industries by foreign monopoly capital...
...With the creation of a new labor international in 1949 (the ICFTU), CIT became its regional branch under a new name: the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT), with headquarters in Cuernavaca, Mexico...
...The 1962 Program of Huerta Grande was a direct threat to the holdings of U.S...
...Joseph Hul, "Labor's Establishment-Stop the World," Commonweal, March 21, 1969...
...and (4) the fractionalization of the political leadership of the Peronist Movement itself...
...2) Create a new inter-American trade-union federation, controlled by the AFL...
...Education Breeds "Intellige:.Ace" As an educational institute, AIFLD teaches the fundamentals of "free trade unionism"-the ideology of class collaboration, free enterprise and rabid anti-communism...
...At the political/military level the two largest armed groups, the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP, Marxist-Leninist) and the Montoneros (left Peronists) pledged to work together despite their ideological differences...
...The Vandorist faction negotiated with the military before the 1966 coup and was given control of the CGT in return for its complicity in the downfall of President Illia...
...E. AIFLD Builds its Data Bank One of AIFLD's top priorities during this first phase of operations was housing projects, i.e...
...Confronted by this new militancy, the second faction within the Peronist bureaucracy-the Officialists-decided to completely disassociate itself from revolutionary sectors and seek a compromise with the government...
...The "60", after all has declared its mission as one to "depoliticize" the CGT and to diminish Peron's direct influence in the Argentine labor movement...
...attempts to subvert militant trade unionism in Argentina and strengthen the collaborationist bureaucracy...
...3) the emergence of a score of militant labor leaders who sharpened the struggle by translating the economist demands of workers into an anti-imperialist and increasingly socialist consciousness...
...and, they have a long history of CIA connections...
...The on-going tug of war between Vandorists and Officialists must be seen in terms of antagonistic political tendencies within the labor bureaucracy...
...With this fresh perspective, the United States revised its analysis of "monolithic" Peronism...
...A call immediately went out for a congress of all militant labor organizations...
...Over the last two decades Argentine workers have become increasingly militant in their struggle against exploitation, against the interests of the Argentine bourgeoisie and the penetration of U.S...
...But workers massively boycotted the elections: in the Bank Workers Association local of Buenos Aires, only 275 votes were cast out of a membership of 1,280...
...NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT Vol...
...But the realities of a dependent economy and the heightened political consciousness of workers sparked a new era of trade-union militancy...
...Nevertheless, workers in the construction industry (250,000) made only 1,300 on the average, in the metallurgical industry (350,000 and the heart of the labor aristocracy), 1,030 pesos, railroad workers 1,020-1,760 pesos, commercial employees, 1,260 pesos, textile workers 860-950 pesos and rural workers 740-860 pesos...
...de Trabajadores del Turf) Abbreviations for ITS IFCCTE-Int...
...Romualdi's unmitigated opposition to all sectors of the Peronist Movement was still the dominant position of U.S...
...Anibal Andreallo, Pedro Ratto (AIFLD personnel...
...8 (June 27,1974), p. 33...
...All three became affiliates of the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical and Technical Employees (IFCCTE) as well asof the world body, the ICFTU...
...In January 1959, he took advantage of a trip to the United States to meet with Meany and Romualdi...
...AIFLD: LABOR'S ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS You can't dictate to a country from any angle at all unless you control the means of production...
...By the end of the war, Rocky had moved up to Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs and Romualdi moved with him, to take charge of creating a new interAmericanfederation of labor...
...Labor statistics for Argentina are very inconsistent, estimates of the labor force varying from 4 to 8.5 million...
...On the other, agricultural workers-among the worst paid in Argentina-have applied strong pressure on the government for higher wages...
...VIII, No...
...Bureaucrats Trained in the U.S...
...The vast majority of workers in Latin America-and the majority of U.S...
...Together they launched an international campaign against the CTAL and obtained pledges of support for their new federation in return for AFL "favors...
...Most strikes became anti-bureaucratic as well as economic struggles...
...AIFLD played on this split by maintaining allies in unions representing both factions...
...When workers do succeed in electing representative leadership, the Ministry of Labor or the national com-21 mission quickly intervenes to oust the militant leaders within the terms of the Law of Professional Associations...
...The presidential election of 1973 marked a turning point in the phase of the Argentine struggle which had grown out of the Cordobazo of 1969...
...Peronist votes) and the tightening grip of foreign capital over the Argentine economy...
...2 5 Many top graduates return home on the AIFLD or AID payroll as full-time teachers or organizers...
...The eight unions were the construction, garment, meat, leather, hotel and restaurant, municipal, petroleum and rural workers unions...
...maintained a total opposition to the Peronist Movementviewed as a serious threat to U.S...
...After completion of "Operation AFL-CIO," the next four unions got only $4.6 million in mortgage loans and no additional projects were planned...
...the history of armed liberation groups, left political organizations and militant trade unions...
...Baldassini's fellow bureaucrat, Angel Bucci, who had negotiated with AIFLD in 1963 for a FOECYT housing loan, guaranteed the direct channels of communication and operation by assuming the direction of the regional PTTI office...
...The latter remained in complete control of the formulation and implementation of the government's economic policy...
...In both cases opposition slates were prevented from registering, either by force or through last minute additional requirements...
...Peralta Ramos obtained these figures from the indices (1960:100) of the statistical appendix of Estudios sobre economia argentina by the Institute of Economic and Financial Investigations of the CGEArgentina, No...
...After Rucci was killed by an unidentified group in September 1973, Adelino Romero (Textile Workers Union) became General Secretary of the CGT...
...The purpose of this congress was to draw up a common plan of struggle against the bureaucracy and the government of Isabel Peron...
...A New Division of Labor By the 1940's changes in the pattern of imperialist penetration in Latin America had heightened the need to control its labor force...
...Holway left the country at the beginning of 1973 and was substituted by an Argentine, Jose Sueiro...
...But the common denominator of rank-and-file consciousness is that unity has become a prerequisite...
...They are European in origin and tied politically to the remains of the Second International and contemporary social democratic groups...
...But it favored the trade union practices of the Officialists (a faction which also included "free trade unionists") which more closely approximated the AIFLD principles of business unionism and a no-politics line...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on American Republic Affairs, Survey of the Alliance for Progress: Labor Policies and Programs, 90th Congress, 2nd Session, July 15, 1968 (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...Progressive and revolutionary forces intensified their resistance to the onslaught of government repression and right-wing terrorism...
...When Romero died of a heart attack shortly after being "reelected" in July 1974, he was succeeded by Palma, thus giving the Vandorist faction a dominant position in the CGT bureaucracy...
...8. CIDOC Dossier No...
...The "60" published a major document in every newspaper in Buenos Aires on the 24th of June setting forth their point of view...
...AIFLD's task was facilitated by the existence of an incipient labor bureaucracy, whose consciousness had its roots in the social-democratic and syndicalist trends in Argentine labor history and the Peronist class alliance of 1945-55...
...21, No...
...United opposition to the CGT bureaucracy will be the basis for a united struggle for socialism...
...With the bankruptcy of this approach the ICFTU suspended the membership of the "free trade unionist" faction in 1962...
...3. Monica Peralta Ramos, Etapas de acumulacion y alianzas de clases en la Argentina (1930-1970) (Buenos Aires: Siglo XXI, 1973), p.113...
...TABLE 1: Share of Wages and Salaries, and Capital in the Argentine Gross National Product, 1946-1954 % Wages & Year Salaries % Capital 1946 38.7 59.8 1947 37.3 55.5 1948 40.6 51.8 1949 45.7 46.3 1950 45.9 46.0 1951 43.0 49.6 1952 46.9 45.2 1953 44.8 46.6 1954 45.6 45.5 Source: ECLA, Economic Development and Income Distribution in Argentina (New York: United Nations, 1969) p. 169...
...Romualdi died of a heart attack in November, 1967 while attending meetings of the Mexican Labor Federation-still active in grooming his "new type of labor leader" and with an inter-American network of class traitors to mourn his death...
...Not only had its allies in the labor movement failed, but their strategy had united their worst enemies...
...4 9 The differences between the "future" and the "alternative" CGT still have to be worked out but the need for unity has clearly been recognized by all.* This need was highlighted by the renewed offensive of the Right in August 1974: intervention of SMATA (Cordoba) to remove the militant leadership and the withdrawal of official recognition from the Graphic Workers Union...
...When Romualdi landed in Buenos Aires in November 1963, he was accompanied by William C. Doherty, the then Directorof the Social Projects Department, and Thomas Bradley, of the National League of Insured Savings Associations...
...9. For a detailed discussion of this point, see Peralta Ramos, op...
...Frondizi nevertheless stipulated in the agreement that communist participation in the 62 Organizations be terminated-a stipulation not unpalatable to the bureaucratic sectors of Peronist leadership...
...of Free Teachers Unions IFJ-Int...
...de Trabajadores de Luz y Fuerza) Maritime Workers Union (Sind...
...This reduction by no means indicates business dissatisfaction with AIFLD operations...
...In the Hour of the Furnaces...
...In the embassy, labor attache James Shea was replaced by John T. Doherty, the brother of William Doherty, Jr., Executive Director of AIFLD...
...of Postal and Telecomm...
...Such confusion helps break down opposition among workers and paves the way for the future application of autogestion to other state companies and the private sector...
...Application procedures require extensive biographical data and photos to fatten the AIFLD files...
...Celso Pastor de la Torre, Ambassador of Peru...
...Under the constant prodding of AIFLD, 32 Argentine unions had joined five ITS...
...AIFLD promoted other housing construction projects, particularly for locals in the interior, with funds allocated by the Inter-American Development Bank...
...The anarcho-syndicalist International Workers of the World (IWW) had made strong inroads in Mexico...
...13 Political developments in Latin America soon called for similar expertise...
...The meeting was arranged in Miami by Henry Holland, former Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America and, at the time, chief lobbyist for major oil and gas companies in Argentina...
...Whether you control them through ideological methods or control them by brute force, you must control them...
...penetration of labor movements in Argentina and the rest of Latin America...
...Strike tactics are noticeably absent from the AIFLD bill of fare...
...During this period the central labor organizations were also restructured...
...and craftscabbing* is used to break militant strikes...
...Internationalization of the production process, the establishment of capitalist relations of production within the dependent countries themselves and the rapid proletarianization of the masses created new contradictions for Latin American societies...
...In Cordoba, the hard line or leftist Peronists call the shots...
...The Inter-American Confederation of Labor (CIT) came into formal existence on January 12, 1948 with Ibanez as president, George Meany vice-president and S. Romualdi secretary of international relations...
...government and ending up in an Argentine labor union...
...Other labor bureaucrats trained by AIFLD include: Segundo Palma 3 and Rogelio Papagno 3 (Construction Workers Union...
...THE ARGENTINE OFFENSIVE Romualdi and the "Free Trade Unionists" Romualdi had greeted the fall of Peron as a "gift of God...
...The shift from Wheeler, a labor official (albeit a reactionary one), to Holway-a lawyer-businessman with all the trappings of an intelligence operative-foretold the transition from AIFLD's education-social projects facade to a more clandestine function of contact-building and subversion...
...Despite the overall drop in capital's share of the Gross National Product, the national bourgeoisie increased its share relative to that of the landed oligarchy and the big industrial and financial bourgeoisie tied to foreign capital...
...Romualdi could proudly report that Ibanez was "ready" to assume the leadership of a new inter-American labor organization...
...It opened the way for a new surge in foreign investment, particularly from the United States, and the heightened exploitation of the Argentine working class...
...The roots of this trade-union bureaucracy are to be found in the history of class struggle in Argentina, in the nature of Justicialism (the classcollaborationist ideology of right-wing Peronism), in the development of dependent capitalism and the mechanisms of U.S...
...Five members of the 12-man CGT secretariat had close ties to AIFLD, including the new General Secretary, Francisco Prado, whose Light and Power Union was negotiating one of the AIFLD housing loans...
...While U.S...
...The ITS was eventually expelled from Brazil in 1968.34 The ITF worked closely with transport unions in Chile, in support of the October 1972 lockout and precoup preparations...
...In May 1969, the Cordoba local of the Automobile Workers Union led other workers and students in a massive rebellion--the Cordobazo-occupying entire neighborhoods for days before the military could dislodge them in street battles...
...The CGT would be taken over...
...These improvements in the economic situation of workers did not, at first, conflict with the objectives of the national bourgeoisie...
...Militancia ( Buenos Aires), Vol...
...Salesmen's Association (Asoc...
...With special training in labor affairs, credit unions and housing coops at a variety of U.S...
...By the early 1950's, however, this national industrial bourgeoisie sought to raise the rate of capital accumulation (limited by the conditions of full employment and the bargaining power of unions) by introducing new technology, raising the capital/labor ratio and by developing basic industries such as metallurgy and petrochemicals...
...52 6 and "Postscripts," Vol...
...The decline in AIFLD's participation at the local and public level became a complete shutdown by 1974...
...This has been demonstrated time and again since 1973 in strikes for higher wages, for the reinstatement of militant leaders, the rehiring of laidoff workers, etc...
...The Congress elected a new Secretariat headed by Raymundo Ongaro, left Peronist leader of the Graphic Workers Union...
...At another meeting between the two in November 1959, Romualdi urged that the CGT be turned over to the railroad unions, Union Ferroviaria and La Fraternidad, both under non-Peronist and non-communist leadership...
...Labor's Conservative Role in Latin America," The Progressive, November 1967...
...Martin 3 Hugo Hernandez, Alberto L. Suero IFCCTE Juan C. Ventura ISETU IFJ PTTI IFTGLW IFPCW IFTGLW PTTI Osvaldo Alonso, Mr...
...government, the AFL made its first attempts at organizing labor at the hemispheric level...
...In this NACLA Report we present a detailed analysis of U.S...
...2 1 Coming to Terms with Peronism Between 1955 and 1960, U.S...
...10 The seeds of a relatively privileged sector of the working class were being planted--destined to become the new aristocracy of Argentine labor...
...In 1944, he left for a brief assignment as Special Agent of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA) in the Mediterranean theatre of operations-presumably to "reconstruct" the Italian labor movement...
...Augustin Tosco is a former leader of the Cordoba Luz y Fuerza (Light and Power) and self-labeled Trotskyist-Peronist, while Raymundo Ongaro headed the Buenos Aires Graphics Union...
...The Law of Professional Organizations, passed in 1945, permitted trade-union participation in political activities and bolstered their bargaining position in the labor market...
...By 1963, Romualdi was Executive Director of the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), yet another hemispheric labor organization, created a year earlier to cement the ties of imperialist control...
...intelligencegathering, for some twenty unions and locals...
...imperialism...
...This ninemonth "internship program" was too blatant for even the U.S...
...These plans depended on two factors: 1) the understanding and cooperation of the military dictatorship and 2) an organized and disciplined corps of "free trade unionists...
...The old leadership was made up of two factions, both originating in the right-wing of the Peronist Movement, but varying in their political and trade-union strategy...
...Ideological and organizational weaknesses of the past still plague the Left and increase its vulnerability to right-wing attacks...
...Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 1096...
...Augusto Vandor himself was one of its first targets in June 1969, followed by his bureaucratic rival, Jose Alonso, one year later...
...It gave the federation the right to intervene in local union affairs...
...The product was unemployment, under-employment and radicalization of the urban proletariat...
...Under Peronistcommunist leadership, the working class struck time and again against the sham of the Revolucion Libertadora...
...Days lost in strikes dropped from 1,003,710 in 1966 to 2,702 in 1967 and 15,502 in 1968.38 Meanwhile, foreign capital deepened its penetration of the economy with the willing assistance of Economy Minister Krieger Vasena, board member of twelve multinational sub- sidiaries...
...The dissolution of the Extraordinary Congress was a serious setback for the military dictatorship...
...Peralta Ramos, op...
...Having set the stage for its "educational" activities, AIFLD began branching out on its own in 1965, both in Buenos Aires and the interior of the country...
...trade-union background, many with Latin American experience through the inter-American field offices of the International Trade Secretariats (see below...
...1974...
...CTAL's founder and first president, Mexican labor leader Vicente Lombardo Toledano, was emerging as an important leader of working-class militancy...
...162 and 175...
...V, No...
...Rene Salamanca, the Revolutionary Communist Party leader of SMATA (Cordoba) was removed in August 1974 and Raymundo Ongaro's Graphic Workers Union was deprived of its juridical status and official recognition...
...Their intention was to help set up a Workers' Savings andLoan Bank along the lines proposed by John Napple, the AID Desk Officer for Argentina...
...In 1969 over 11 percent of Argentine industrial workers were employed in this industry...
...Data on the Law of Professional Associations and autogestion was drawn from Pedro Aguirre, "La reforma de la ley de asociaciones profesionales," and "Dos documentos sobre control obrero en la empresa," Pasado y Presente, Vol...
...NACLA readers can order copies now from NACLA East, Box 57, Cathedral Station, NY, NY 10025 or NACLA West, Box 226, Berkeley, Ca...
...Working committees (mesas de trabajo) were set up at different levels within the company to discuss future forms of "worker" participation...
...The source used by the CGE was the National Institute of Statistics and Census...
...The offensive of the Right gained momentum in the fall of 1973 and throughout 1974 under the government of Juan Peron and particularly, after the latter's death in June 1974, the government of Isabel Peron...
...11 (April 1970), p. 97...
...The grooming of top labor bureaucrats was carried out through the Front Royal Institute, the Inter-American Labor Economics Program1a States funded by the Department of State (for a review of some key leaders involved in these programs between 1963 and 1974, see Chart I...
...William Doherty (AIFLD Executive Director) explained what AIFLD does to warrant such generosity: We are collaborating with the Council on Latin America which is made up of the primary U.S...
...A) Complete name of the union or trade union organization B) Address, telephone number and cable address if any C) Political orientation (stated, known, suspected) D) Political support (government, political and private groups, international organizations) E) Internal organization of the union F) Leaders (indicate names and positions, rank, responsi- bilities) G) Trade union strength (active membership) H) New leaders (explain carefully) I) Internal friction among leaders, between leaders and members J) Activities of the union K) Particular problems of the union L) Publications M) General Information II...
...Romualdi's unabashed enthusiasm and varied experience made him the logical choice for a mission so vital to the interests of U.S...
...Martin Nicolaus, "Theory of the Labor Aristocracy," Monthly Review, Vol...
...cit., p. 142...
...The most glaring cases of electoral fraud occurred in the Bank Workers Association and the Metallurgical Workers Union...
...In these seminars 490 participants were given a heavy dosage of "instruction" in such subjects as "Democracy and Totalitarianism," "Political and Social Theory and Doctrine," and "Labor Press, Public Relations, and Communications...
...The JTP puts emphasis on the "future CGT" and contends that existing trade union structures must be transformed from within...
...pro-U.S...
...The AIFLD seminar network serves two additional purposes essential to U.S...
...Rucci remained in control of the CGT and Coria was handed the leadership of the 62 Organizations...
...influence and infiltration of the labor movement...
...AIFLD acted only as an advisor to the unions seeking credits, but it gained access to detailed information provided by the participant unions...
...labor offensive began in earnest in the 1940's, master-minded by the infamous Jay Lovestone, director of the AFL-CIO International Department and chief liaison with CIA operations...
...Although a relatively privileged sector did exist, its wage level remained inadequate...
...George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO...
...AFL-CIO "The New Consensus" In 1962, at the height of hysteria over the Cuban Revolution, of furtive planning for an "alliance for progress" to prevent its repetition, John F. Kennedy, George Meany and J. Peter Grace announced the beginning of a "new consensus" among labor, government * After Peron's return was aborted, Vandor revived the Plan de Lucha to undermine the civilian government of President Illia and cooperate in the 1966 military coup...
...Instructors are trained to pick out "responsive" students, those with "leadership potential"i.e...
...multinationals...
...In the late 1940's the United States *This statistic was used by Mario Firmenich, leader of the Montoneros, in a speech he gave in August 1973...
...Tfade unions were formed in previously unorganized industries and plants, and the ranks of union membership grew from 1.5 million in 1947 to three million in 1951.3 The government's policy of trade-union promotion and rapid industrialization with full employment strengthened the role of the CGT...
...since they know that Peron cannot return (author's emphasis...
...33 The ITS have a notorious history of counterrevolutionary activities...
...The two-month strike of Lisandro de la Torre-viewed by many as the predecessor of the Cordobazo--destroyed his hopes for peaceful "integration...
...It proposed to substitute class collaboration and the harmony of interests *For instance it is significant that delegations from the Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communist Party were present at the Second Congress of the MSB, which itself is politically close to the Anti- Imperialist Front for Socialism.22 between capitalists and workers...
...Workers (Fed...
...Obrera Textil) Turf Workers Federation (Fed...
...dictates...
...Foreign investment was concentrated primarily in the automobile, chemical, petrochemical and machine industries, bringing in its wake the introduction of advanced technology and capital-intensive methods of5 production...
...On the one hand, AIFLD employs people with a U.S...
...Mechanisms of covert-financing, intelligence-gathering and counter-revolutionary violence had already been well-perfected through AIFLD/CIA operations in Chile during the Popular Unity Government...
...Atilio Oscar Alvarez, Roque Azolina, 3 Elba Laura Benitez, Juan J. Casadarant, Rodolfo Guido Nieto, Joe Guttenberg, Julio Manual Lucero, Domingo Oscar Marchi, Romulo Messina, Delia Noemi Migoya, Julio Cesar Parola, Angel Ruben Ramallo, Horacio Ramirez, Rodolfo Ricardo Stutz (union affiliation unknown...
...Beginning in 1974, contacts with these operatives were maintained through the eight ITS operating in Argentina...
...Under the Union-to-Union Program, AIFLD agreed to sub-contract these funds to a U.S...
...1 4 Romualdi's mission was clear-cut: (1) prepare the conditions for a split in the militant CTAL...
...If you don't control the means of production, you can't dictate...
...With their emphasis on organization, the syndicalists, and then the socialists, managed to displace the anarchists from leadership positions...
...The time for the State Department, CIA and AFL to act was ripe...
...All three held congresses in 1974 to draw up programs of political and economic struggle, the tone of which invariably centered on the principle of complete opposition to the labor bureaucracy...
...Above all, we have to act together as Americans defending our in- terests abroad and helping the people of Latin America strengthen their economies...
...labor attache, Henry Hammond...
...It brought down the Ongania dictatorship and reasserted the role of the Argentine working class as the determinant force in the nation's political process...
...The other faction, led by Rogelia Coria of the Construction Workers' Union, opposed Peron's influence in the CGT and sought an entente with the Lanusse regime...
...Yet U.S...
...These were particularly apparent in the final stages of the Plan'de Lucha (Plan of Struggle)-a step by step program of workers' struggles initiated after the currency devaluation of 1959 to maintain the leyel of real wages...
...While the Vandorists wanted to impose their political interests on the State, Officialists were willing to negotiate their economic participation in the privileges of capitalism and accept the political hegemony of the bourgeoisie...
...His frustration was therefore all the more acute when this sector, then known as the "32Block," provided a "classic example of . . . confusion, disunity and even irresponsibility . . .'17 Moreover, they were confronted by the "62 Organizations," a temporary coalition of Peronists and communists...
...it allowed the federation to collect workers' dues directly from the company and not from the local...
...In his memoirs, Presidents and Peons, Romualdi described the aims of the Institute as the following: "to strengthen the cause of freedom and representative democracy...
...Mass mobilizations were held, rank-and-file organizing spread in the unions against the corrupt leadership and armed actions were carried out against the military and foreign multinationals...
...Business contributions figure more prominently...
...Their base is among skilled and professional sectors of the labor force...
...Charles Wheeler, "AIFLD's Programs in Argentina Underscore Friendship Between Hemispheric Unionists," The AIFLD Report, Vol...
...Its principal ally in this drive had been the "democratic" sectors-limited in size, divided among themselves and devoid of a popular base...
...Financial reports of the IFPCW showed receipt of $30,000 from the Andrew Hamilton Foundation, a CIA conduit, for operations in Brazil...
...A hypothetical conduit route would be: CIA- AID-AIFLD-CWA-PTTI-FOECYT (Argentine Postal and Telegraph Workers' Union, affiliated to the Postal, Telegraph and Telephone International...
...It is being tested in the state-owned electrical company, SEGBA, and implemented by Juan Jose Taccone, one-time General Secretary of the Light and Power Union (a PTTI affiliate), and a Front Royal graduate of 1968...
...An improvement over the sometimes risky coalition of Latin American interests embodied in ORIT, AIFLD would be controlled from top to bottom by Washington...
...Abbreviations for Local Projects TR-Training (local, regional and/or national seminars and courses) HP-Housing Project IP-Impact Project RL-Regional Revolving Loan Fund Local Proj.s15 Footnotes to Chart I 1. The information presented in this chart was primarily obtained from the AIFLD Report...
...Romualdi was in Buenos Aires at the time of the convention, ostensibly to participate in an Inter-American Economic Conference, but meeting regularly with members of the "democratic" sector to plan the convention strategy...
...AIFLD then had the option of running its own seminars, co-sponsoring or acting as a consultant to the ITS...
...cit., p. 144...
...production for imports of manufactured goods...
...4 8 The purpose of the Law of Professional Associations was to accentuate the bureaucracy's identification with the State and divorce it completely from the interests of the working class...
...Our collaboration takes the form of trying to make the in- vestment climate more attractive and more inviting to them .29 Nevertheless, corporate contributions to AIFLD have dropped severely over the past years: 21 percent of the AIFLD total budget in 1962, down to four percent in 1967...
...AIFLD claims to have provided low-cost housing to thousands of trade unionists in Latin America: 16,269 units completed in 12 countries by 1972 at a cost of $69,815,060...
...7, September 1973, and in the NACLA pamphlet Argentina: the Hour of the Furnaces (New York, 1974...
...CONCLUSION The development of a working class with a revolutionary consciousness was set back by the coup of 1955...
...A union was characterized by a centralized structure where the national commission controlled the regional and provincial locals...
...If and when a project is com- pleted, AIFLD wants control over who can live there, and carries out political surveillance of them thereafter...
...At the same time, AFL blocks efforts to organize unskilled and semi-skilled workers and promotes craft unionism over industrial unions...
...When militant unions cannot be controlled, AFL creates parallel union structures...
...by Peron...
...This is something that a few years ago they were completely ignorant about...
...Fear of the "run-awayshop" syndrome was an added incentive for labor complicity...
...But despite the immediate impact of these measures, they only serve to demonstrate the weakness of the labor bureaucracy's control over the majority of workers...
...Patron Laplacette, the intervener of the CGT, was forced to call an Extraordinary Normalizing Congress of the CGT in September 1957-hoping that "free trade unionists" would make a strong showing and win a majority...
...If the Peronist Movement is not effectively channeled into legitimate political ac- tion, there are active elements who already enjoy organized inroads into some of the most important Peronist enclaves, such as Cordoba...
...Federico Mayorga Vargas, Alberto Munoz Barra, Enrique Otero (Turf Workers Union...
...The policies of AFL bureaucrats replace class struggle and internationalism with class collaboration and national chauvinism...
...CGT-1 was put under direct government control and CGT-2 was reorganized as the only official confederation of labor...
...AIFLD Board Member, George C. Lodge, writes: "ITS flexibility, inner cohesion and conviction makes the Secretariats especially effective antiCommunist organizations in the so-called neutralist areas and thus extremely important to U.S...
...of Comm., Clerical and Technical Employees IFFTU-Int...
...Open Door to Imperialism The brutal repression unleashed by the military after 1955 submerged for almost a decade the sharp divisions between rank-and-file Peronists and their bureaucratic leadership...
...de Sind...
...Romualdi remained in Latin America for two more years under Rocky's auspices, as field representative for the Bureau of Latin American Research...
...In contrast to 1964, when the AFL-CIO was connected to only a small, bankrupt sector of the right-wing labor leadership, by the time it closed its offices in 1974 AIFLD had established a strong foothold in the Secretariats of the CGT and the top positions of unions and federations...
...Armed with the legitimacy of representing an "independent" labor organization, the bureaucrats of the AFL-CIO moved in to mold the Argentine CGT to the interests of imperialist exploitation...
...This call was issued by Raimundo Ongaro (a Peronist and former leader of the CGT de los Argentinos), Augustin Tosco (Marxist leader of the MSC) and Roque Romero (SMATA, whose Secretary General in Cordoba is a leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party)-reflecting major political organizations on the Left which are actively engaged in labor organizing...
...On the other hand, Vandorists and Officialists fought each other bitterly over the top CGT posts, particularly after the death of Peron in June 1974...
...Argentina had two main types of labor organizations: unions and federations or confederations of unions...
...The ever-sharpening contradiction between the militant rank and file, with a growing revolutionary and socialist consciousness, and a tradeunion bureaucracy working hand-in-hand with bourgeois and foreign interests has been the cutting edge of Argentine politics for the past two decades...
...For more on AIFLD finances, see U.S...
...Eduardo Labarca Goddard, Chile invadido (Santiago: Editora Austral, 1968) p. 154-5...
...collaborationist leadership of the old CGT which had tightened its grip over the labor movement with the cooperation of the Ongania regime...
...of Comm...
...94701...
...Its essential goals are to: (1) Build a privileged aristocracy of labor: AFL focuses on skilled and professional workers, on consolidating their privileged status vis-a-vis management and government...
...One faction, led by Jose Rucci, the CGT General Secretary since 1970 and head of a UOM local, was building pressure on the government to allow Peron to return from exile and participate in open elections...
...8 Unemployment rose from five percent at the fall of Peron to over nine percent in 1972...
...4 (Fall 1967...
...196-200...
...2, No.37 (March 14, 1974), p. 24...
...Trade unions became the base of the Partido Laborista (Laborist Party) founded by Peron, and their representatives entered government service in the Ministry of Labor, Congress and as labor attaches in the diplomatic corps...
...Under his direction, autogestion was broadened to tie growing numbers of employees and consumers to the interests of the company...
...He had worked closely with dissident elements, particularly from the Municipal and Commercial Workers Unions...
...This threat became a reality at the 1968 Congress of the CGT...
...His intelligence-gathering, organizing and propaganda work soon caught the eye of one Nelson Rockefeller-coordinator of Inter-American Affairs under FDR and always on the lookout for fresh talent to further his economic interests in the region...
...AIFLD soon found unidentifiable "private" donors to pay graduates, and then convinced AID to hire others directly on its incountry staff...
...R. Carri, "Desocupacion y salarios pauperrimos," I PS, May 1973...
...The new CGT de los Argentinos was not in itself a viable organization...
...These loans totalled over $155,000 and represented a full 19 percent of all RRLF monies to Latin America...
...The real importance of the new CGT was not the structures which it tried to create, but the consciousness it reflected in crucial sectors of the working class, and the impact it had on political developments in the following years...
...III...
...2) a loan of $13 million would be provided by the Connecticut General Insurance Company and the Connecticut Mutual Insurance Company, jointly guaranteed by AID and the Argentine National Mortgage Bank...
...1966...
...In July 1964, the Workers' Retail Bank ( Banco Sindical Mercantil) was established under the aegis of the General Confederation of Commercial Employees...
...markets abroad was indeed a prerequisite for sustained domestic prosperityfor super-profits to the capitalists and extra spoils to privileged sectors of the U.S...
...On the one hand, AIFLD acquired significant influence within the labor bureaucracy and established an extensive network-consisting as of 1974 of the ITS and their local affiliates-through which information and resources could be effectively channelled to its operatives...
...It was essential that AIFLD be represented in the rigid hierarchy which this produced.20 The Institutionalization of Power The weakness of the labor aristocracy in Argentina and the parallel increase in worker militancy required a rigid, vertical trade-union structure which could be effectively controlled by right-wing leaders...
...4 2 The surge of labor militancy, the presence of armed groups and the death of Vandor, whom AIFLD considered "one of the Argentine labor leaders with true qualities of leadership," sent U.S...
...Then we get them into the trade union field, and we let them know just-for instance, the thing that we have got to do with the South Americans, we have to show them the relationship between wages and production...
...Romualdi's static view of Peronism as a monolithic block and his unmitigated opposition to all sectors of the Peronist Movement, led to total reliance on the most bankrupt sectors of trade union leadership, on officials repudiated by the union rank and file...
...Thus, AIFLD began its attack on the easiest prey-the white-collar service workers of Argentina: the Municipal Workers Confederation, the General Confederation of Commercial Employees, the Association of Bank Workers and the Association of Commercial and Industrial Travel Agents...
...9 (September 1971), p. 6. 43...
...He represented the Officialist faction and was closely allied to Minister of the Economy Jose B. Gelbard...
...In light of Frondizi's other negotiations, it is not surprising that none of his promises to labor were fulfilled...
...Almost half of these workers belong to the 137 industrial and service unions of the General Workers Confederation (CGT...
...Argentine labor movement underlies the shifts and aboutfaces of U.S...
...Autogestion (or co-gestion) represents another scheme used to promote the collaboration between capital and labor...
...While several limited reforms were enacted, the lack of permanent, well-structured labor organizations facilitated government repression...
...The expansion of U.S...
...Sidney Lens, "Lovestone Diplomacy," The Nation, July 5, 1965, pp...
...So it seems, in July of 1971, that "Peronismo"* in the old sense is an echo, a sentiment, indeed an anachronism Peron finds himself in a difficult position...
...To compensate for its "low profile" at the in-country level, AIFLD sought to strengthen its network of contacts at the highest possible levels of the CGT...
...The first step in this process came at the end of 1969, with an overhaul of key labor personnel in Argentina...
...of Textile, Garment and Leather Workers IMF-Int...
...labor-the leadership of the AFL-CIO...
...For Romualdi's own boasting account of labor subversion in Latin America see: Serafino Romualdi, Presidents and Peons (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1967...
...ORIT has since built up an illustrious record of obedience to U.S...
...Undeterred by their failure to diffuse labor militancy and "normalize" the CGT, both Frondizi and Romualdi sought new approaches and alliances to meet their ends...
...It laid bare the corrupting tendencies of the top leadership of the CGT, a product of the class alliance created by the Peronist Movement...
...David Langley, "The Colonization of the International Trade Union Movement," New Politics, Vol...
...The UOM simply refused to make the results public...
...presence in Argentina and against the military dictatorship it supported, forced AIFLD to remove the last sign of its overt involvement in the labor movement...
...It provided covert financing and careful training in the techniques of business unionism, fraudulent union elections and laborgovernment collaboration...
...This basic division between a militant base and corrupt sectors of the trade-union leadership had immediate economic and political repercussions for the working class...
...Why this sudden generosity toward AIFLD...
...1 and 2. 38...
...labor aristocrats wanted higher wages for their Latin American counterparts-again, a privileged minority employed in the monopoly sector-to prevent a mass exodus of American corporations from the metropolis...
...The 1955 coup led Romualdi and his disciples to believe that a new dawn was rising for "free trade unionism" in Argentina...
...The Pan-American Federation of *Craft-scabbing describes the use of workers from a craft union (a trade union of workers sharing a common skill, e.g...
...Most objective observers in the Argentine labor movement say that although both men have messianic qualities, they represent no significant number of trade unionists...
...He will be free to return to Argentina any day...
...and European multinationals...
...Peralta Ramos, op...
...Ibid., p. 155...
...2 (February 1972), pp...
...The pamphlet will include sections on: past and present modes of imperialist penetration in this highly industrialized Third World country...
...The function of such "authentic" trade unionists is to legitimize relations with Latin American labor movements and build a solid network of "old friends" and contacts...
...A social democrat and member of the Italian Socialist Party in his youth, Romualdi migrated to the U.S...
...imperialism...
...Fred Hirsch, An Analysis of Our AFL-CIO Role in Latin America (San Jose, Ca...
...For further discussion of the reactionary role of the AFL-CIO abroad see: Susane Bodenheimer, "AFL-CIO in Latin America-the Dominican Republic: A Case Study," Viet Report, Sept.-Oct...
...economic interests in the hemisphere and to U.S...
...This process, and the coup which it provoked, also revealed the ideological and organizational weaknesses of the working class and the Argentine Left...
...Romualdi, op...
...4, No...
...Low-cost "impact projects" for earthquake relief, medical supplies, meeting halls, libraries, etc., are an effective means of patronage and propaganda to enlist the friendship of key unions and union officials...
...6, NO...
...NACLA and Carlos Diaz23 FOOTNOTES 1. Friedrich Engels, "Trade Unions," On Britain (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1962), p. 516...
...In the early 1950's the CIA approached ORIT to serve as a conduit for money to exiled Latin American labor leaders and groups con- centrated in Mexico...
...Romualdi attributed this new setback to the "lack of initiative and aggressiveness so characteristic of the Argentine democratic unions...
...3 5 This image was furnished through close collaboration with the International Trade Secretariats at the initial stages of AIFLD activity, 3 6 and the selection in 1965 of a country program director with sound labor "credentials:" Charles Wheeler of the Communication Workers of America...
...To achieve its objectives-split the Peronist Movement, consolidate the labor bureaucracy and subvert leftist struggles-AIFLD would have to alter its tactics...
...and European capital which followed was accompanied by organized attempts to divide Argentine workers, break up militant labor unions, co-opt labor leaders, depoliticize workers' struggles and instill in its place the consciousness of business unionism...
...With the invasion of the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Cuba, however, the American labor establishment was quick to adapt to the spirit of imperialist expansion...
...Housing projects directly funded by AIFLD were also played down...
...V. AIFLD IN ARGENTINA The Velvet Glove AIFLD's objective in Argentina was two-fold: (1) to sharpen the divisions in the labor movement by promoting splits among Peronists and between Peronists and communists, and (2) to strengthen the growing practice of "business unionism" and class collaboration in the rightwing Peronist bureaucracy...
...de Empleados de Casinos, Sind...
...This strategy implies that given a higher standard of living than most workers, this minority will become ardent defenders of the status quo...
...In 1971 the Center for Trade Union and Social Studies estimated that the monthly cost of living for a family of fout was 2,300 pesos...
...But all was not bleak: those splits and divisions in Argentine labor organizations and the Peronist Movement itself offered new in-roads to U.S...
...19 Professional Associations (see below) which strengthened the vertical control of labor unions...
...About $200,000 went to AIFLD in 1965, but this is just a drop in the bucket for an inter-American network of labor sub- version...
...1951) and 18th ed...
...Entertainment Workers (Fed...
...in 1923 and became active in the Free Italy Movement...
...Sindical de Base (MSB, a national coalition of militant unions, locals and rank-and-file caucuses, formed in January 1974...
...de Mecanicos y Afines del Transporte Automotor, SMATA) Bank Workers Association (Asoc...
...de Obreros Maritimos Unidos) Meat Workers Federation (Fed...
...AIFLD Report, Vol...
...In Cordoba, many of the young leftist Peronists are not Peronists at all, but Communists who take ad- vantage of the politics of the moment to galvanize a following...
...In essence, the "60" calls for an openminded attitude toward the Lanusse government's overtures to the CGT...
...In recent months the ERP began to implement its pledge to avenge the death of 16 of its members in an armed action in August by executing 16 military officers...
...4. attitude taken in response to key questions or matters of importance (ask a series of questions directly) 5. impression of the person 6. what is his/her potential as a future leader...
...For political reasons, it encouraged the Vandorist opposition to Peron's influence in the trade unions and the Peronist Movement...
...p. 26...
...Right-wing violence has steadily increased since Peron's return to Argentina...
...These practices multiplied with the consolidation of the labor bureaucracy in the 1960's and became increasingly common in 1973 as left forces organized among the rank and file to wipe out the bureaucratic leadership...
...As the main pillar of support for Peron's government (1945-55), workers gained a wider role in political and economic affairs...
...At a time when opposition to the Social Pact and the Law of Professional Organizations was mounting on the Left, however, Miguel was unwilling to rock the boat and refrained from direct confrontation with the Officialist faction...
...We must bear in mind that we cannot allow communist propaganda to divide us between liberals and con- servatives or between business and labor...
...50 or more, $1.35 each...
...In the summer of 1974 they sought to join their efforts and agree on a united strategy of resistance...
...3. is the person interested in power, prestige, influence (stated, known, suspected...
...Instead, he recommended the establishment of a "public-private mechanism to provide public funds for overseas activities of organizations which are judged deserving, in the national interest, of public support...
...By 1964, 11,000 plants had been occupied for varying periods of time by almost 4 million workers...
...He had legal and business training, as an associate of two Chicago law firms and an officer in the Trust Department of the First National Bank of Chicago...
...Once again, concrete results were slim...
...Conf...
...Second-class postage paid at New York...
...Here, the imperialist "consensus" comes into play again, with contributions from labor, business and government...
...Romualdi's history was well known to Argentine workers and even some right-wing Peronists who were sensitive to AIFLD's connections with AID and the intelligence community...
...of Petroleum and Chemical Workers IFTGLW-Int...
...Two of these strikes involved workers from the Metallurgical Workers Union, underlining the fact that rank-and-file workers of those unions traditionally considered the preserve of the right-wing bureaucracy are determined to push the class struggle forward...
...Garment Workers Union (Sind...
...They even paint misspelled slogans on walls so that it looks as if workers had expressed themselves politically, not the Communist Party...
...Romualdi agreed to grant four scholarships to Peronist labor officials for the next AIFLD course in Washington, and a local seminar network was established...
...3) 1,667 units would be built, providing housing for less than one half of one per cent of the four unions' combined membership (330,000...
...The new grouping is called the "60", and represents a solid bloc of votes on the CGT Executive Council numbering some 340...
...While many new social and labor laws were passed, trade unions became an end in themselves, seeking only economic reforms through parliamentary pressure and substituting direct action and militancy with arbitration and collective bargaining...
...labor policy for the next two decades...
...Peralta Ramos, op...
...AFL: Cold War on Workers The U.S...
...government and corporate elite but by their counterparts in the top echelons of U.S...
...3) Replace class struggle with labor-management harmony: To raise wages without reducing the capitalists' share, AFL supports labor-management cooperation to increase production...
...Correa mentions that they were trained in the United States, West Germany, Mexico and other countries...
...foreign policy the world over-from Cuba to Vietnam.11 At home and abroad, AFL applies a three-pronged strategy commonly referred to as "business unionism...
...3) assemblies would be held every two years instead of yearly or more frequently...
...The recent declaration of a state of siege culminated this repressive trend and closed off all possibilities of effective legal action by the Left...
...Once all the information was submitted, AIFLD of course took its time to reach a decision...
...Under the dictatorship of General Lonardi (Sept.-Nov...
...In accordance with Romualdi's original position, the ICFTU had endorsed the "32 Block" and accepted its affiliation in 1959...
...The syndicalists attempted to build strong trade unions but they saw them as the only means by which the working class would struggle for economic demands as well as control over the means of production...
...right-wing unions and individuals in Latin America...
...While attention was not focused directly on AIFLD, several of its union donors--certain International Trade Secretariats and their U.S...
...His leadership was opposed by the Vandorists, led by Lorenzo Miguel (Metallurgical Workers Union)-an ally of Gelbard's arch rival and Minister of Social Welfare, Jose Lopez Rega...
...6 (June 1968), p. 4, and Vol...
...When cooperation was not forth- coming, people like Cord Meyer (CIA) and Michael Ross (CIO) pushed the establishment of hemispheric ITS offices...
...George C. Lodge, Spearheads of Democracy (New York and Evanston: Harper and Row for the Council on Foreign Relations, 1962), pp...
...The growing sentiment in many sectors of the population against the U.S...
...All left forces agree that socialism is their common goal, that power must be seized if that goal is to be achieved and that their immediate objective is to wipe out the labor bureaucracy...
...2 Auto Workers Union (Sind...
...For background information on the ITS-CIA funding scandal, see William Greiden, "Unions Turn to AID after CIA Pull-out," Washington Post, April 21, 1969...
...They mapped out a united plan of struggle against the economic policies of the government and the right-wing labor bureaucracy's control over the General Workers Confederation...
...de Trabajadores Rurales y Estibadores) Fed...
...and in Argentina, Peron was mobilizing the masses and making anti-imperialism a national issue...
...To leave no stone unturned, AIFLD launched an Agrarian Union Development Service in 1965, predictably in the volatile Northeastern-region of Brazil...
...Already in 1972 the Lanusse dictatorship ordered other government corporations to begin implementing "worker" participation in management...
...1955) the CGT was not immediately taken over and Romualdi was quick to claim that "all the troublessocial, political, economic-that have plagued Argentina during the last decade (1955-65) stem precisely from the enormous historical mistake: stopping the Revolucion Libertadora* at the door of the CGT...
...This close collaboration with the military dictatorship brought down another wave of brutal repression on the working class, as the labor bureaucracy sabotaged strike after strike...
...Diego Abad de Santillan, La F.O.R.A., ideologia y trayectoria del movimiento obrero revolucionario en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Proyeccion, 1971...
...4 5 The fact is that Peron did return and the offensive of 1971 ended in stalemate...
...When AIFLD was established in 1963, a complementary working relationship was established between the two structures...
...On the one hand, the agrarian leagues, which were formed in the early 1970's in the provinces of Chaco, Misiones, Formosa, Corrientes and Santa Fe, carried out demonstrations in support of the demands of small and mediumsize peasants...
...They subsequently shifted to a policy of splitting the Peronist Movement and collaborated with the right-wing Peronist labor bureaucrats as well as "free trade unionists" to suppress the militant sectors of the working class...
...9 Sectors of the economy dominated by foreign monopoly capital were both able and willing to grant relatively higher wages to their labor force, in the interests of reduced labor conflict, greater productivity demands and the time-honored technique of "divide and conquer...
...The inability of AIFLD and its allies to dominate the CGT bureaucracy at this stage and pull it firmly into line with the ailing military dictatorship was a contributing factor to Lanusse's downfall...
...Romualdi met with Francisco Perez Leiros (Municipal Workers Union), Jesus Fernandez (La Fraternidad), jSebastiani Marottat (Printers Union), Alfredo Fidanza, Candido Gregorio and Armando March (Commercial Employees Union...
...companies and tractor production 87.7 percent...
...8. did he/she show some interest in trade-union education?12 Funding the Empire How does a private, voluntary organization like AIFLD finance such an elaborate array of activities...
...Nevertheless, AIFLD was not to be caught again with all its eggs in one basket...
...The Institute also runs a Social Projects division, funded entirely by AID...
...Because of its position within the world capitalist system, Argentina experienced more rapidly the effects of the system's contradictions in even the most dynamic sectors of its economy: super-exploitation, rising unemployment, inflation, etc...
...2) Fight labor militancy: Gompers' "no-politics" line tries to thwart the development of workers' political consciousness...
...The pamphlet will appear in December...
...Henry W. Bengen, "Lovestone, Meany and State: American Labor Overseas," The Nation, January 16, 1967...
...3, Argentina: Confederacion General del Trabajo, 1965 (Cuernavaca, 1967), p. 4, 79...
...Field personnel were borrowed from the AFL-CIO hierarchy and money came from CIA dummy foun- dations...
...objectives...
...Brick and Mortar Democracy" AIFLD favors don't stop with ideological persuasion...
...He cut short the Plan de Lucha and cooperated with the government to thwart Peron's come-back.* The turn of events since 1960-divisions within the working class, the challenge to Peron's political leadership and growing corruption and collaboration among sectors of the Peronist bureaucracy-also triggered the interest of the U.S...
...New territories could provide cheap labor and push down domestic wages...
...By the late 1930's, however, increased government repression and ideological differences split the CGT into two branches (CGT-1 and CGT-2), with a third faction, the old reformist leadership, resurrecting the defunct Union Sindical Argentina...
...The idea originated in Europe and the United States when organized labor first presented a serious challenge to the bourgeoisie...
...Aldasoro ISETU IP,TR TR,RL PTTI-Postal, Telegraph and Telephone Int...
...Although left forces maintained differences over the position to take towards this "antiimperialist, anti-monopolist and anti-oligarchic" government and over the correct tactics to follow in this period, they took advantage of this opening to carry out political and organizational tasks to raise the level of struggle...
...This second faction was made up of sixty unions, but its leadership was provided by the eleven largest in the country--eight of which had close ties to AIFLD...
...Finally, we will dwell extensively on the contemporary period of confrontation between the corrupt union leadership and the revolutionary alternative...
...Single issues: $2.25 plus 254 postage...
...In 1943, as head of the National Department of Labor and Social Welfare, Peron campaigned to enforce existing social and labor legislation, pass new laws and raise wages...
...However, after a militant three-day strike in November by the CGT, it became evident that a heavier hand was needed...
...Finally, the AIFLD office was closed down altogether at the beginning of 1974...
...labor policy in Argentina...
...MSB...
...1971...
...By 1969 repeated frauds and embezzlements forced the bank into bankruptcy and the scandal which ensued prompted March's expulsion from the union...
...In 1971, Michael Boggs, inter-American representative of the AFL-CIO, summarized its analysis of potential dangers: Outside of Buenos Aires, especially in Cordoba, there exist several Peronist splinter groups...
...Ideological Offensive, 88th Congress, 1st Session, Part I1: April 30, 1963 (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...While the productivity of the economy as a whole rose 65.9 percent between 1956 and 1964, the number of hours worked dropped 26.3 percent in the same period...
...In 1973 it forced the Lanusse regime to hold presidential elections and "Bring Peron Home...
...Following the path laid out by Samuel Gompers, David Dubinsky, George Meany and others, they have sought to make trade unionism an end in itself, its goals limited to wage increases, shorter hours and better "fringe" benefits for a privileged membership...
...1. 10...
...Important bureaucrats trained by AIFLD in Argentina include: Benito Bruzzone (Confederation of Commercial Employees...
...The growth of the revolutionary sector of the working class has stripped the labor bureaucrats of their legitimacy and identified their interests with those of the State, the bourgeoisie and imperialism...
...The idea of Workers' Savings and Loan Banks is as old as AIFLD itself...
...the influence of the Peronist Movement in the working class would be broken...
...At times their differences were submerged to confront a common threat from the Left, only to surface anew in a struggle for political influence and control...
...Under their control, trade unions have ceased to be a means for class struggle, "a means toward a higher end: the abolition of the wage system altogether...
...This required advanced technology and large amounts of capital, which could only be obtained through concessions to foreign interests...
...Peralta Ramos, op...
...This visibility had become a serious handicap in the face of rising anti-imperialist consciousness...
...labor strategy does not shy away from bribery, assassination, repression-and even counterrevolution in situations like Chile, 1973...
...The ideology of these labor bureaucrats was Justicialism, the ideology of class collaboration, of laborcapital harmony under the arbitration of the State.5 Justicialism became the ideology of right-wing Peronism, of its entrenched leadership in the trade unions and political organizations...
...They recognized, however, that a tight grip on the volatile working class of Argentina was essential to their continuance...
...Correa, op...
...and, above all, to assist in the development of a new type of Latin American labor leader who would reject the stale concept of class struggle in favor of constructive labor-management relations in a democratic, pluralistic society...
...of Entertathment Trade Unions IMF Jose Rodriguez IFCCTE Juvenal D. Louzao Juan C. Garcia Leiva IFCCTE Colin Cristobal Cooper IFCCTE Armando March,3 Y.J...
...4. For a more detailed discussion of the role of the national bourgeoisie in this period see "Imperialism Rides Herd in Argentina," NACLA Report, Vol...
...This explains its participation in the conflicts which began taking place in the interior of the country in 1968.41 The automobile workers' revolt in 1969 was proof enough to the CGT bureaucracy that important sectors of labor were questioning their leadership and turning to others for trade union and political direction...
...It promoted the concept of labor schools run by the unions themselves, and AIFLD graduates were the logical experts in these new methods...
...2) the requirements for calling an ex- traordinary congress were raised from 10 to 20 percent of the membership's signatures...
...workers as well-would bear the brunt of imperialist exploitation...
...To be elected, he would have to negotiate with both sides, a course which inevitably led to a contradictory web of promises and counter-agreements and brought his swift removal from office in 1962 by the Armed Forces...
...The Cordobazo was a landmark in Argentine history...
...Congress to swallow, and AID funding for this particular project was terminated in 1968...
...Government has now become the undisputed patron of AIFLD activities...
...Mario Barrientos, 3 Miguel Angel Catolia 3 and Jose Notaro 3 (Metallurgical Workers Union...
...Its participation in the Institute's total budget has grown from 62 percent in 1962 to 92 percent in 1967 and just above that figure in 1970...
...Auto and truck manufacturing in 1963 was already 96.6 percent controlled by European and U.S...
...While the Officialists were in bagic agreement with the Vandorists in their acceptance of the capitalist system as such, they differed in the form of collaboration they sought to establish...
...affiliates in particular-were exposed as major recipients of CIA funds...
...Cuadernosde Informacion Popular, No...
...16 per year for non-profit institutions ($30 for two years...
...Under such conditions, the power of trade unions was drastically reduced and the objective situation of the working class as a whole was marked by greater heterogeneity in terms of wage levels, benefits, stable employment, etc...
...But the deepening crisis of the Argentine economy, increasing government repression and the role of the Left in organizing workers and carrying out armed actions demonstrated that economic goals cannot be divorced from a political struggle for power...
...Armando March, the Secretary General of the Confederation and long-time stalwart of "free trade unionism," became president of the bank...
...What the CIA had paid for secretly, AID now had to cover with public funds...
...While Vandor's personal ambitions were never satisfied, his following maintained strong roots in the right wing of the Metallurgical Workers Union and the Peronist Movement as a whole...
...In Argentina, Romualdi and crew labored incessantly against the Peronist administrations and sought to isolate the CGT from other labor movements in Latin America...
...Marlise Simons, "The Brazilian Connection," Washington Post, January 6, 1974...
...Aramburu had little understanding of the subtle ideological distinctions in the labor movement and sent military interveners into both Peronist unions and those "democratic" unions which had re-emerged after the coup against Peron...
...Latin America had become my province, and it was to remain so for the next twenty, exciting, truly rewarding years...
...But Cordoba was also the heart of worker militancy in Argentina and the base of a new labor organization, the CGT de los Argentinos, whose revolutionary program posed a new threat to imperialist interests...
...unions and International Trade Secretariats...
...de Obreros y Empleados de Correos y Telecom...
...U.S...
...This was merely a conciliatory gesture towards the Peronists to help diffuse a long history of ill feelings and the CGT responded with the overtures of friendly relations shortly after its Ordinary Congress in 1963...
...And because it was led by workers from an industry totally dominated by foreign monopoly capital, it undercut the assumption that a sufficient and content labor aristocracy could be maintained in a highly industrialized, yet dependent and unstable economy...
...Aditario Sanchez (Petroleum Workers Union...
...Autogestlon attempted to confuse workers through a sham of "worker control over the means of production," which actually meant the cooptation of labor leaders and the greater and more efficient exploitation of workers...
...Government Printing Office, 1969...
...2 8 Labor itself plays a very minor role, accounting for 17 percent of the AIFLD budget in 1962 and a meager four percent in 1967...
...workers-particularly the oppressed national minorities, women and childrenremained unorganized and super-exploited...
...On the other hand, the effectiveness of this labor bureaucracy and consequently of AIFLD has been undermined by the fact that class struggle has been intensified rather than suppressed...
...In 1964, however, the plan also became the political means by which the most militant sectors hoped to force Peron's return from exile...
...Most of the large unions under bureaucratic control remained in the old CGT...
...Its budget climbed from $24,000 in 1964 to $186,440 in 1966...
...President Johnson promptly prohibited any further covert subsidies to private, voluntary organizations...
...ideological weapon in 1973 when Taccone "withdrew" from union activities and assumed the presidency of SEGBA...
...ILO, op...
...The ITS record in Argentina was not without its own blemishes...
...universities...
...and it granted the federation the right to recognize new locals...
...Ruth Needleman, "The AFL CIO Abroad: Behind the Chile Coup," Guardian: Special issue on American Workers and Their Struggle, Fall 1974, p. 21, 34...
...But even more important, the "60" demands the cessation of control of the CGT from Madrid (i.e...
...Under Charles Wheeler, AIFLD had developed a broad program of activities with considerable public exposure...
...Challenge from the Left Despite these divisions, by 1968 the bureaucracy as a whole was wary of a deeper threat: the growing acceptance among workers of a revolutionary alternative...
...and Hobart Spalding, La clase trabajadora argentina(Documentos para su historia-1890/ 1912) (Buenos Aires: Editorial Galerna, 1970...
...De Frente (Buenos Aires), Vol...
...It preaches a nationalist line while selling out to European and U.S...
...Behind this sudden about-face was the growing realization that the extension of U.S...
...Conte 4 Hector Fretes Policarpg Acosta,3Roberto Franchi, Sebastian Montoya Alejandro Spagnuolo 3 Juan Herbociani, Ruben Arancibia 3 Aquilino Urbano Mendez Raul Balcells 3 Isaac Negrete,3 Juan A. Pocione Felix A. Perez, Juan J. Taccone Unknown Juan F. Arce, Luis G. Masmuh unknown Eleuterio Cardoso,3 Abel Arias Maria Elena Silva, Luis Rubeo Oscar Valdovinos IFPCW Adolfo Cavalli, Hector Chacon 4 Ernesto Medina IFFTU TR IP,TR IP,TR IP,TR TR TR,HP TR,RL TR IP,TR IP,TR HP,RL TR,RL IP,TR RL IP,TR TR,HP IP,TR TR IP,TR Horacio Ibanez,3 Horacio M. Nieto IP,TR Carlos R. Ferrgyra, Ramon Rozas 3 HP M. del Mestre, Nicolas Mayolino TR IFTGLW Juan 0. Araujo, Juan Corrad 3 Raul Peralta, Mr...
...2) the deterioration of economic conditions of workers under the impact of monopoly capitalism and a concurrent increase until 1966 of working-class struggles for essentially economist demands...
...In the sphere of local education, AIFLD began using the ITS network of affiliates which had been built up since the mid-sixties to downgrade its own public involvement...
...AIFLD's public sphere of action includes a wide range of educational activities and social projects such as credit banks, housing and cooperatives...
...William Doherty, AIFLD Social Projects Director, was also on hand to launch "Operation AFL-CIO," supposedly the largest AIFLD housing construction project in Latin America...
...First he patched up relations with Peronist labor leaders, meeting with Jose Alonso in the office of U.S...
...COASI was taken over by the government in 1949 and many of its leaders went into exile in Uruguay where they were groomed for an eventual return to Argentina...
...imperialist strategy...
...All these groups share a common position-that the majority of the rank and file oppose the bureaucracy, the Social Pact, the Law of Professional Associations and all other forms of collaboration...
...He dedicated his life to the anti-communist cause-convincing, coercing labor leaders in Latin America to join his puppet federations (CIT, ORIT) and his final masterpiece, the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD...
...Figures for cumulative annual wage increases between 196367 show that the former granted average wage hikes of 31 percent while the latter averaged over 44 percent...
...Unit prices ranged between $6,000 and $11,500, an impossible sum for the average Argentine worker...
...imperialism had an able ally in this endeavor...
...of Journalists IFPCW-Int...
...The Cordobazo of 1969 and parallel uprisings in other cities of the interior marked the resurgence of class struggle within the labor movement itself...
...Nelson Rockefeller...
...VII, No...
...When in May 1973 the Justicialist Liberation Front (Frente Justicialista de Liberacion--FREJULI) removed the military from its control over the government apparatus through the electoral process, it temporarily broke the repressive climate which had prevailed in Argentina for the last 18 years...
...Feeling among rank-and-file workers ran high against the top bureaucrats, many of whom stayed away from the Congress...
...government without considerably damaging their "credibility" at home and abroad...
...On the one hand, both factions supported the new Law of *To Boggs, "Peronismo" in the old sense means the political movement run by Peron...
...2. This category includes training at the Front Royal Institute, the InterAmerican Labor Economics Course or State Department trips...
...Joe Beirne, of the CWA, took up the call and was instrumental in setting up the first ITS in Latin America: the Postal, Telephone and Telegraph International (PTTI...
...In 1946, he was named AFL Inter-American Representative which he remained until 1965...
...cit., 31st ed...
...As the military coup of 1943 unfolded, the labor movement was still divided despite repeated efforts to form a central trade-union organization based on revolutionary class consciousness...
...In the same year, other courses were arranged for newspapermen (co-sponsored by the Inter-American Federation of Working Newspapermen's Organization), and for stevedores (co-sponsored by the International Transport Federation...
...imperialism has invested a great deal of effort and money in developing a well-trained corps of top and middle-level labor bureaucrats to sidetrack the class struggle in Latin America...
...2 6 One reason for so much talk and little action on these housing projects is that long before the earth is broken participating unions must provide extensive information on their internal affairs...
...In December 1973, the U.S...
...25 per year for profit-making and government organizations ($48 for two years...
...3 0 After 1967, these "CIA orphans" were in a financial bind, yet they could not accept money outright from the U.S...
...Winning the Cold War, op...
...George Morris, The CIA and American Labor (New York: International, 1967...
...However, Argentine workers have also had to face another enemy within their own ranks: the bureaucratic leadership of the CGT...
...They readily agreed that a visit by AFL-CIO "heavies" was needed...
...The variable in the orientations of these groups lies in the concrete forms of organization they propose...
...This type of uneven growth immediately generated higher rates of unemployment...
...In April 1947, Romualdi received government approval for his project at a meeting with Spruille Braden, Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs, and Daniel Horowitz, Chief of the State Department's International Labor Division...
...Between 1963-69, its productivity grew at an annual growth rate of 6.7 percent, while employment increased by only 0.7 percent and wages by 3 percent...
...working class...
...2 3 George Meany President...
...The primary channel for such support-although not the only one-is the Agency for International Development (AID...
...When it became clear that the "free trade unionists" would not carry the day, the Congress was summarily dismissed...
...Yet another dictator, General Aramburu, replaced Lonardi *Revolucion Libertadora was the name given by the military to their 1955 coup against Peron and the three-year dictatorship which followed.8 and lost no time in asserting military control over the CGT...
...Four of the Argentine loans, valued at $131,000, were specifically destined to establish "credit institutions" for workers...
...While the bourgeoisie remains firmly in control of the government, SEGBA is projected as a "public service" and "non-profit" corporation which does not exploit its workers and which "serves" the community...
...In September 1974, 80,000 sugarcane workers in the poverty-stricken province of Tticuman paralyzed not only the sugar industry but the entire province in a massive strike...
...Ricardo Elorza and Ramon Elorza 3 (Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union...
...To fill the vacuum, AIFLD re-instated one of its earlier schemes: workers' savings and loan associations...
...In many instances, the housing was never even built, while funds flowed freely into the pockets of corrupt union officials to be repaid eventually by the workers through union dues...
...Four others, J. Carlos Loholaberry, Augusto Vandor, Jose Alonso and Rogelio Coria, would later lead rival factions in the Peronist bureaucracy, three of them eventually losing their lives at the hands of armed groups for selling out the workers' interests...
...6. I LO, Yearbook of Labor Statistics, Geneva, 11th ed...
...He came bearing new gifts and, despite himself, a new approach to Argentine labor and to Peronism...
...The real value of these activities is not limited to propaganda and bribery, however...
...the Latin American Confederation of Labor (CTAL), founded in 1938, was supported by the still independent CIO and became a regional branch of the communist WFTU in 1945...
...152-3...
...Sueiro had been the AIFLD country program director in Argentina after Holway's departure in 1973...
...As the expansion of monopoly capitalism sharpened the contradiction between rank-and-file militancy and the corrupt union leadership, imperialism immediately came to the aid of the latter...
...ARGENTINA In the hour of the Furnaces The decision taken on November 6 by the Argentine government to declare a state of siege throughout the country virtually returned Argentina to the state of total military rule from which it emerged in May 1973...
...5. See the document by right-wing Peronism, ibid...
...working class...
...Finally in September 1974 a new "Antisubversive Law" was passed to repress militant trade union action and guerrilla activity...
...But secret agreements and back-room scheming are not the fundamental forces of history, and Frondizi's plan was toppled by the most militant sectors of the working class before the new president could even return to Argentina...
...6 and 7. 46...
...2. This brief description was abstracted from Jorge Correa, Los jerarcas sindicales (Buenos Aires: Editorial Polemica, 1972), pp...
...La Causa Peronista (Buenos Aires), Vol.1, No.3 (July 23, 1974...
...These conditions were characterized by four new factors: (1) the re-emergence of a conciliatory labor leadership, both Peronist and "free trade unionist," which would translate its early negotiations with the State into outright collaboration with successive military regimes...
...The bourgeoisie, AIFLD and the CGT bureaucrats have responded to this new challenge with increased repression and right-wing terrorism...
...Holway was a far cry from a worker...
...Three unions in particular broke the strike by withdrawing their support: the Transport Workers Union, the Meatpackers Federation and the Petroleum Workers Union...
...The mechanisms used by imperialism in penetrating the Argentine labor movement, particularly the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) and the International Trade Secretariats (ITS), will be analyzed in detail...
...Sharing the Spoils In its early years, the AFL perceived U.S...
...Four years went by before any agreement was signed and the pickings of "Operation AFL-CIO" were slim: (1) only four unions were included: Postal and Communications Workers Union, the Railroad Workers Union, Light and Power, and the Municipal Workers Union...
...The 62 Organizations and the MUCS called a three-day general strike and even the "free trade unionists," caught in the wave of militant worker solidarity, supported the meatworkers' struggle...
...2. what motivates him/her (try to be as specific and detailed as possible...
...In the early sixties, working-class militancy was also in ascendency...
...Working days lost in strikes jumped from 21,170 in 1955 to over 5 million in 1956 and 1957, over 6 million in 1958 and finally to 10 million in 1959.18 This combative opposition forced the military to bow out to elections and a civilian government in 1958...
...While industries dominated by foreign capital grew rapidly, food processing and textiles, for example, remained virtually stagnant...
...The second thrust of the law was to modify the statutes of the unions and thereby reinforce the rigidity of their structure: 1) the period between elections was raised from two to four years...
...It endorsed the CIA overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala, acclaimed the fall of Goulart in Brazil, opposed Cheddi Jagan in Guyana and Fidel in Cuba and approved the U.S...
...Eager for pay-offs and prestige, they are supported and trained not only by the U.S...
...Moreover, this new approach undermined the conditions of full employment and destroyed the temporary "harmony of interests" with labor...
...They have attempted to legislate class struggle out of existence...
...In November 1963, Romualdi left on another jaunt to Buenos Aires...
...of Lumberjacks and Stevedores (Fed...
...15 Lonardi had initially promised to respect labor legislation and the "free trade unionists" were eager to negotiate...
...He represented neither a mass base nor a dominant sector of the bourgeoisie...
...However, a decade and a half later, U.S...
...The Social Pact, an agreement between sectors of the bourgeoisie and the trade union bureaucracy, also became a means to keep the lid on workers' struggles...
...2 and 3 (Nueva Epoca) (July-December 1973), and "Autogestion: conquista obrera o soborno...
...If the new "60" (which now numbers about 80 unions) is able to continue its cohesiveness and can win over three of the big live nonaligned unions on a permanent basis, Peron's influence in Argentina will be drastically diminished...
...capital had successfully penetrated key sectors of the Argentine economy and imperialist financial institutions had locked the Argentine government into a multi-billion dollar debt, the labor movement still escaped its direct control...
...bourgeoisie to suppress domestic labor unrest and support imperialist expansion abroad...
...Paul Jacobs, "How the Ci-A Makes Liars Out of Union Leaders," Ramparts, April, 1967, pp...
...Donations from the largest multi-nationals complement their long histories of exploitation and active intervention in Latin America: W. R. Grace and Co., the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, ITT, Kennecott Copper Corporation, First National City Bank, Mobil Oil Co., Anaconda, United Fruit-to name but a few...
...Bulk orders (add 10% for postage): 10-49 copies, $1.80 each...
...26, No...
...labor experts back to the drawing boards...
...By early 1964, fourteen unions had submitted direct requests for financial and technical assistance involving $65 million for 20,000 housing units...
...Taccone had introduced the concept into his union contract in 1962 but it acquired its real dimension as an Felix Perez and Juan Jose Taccone of the Light and Power Union are wined and dined by Andrew C. McLellan, AFL-CIO Inter- American Representative, and William C. Doherty after graduating from the Front Royal Institute in 1965...
...Latin America was to be kept as a cheap source of raw materials, dependent on U.S...
...In 1962, the 62 Organizations met to elaborate the Program of Huerta Grande, calling for the nationalization of foreign banks, of the steel, electric power, petroleum and meat-packing industries, the expropriation of the landed oligarchy without compensation and the establishment of worker control over production...
...government, corporate elite and labor bureaucrats want more for their money: each and every AIFLD program is also a mechanism for intelligence-gathering, recruitment and outright subversion...
...Gremial del Personal de la Industria de la Carne y sus Derivados) Petroleum Workers (Fed...
...Militant unions were taken over by government intervenors, elected officials of the Peronist Left were forced to resign, left publications were closed down, demonstrations were prohibited or brutally repressed, the military resumed counterinsurgency operations and rightwing terrorist groups began a wave of assassination of left politicians and militant labor leaders...
...embassy personnel and discussed with Aramburu himself the labor policy of the dictatorship...
...imperialism, the monopoly bourgeoisie, the landed oligarchy and the right wing of the Peronist Movement (the dominant force in the FREJULI coalition) spread chaos and instability, and brought down the Campora government in July...
...Alfonso Ferraro (CGT...
...the Meatcutters Union ran a seminar series in the capital, and other labor schools were launched by a variety of unions and locals in cities of the interior: San Juan, Santa Fe and Resistencia...
...1958...
...He nevertheless agreed to the plan and Frondizi reciprocated with unprecedented generosity toward foreign investors...
...of Municipal Employees & Workers (Conf...
...He became Assistant Secretary General of ORIT in 1951 and first Executive Director of AIFLD in 1962...
...After a brief apprenticeship with David Dubinsky and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, Romualdi travelled to Latin America in 1941 representing the Mazzini Society (an anti-fascist organization in the U.S...
...Romualdi was quickly disillusioned on both scores and the failure of his initial strategy towards the7 SERAFINO ROMUALDI I rolled up my sleeves and went to work...
...While AIFLD has the double liability of being directly linked to the United States and supported by business-government ties as well as labor, the ITS enjoy a greater range of maneuverability in their *Ernest Lee was recently appointed to succeed Jay Lovestone as head of the AFL-CIO's International Affairs Department.13 operations...
...AIFLD's role, therefore, must be assessed in terms of its success in diverting, diffusing and suppressing the class struggle...
...2 4 To fulfill its goals, AIFLD employs a variety of tactics, including intense propaganda and "educational" activities...
...The political position, the privilege, of the labor aristocracy rests on maintaining the suppression of the particular autonomies of oppressed nationalities (and analogous groups) within the working class, while the economic position, the surplus wage, of the labor aristocracy rests on maintaining the general hegemony of the existing state sovereignty within the metropolis and over all the territories, possessions, colonies, semi- colonies and dependencies in the entire imperial sphere.12 Thus labor aristocrats had an interest in perpetuating the international division of labor based on superexploitation of the Third World...
...Actually all the major unions of the "32 Block" returned to the fold of the world organization, not as a block, but individually: the Municipal Workers Confederation joined in 1962, the General Confederation of Commercial Employees in 1963 and the Association of Bank Workers in 1964...
...de Empleados de Comercio de la Rep...
...I (May 1968...
...congressional investigation of AIFLD activities raised sharp criticisms of exaggerated accomplishments, false promises and shabby results...
...One of these factions, known as Vandorism, had emerged when Augusto Vandor first challenged Peron's political leadership in 1964, and again at the 1965 CGT Congress of Avellaneda...
...Nevertheless, a U.S...
...Copyright 0 1974 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...Enrique Terny (Argentine Federation of Workers of the Noodle Industries...
...However, among rank-and-file workers the conditions of decreasing wages and productivity-oriented incentive plans which prevailed in the years preceding the coup dictated a radically different consciousness...
...In 1964, AIFLD and the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical and Technical Employees (IFCCTE) began co-sponsoring a seminar series for ITS affiliates...
...In the absence of such stability the margin of legitimacy for reformist policies, even in this fraction of the working class, are narrow...
...cit., p. 183...
...We give them training in basic economics...
...They have consistently supported U.S...
...In the long run, the ability of militant sectors of the working class to withstand the onslaught of repression and terrorism will depend on their degree of unity and ideological clarity...
...union, one of six former beneficiaries of CIA financing: Communications Workers of America (CWA), Retail Clerks International (RCIA), Brotherhood of Railway, Airline Clerks (BRAC), Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union (OCAW), Textile Workers Union (TWUA), and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM...
...In the northern province of Santiago del Estero, for example, 14 unions got only 20 units each...
...Sindical de Petroleros, Fed...
...The Vandorists were unpredictable political allies, having first opposed Peron's political leadership, then backed it, always demonstrating a tendency to elude AIFLD's political line...
...Histadrut cooperates with the AFLCIO and the German Ebert Foundation in training right-wing labor leaders in Third World countries...
...Romualdi reverted to an essentially passive role, maintaining contacts and nominal support for the 32-Bloc, but resigned to the fact that his efforts-for reasons he could yet not assimilate-had been fruitless...
...de Obreros de la Industria del Vestido y Afines) Glass Workers Union (Sind...
...The groundwork for the program was laid by Romualdi in late 1963...
...It will depend on their ability to combine political, economic and armed forms of struggle...
...10, No...
...Extending the Network The phasing out of AIFLD's public activities in Argentina by no means signified an end to U.S...
...The MSB plan of struggle specifically calls for the "disaffiliation of trade unions tied to trade union organizations in the service of imperialism (AFL-CIO, ICFTU...
...In addition, his foreign service career which began in 1958 ranked him as a qualified intelligence operative...
...Only repression would now serve the government's purpose.The struggle of the state-owned meatpacking plant, Lisandro de la Torre, began when Frondizi announced his intention of selling the plant to private interests...
...A comparison between three branches of the food industry (rice, sugar and oil) which have a low participation of foreign capital, and the artificial fiber and textile production of the petrochemical industry, which is 100 percent controlled by five foreign companies, underlines the growing disparities in wage levels...
...George Meany describes the curriculum: We take young people that we screen in their home countries, and we bring them to a center where we put them through a course...
...labor strategy failed in its attempt to gain control over the Argentine labor movement...
...ILO,op.cit., 18thed...
...He was vice-consul in Brazil from 1958 to 1960, followed by two years as staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs...
...Funds are virtually untraceable, originating with the U.S...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Foreign Assistance Actof 1967, 90th Congress, 1st Session (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...In early 1971 these bureaucrats and their union machines became the launching pad for another power struggle in the ruling spheres of the CGT...
...Jay Lovestone had just the man for the job of directing Cold War operations in Latin AmericaSerafino Romualdi (see box) who was a key figure in U.S...
...Cuestionario, Vol.1, NO.8 (June 1974...
...Panorama (Buenos Aires), August 20, 1974...
...Embassy reduced its "labor" staff from three to one, leaving a former Air Force officer, Roger Gamble, in charge of the labor/political office...
...companies, and spurts of rural guerrilla activity added to the alarm of the Kennedy Administration...
...This assumption was the underpinning of imperialist control of the Argentine working class and was founded on the AFL experience in the United States...
...H. U.S...
...It actively prepares for such contingencies through the covert activities of "independent" agencies like AIFLD...
...Ronald Radosh, American Labor and United States Foreign Policy (New York: Random House, 1969...
...and European capitalists...
...It altered the structures of Argentine labor organizations to solidify the vertical flow of power from the top...
...V, No...
...3 7 Thus without using a cent of its own funds, AIFLD obtained extensive dossiers on union activities and cemented its relations with key labor leaders, both Peronist and non-Peronist, and with middle-level bureaucrats who would eventually occupy the housing...
...25-8...
...Faced with the politicization of labor struggles, the labor bureaucracy chose to seal its collaboration with the bourgeoisie...
...An expert on communism (Lovestone was General Secretary of the Communist Party USA in the late 1920's), he established the AFL's Free Trade Union Committee to combat the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) and sabotage rising worker militancy in war-torn Germany, France, Italy and Greece...
...win/buy ideological allies from within the ranks of Latin American labor...
...After the 1973 elections, this duality in the CGT leadership sharpened...
...CIOSL, Informe del Octavio Congreso Mundial, Amsterdam 1965 (Brussels, 1965), pp...
...A new offensive was in the making...
...Address all correspondence to Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, NY 10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, CA 94701...
...Meatworkers immediately occupied the plant and mobilized popular support for their demand that the industry remain under state control...
...Two aspects of the in- stitutionalization process are particularly significant in :his respect: the Law of Professional Associations and mutogestion...
...His opposition to Peron and the CGT had been complete since 1945...
...This is wherein the danger lies...
...The labor bureaucracy was isolated and its political role as representative of the State, the local bourgeoisie and imperialism in the labor movement has been under constant attack...
...Juracy Magalhaes, Ambassador of Brazil...
...de Viajantes de Comercio de la Rep...
...Moreover its financial status was undermined by the existing checkoff system, whereby the companies themselves collected workers' dues and turned them over to the old CGT...
...In 1967, a series of dummy foundations were exposed as CIA conduits for funding student, cultural and labor organizations abroad...
...Frondizi and Integrationism Frondizi seemed an unlikely presidential candidate...
...By November 1969, 2,682 workers from 21 unions had taken AIFLD courses and seminars, 17 impact project grants and loans had been disbursed and the largest AIFLD housing boondoggle in Latin America was underway...
...Strike figures for this period reflect this rising discontent: 313,343 work days lost in 1952 as opposed to 1,333,592 days lost in 1954.6 Grass roots opposition to the Peronist labor bureaucrats was rapidly spreading as the Armed Forces stepped in...
...initiatives...
...The final link between ITS headquarters and AIFLD in Washington was made through Jose Sueiro...
...Romualdi's goal was an agreement whereby his Argentine colleagues would be given absolute control over the labor movement...
...He chose two assistants for the task: Arturo Sabroso, Secretary General of the Peruvian Confederation of Labor (CTP) and Bernardo Ibanez of the Chilean Confederation (CTCh), expelled from his post as Secretary General for his AFL connections in 1946...
...of Teachers and Professors (Conf...
...4) the union president would automatically become the assembly chairman...
...de la Industria del Vidrio y Afines) Leather Workers Federation (Fed...
...In close collaboration with the U.S...
...The role played by the International Trade Secretariats-another link in the imperialist chain-is worthy of further examination...
...Other educational exchanges arranged by the Institute include the Inter-American Labor Economics Program at Georgetown University where promising trade-unionists follow an intensive 1-2 semester course for "labor economists," and Trade-Union Leader Grants which bring top-level union personnel to the United States under State Department auspices...
...Soon after came the International Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers (IFPCW), International Transport Federation (ITF), International Federation of Clerical, Commercial & Technical Employees (IFCCTE, Spanish name, FIET), International Metalworkers Federation (IMF), and Public Services International (PSI...
...Prominently absent were Vandor himself, Rogelio Coria (Construction Workers Union), Francisco Prado and Juan J. Taccone (Light and Power Union), Jose Alonso (Garment Workers Union), Armando March (Commercial Employees Union...
...As we noted above, this post was geared toward the collection of data on union activities, politics, membership and leadership-information vital to the military dictatorship in its offensive against the Brazilian labor movement...
...This16 division has persisted until the present period and is at the heart of power struggles within the CGT bureaucracy...
...Secondly, these seminars facilitate a careful selection process, a weeding-out of trouble-makers and identification of potential allies...
...As the working and living conditions of Argentine workers worsened, a new consciousness arose which sparked militant opposition to bureaucratic collaboration with the Ongania regime...
...and business at the founding ceremony of the American Institute for Free Labor Development...
...The leadership was largely working-class, and highly influenced by the anarchist teachings of Bakunin which had spread to Argentina with the immigrants from southern Europe...
...Instead, he placed leading members of his own faction in secondary posts in the CGT-surrounding Romero with hostile bureaucrats, among the most corrupt in Argentina: Segundo Palma, Jose Rodriguez and Antonio Baldassini (all three with direct AIFLD connections), and Alberto Campos (UOM), Jose Baez (Insurance Workers Union) and Esteban Rolando (Railroad Workers Union...
...cit., ch...
...Government Printing Office, 1963), p. 134...
...According to the needs of capital accumulation in the industrialized nations and the beginning of autonomous industrialization in the Third World, a new international division of labor was emerging...
...4. These bureaucrats were trained in Israel by Histadrut, the Israeli General Workers Confederation...
...Bancaria) Civil Service Workers Union (Union del Personal Civil de la Nacion) Comm...
...In 1958, nineteen unions with communist affiliation left to form the MUCS (Movimiento de Union y Coordinacion Sindical...
...The new central was composed of small unions, service workers and locals of the larger unions in the interior...
...4 4 Michael D. Boggs, Associate InterAmerican Representative of the AFL-CIO, just happened to be in Argentina at the time and reported on the importance of this new offensive: A new and highly significant realignment of forces within the CGT took place on June 24, 1971...
...imperialism to submit Latin American societies to its political and economic needs...
...to break a strike of workers from another craft within the same plant.6 Labor (COPA) was formed in 1918 with Samuel Gompers as its first president...
...moulders, carpenters, etc...
...7, No...
...2) the power of labor bureaucrats over the union rank-and-file would be greatly enhanced by the process of institutional centralization which began in 1973...
...The persistent determination of Argentine workers and the continued efforts to build political unity among the vanguard organizations of the working class will give the definitive death blow to the labor bureaucrats, AIFLD, ITS et al...
...For more on the history of the Argentine working class through the 1930's, see Sebastian Marotta, Movimiento sindical argentino (Buenos Aires: Lacio, 1961...
...Gerry O'Keefe, head of the Department of International and Foreign Affairs of the RCIA, served as bagman for CIA money in the 1963 overthrow of Cheddi Jagan in Guyana...
...Before his assignment to Argentina, Holway spent four more years in Washington as Director of AIFLD's Social Projects Department...
...House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements, Winning the Cold War: the U.S...
...Collective bargaining and negotiations take precedence over strikes, while relatively good contracts are obtained for the privileged few...
...Conf...
...In addition to contributions from AFL- affiliated unions, AFL pledges about 23 percent of its regular budget to international activities...
...At the same time, Peronists and communists had reasserted their influence in the trade unions and had even joined temporarily to combat the military dictatorship...
...Militant workers are eliminated through a variety of tactics (red-baiting, black lists, etc...
...In a sharp departure from past policy, Romualdi also met with Jose Alonso-the Peronist General Secretary of the CGT...
...ISETU-Int...
...AFL-style unionism transplanted to Latin American soil was urgently needed to protect foreign investment and thereby ensure high wages for highly skilled and organized elements of the U.S...
...4 6 Throughout this process, AIFLD was most rooted in the Officialist unions and favored their political dependability...
...2. address or place where the person can most easily be located 3. photograph if possible 4. functions performed for the union, if person holds a position 5. number of years of membership 6. trade union positions previously occupied 7. if not a leader, explain what training or knowledge of the union he/she has B) Biographical Information 1. personal history 2. political and ideological connections 3. financial resources (explain what kind of work and salary received) 4. character 5. general information C) Motivation and Outstanding Traits 1. why did this person stand out from the others...
...AIFLD could no longer think of expanding its traditional functions, such as the 1968 move to Cordoba suggested...
...This time he did not restrict his contacts to long-time colleagues such as Perez Leiros, the dean of Argentine "free trade unionism" who was recently booed off the speakers' stand at the May 1st demonstration...
...It plays on the support of relatively privileged sectors of the labor force to suppress the militancy of the majority...
...They have no idea that labor has a contribution to make to production...
...4 With the nationalization of bank credit and government control over the commercialization of agricultural goods, the national bourgeoisie could channel the reserves and resources of the nation into new industries such as food and textiles, which were largely labor intensive...
...This revolutionary alternative not only proposed to confront the military dictatorship, but also the reformist and Venturini 3 (Union of Naval Electricians...
...ITS operations in Latin America, however, were the product of U.S...
...Anarchism began to dwindle in the first two decades of the 20th century...
...But AIFLD had to move slowly and cautiously...
...government support has made business donations superfluous...
...The violence of the Cordobazo also led to another threat17 against government and right-wing labor leaders: the organized violence of revolutionary armed struggle...
...5) all appeals, which used to go before the courts, would now be ruled on by the Minister of Labor, and 6) the requirements for candidates for union election were raised...
...7. does the person accept guidance and orientation...
...LABOR STRATEGY FOR LATIN AMERICA The AFL Way Since the turn of the century, leaders of the American Federation of Labor (and, after 1954, of the Congress of Industrial Organizations) have worked in close collaboration with sectors of the U.S...
...William C. Doherty, AIFLD Executive Director, inaugurates housing in Buenos Aires in 1968.14 CHART I: MAJOR ARGENTINE UNIONS PARTICIPATING IN AIFLD PROGRAMS Trade Union ITS Aff...
...destroy Toledano's leadership...
...J. Peter Grace, chairman of the board at AIFLD with major investments at stake in Latin America, ex- plained the Institute's mission: We need to understand that today the choice in Latin America is between democracy and communism...
...When the government and the old CGT leadership voided the elections and retained control of the CGT by fiat, the new secretariat constituted itself as the CGT de los Argentinos and drafted the 1st of May Program, virtually a replica of the 1962 Program of Huerta Grande, In addition, the new CGT called for the formation of an anti-imperialist alliance of workers, students, professionals and small merchants and producers...
...For further information on Jay Lovestone and U.S...
...The arrangement was formally acknowledged on May 15, 1968 in a letter to the Deputy Administrator of AID from Ernest Lee,* Assistant Director of International Affairs for the AFLCIO (and George Meany's son-in-law): This will confirm our recent discussions in which the AID may utilize the AIFLD, the African American Labor Center and the Asian American Free Labor Institute as instruments to provide financial support to American labor organizations.31 Thus money was allotted to the AID budget and sub- contracted to AIFLD...
...Of particular importance were the strikes in Acindar, Propulsora Siderurgica, IKA-Renault, Centenera, Terrabusi, IME, and Bagley, all among the top 120 industrial corporations in Argentina...
...The task of the Left since 1973 has been to unify these struggles and give them political direction...
...labor strategy abroad see: Dan Kurzman, "Labor's Cold Warrior," Washington Post, December 30, 1965...
...They have jailed, tortured and assassinated striking workers and militant leaders...
...Among the commission's most prominent members, Francisco Perez Leiros and Armando March, were close friends of Romualdi...
...It will be a relatively simple task to reorient much of the laboring Peronist force along other lines, once there is no more hope for "authentic" political expression of Peronism...
...Unidos Petroleros del Estado) Railroad Workers (Union Ferroviaria, La Fraternidad, Asoc...
...Romualdi, op, cit., p. 167...
...Rather, increased U.S...
...AIFLD activities in Argentina were overseen by Charles Wheeler, member of the Communications Workers of America for over 20 years and former president of a CWA local...
...On the one hand, Frondizi was elected with the support of the Peronist Movement...
...Sectors of the military, top leaders of the 32-Bloc and social-democratic forces all agreed to the plan...
...labor strategy in Argentina...
...First, it is an effective means of gathering important information on key unions and their membership...
...This confusing situation prompted Romualdi to action...
...1967, and "U.S...
...AIFLD needed a labor facade which would convincingly project the image that "the Institute had come, not for the purpose of teaching a 'way of unionism,' but rather to bring them the basic elements and rudiments of unionism whereby they might develop their own methodology, united in a common effort to better the lot of themselves, the organizations which they represent and their fellow workers...
...But the growing importance of foreign capital in key sectors of the economy combined with imperialist penetration at the political and ideological level, eventually sharpened these inherent contradictions and provoked a period of heightened confrontation by the late 1960's...
...sympathies...
...The largest of these ITS networks-the PTTI--set up a sub-regional office in Buenos Aires in January 1973...
...Autogestion describes the concept of "worker" participation in the management of a corporation...
...2 0 Over 5,000 of the 9,000 workers at the plant were dismissed and all major unions were placed under government control through the repressive Conintes Plan (Conmocion Interna del Estado-Internal Commotion of the State...
...At the very moment of publication of this thesis, CGT Secretary-General Ignacio Rucci was in Madrid on a pilgrimage to Peron...
...In March 1960, Frondizi turned the CGT over to a provisional commission of bureaucratic Peronists and "free trade unionists...
...We will sketch briefly the evolution of Argentine labor organizations prior to 1943, and outline the Peronist phase (1945-55) and the development of Justicialism...
...At the same time, the vast majority of U.S...
...AIFLD Shifts Gears U.S...
...The Montoneros resumed operations by kidnapping two members of the Bunge y Born family, foremost representatives of the monopoly bourgeoisie, and executing the Federal Police Chief, Alberto Villar, accused of leading the right-wing terrorist group, the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance...
...Their militancy has brought down successive civilian governments and military dictatorships...
...They actively participate in internal union battles for control, organizing campaigns, contract negotiations, etc...
...His political ambitions were therefore caught between the need for mass electoral support (i.e...
...Heriberto Pazos, Nestor Piferrer (Light and Power Union...
...The U.S...
...Rising worker militancy, however, prevented the military from reaching a solution behind closed doors...
...labor strategy did not remain passive to the escalation of class struggle in Argentina...
...Wheeler was able to rapidly expand the range of AIFLD activities...
...Letter from Ernest S. Lee (Assistant Director, Department of International Affairs, AFL CIO) to Rutherford M. Poats (Deputy Director, AID), May 15, 1968...
...When the Radical Party took over the government under H. Yrigoyen in 1916, the socialists (social democrats) gained legitimacy among many workers...
...The Law of Professional Associations and autogestion have been complemented by other more traditional forms of bureaucratic control: violence and fraud...
...de Obreros y Empleados Municipales Arg...
...Most AIFLD personnel, however, have absolutely no claim to legitimate labor experience...
...This militancy has also spread to the agricultural sector...
...The Cordobazo demonstrated that the conditions which allowed the labor aristocracy to develop in the United States, to withstand the challenge of the IWW in the early 1900's, and the surge of the CIO in the thirties and forties could not be reproduced in Argentina...
...and Samuel F. Pryor, Jr., Vice-President of Pan American World Airways...
...This article on the imperialist role of AIFLD in the labor movement will appear with many others in a new NACLA pamphlet, Argentina...
...This penetration was spearheaded by AIFLD, one mechanism among many used by U.S...
...9-19...
...Holway returned to Brazil for a year in September, 1964, (following the military coup) as AIFLD's Social Projects Director...
...10 16, 27-28...
...To set up a seminar for a union, AIFLD requires11 specific data on size of membership, educational and political levels, political affiliation, internal problems, relations with other unions, etc...
...And in the AIFLD office, country director Charles Wheeler, the communications worker, was replaced by James Holway...
...Top labor leaders were co-opted as "worker delegates" on the boards of corporations, representing a minority position but tying their interests to the need for greater worker efficiency and higher profits...
...After his election Frondizi granted 13 exploration, drilling and exploitation contracts to U.S., British and Italian oil companies...
...In other instances, where the level of class struggle puts a limit on the range of AIFLD activities, where antiimperialist consciousness is high, and where radicalization of the working class calls for stronger measures than courses on "free trade unionism," AIFLD tends to lower its profile and use the ITS-network for carrying out its counter-revolutionary designs...
...73-4...
...Information on Individuals A) Identification 1. complete name, nickname, etc...
...Foreign investment shifted from its traditional havens (agriculture, mining, transportation) to light industry and manufacture...
...In 1955, after years of frustration and rabid indictments of Peron's "totalitarian" control of Argentine workers, they seized on the possibility of increased influence and infiltration of the weakened trade-union structures...
...This corrupt leadership pledges labor-capital collaboration-"a favorable investment climate"-to worried capitalists at home and abroad...
...expansionism as a serious threat to its privileged membership of highly skilled workers...
...These unions in turn would channel the money into the inter-American departments of their respective International Trade Secretariat, and from there to pro-U.S...
...4 7 The importance of AIFLD contacts in the labor bureaucracy must be understood at two levels: (1) the network could provide the means to channel AIFLD's vast financial and human resources into clandestine operations against the Left...
...The new law first adapted the structure of the federation or confederation to that of the unions by centralizing control in the national commission...
...3 2 ITS/AIFLD collaboration can take two main forms: in countries where AIFLD is initiating or expanding its activities, but must carefully refrain from open involvement in the internal affairs of labor unions, the ITS can move right in...
...Thus, "although these wages are the highest among all industries, their increase was always outstripped by the rise in the productivity of this sector...
...cit., pp...
...1 (April-May 1974), p. 5...
...Unico de Trabajadores del Espectaculo Publico) Federation of Journalists Fed...
...The growing flow of profits in the post-Peron era heartened U.S...
...In May 1956, he consulted with U.S...
...Augusto Vandor, General Secretary of the powerful Metallurgical Workers Union and the new head of the 62 Organizations, saw Peron's return as a threat to his own political ambitions...
...1. THE EARLY STAGES Anarchism, Syndicalism and Social Democracy 2 The anarchist period in Argentina (1878-1916) was highlighted by militant boycotts, strikes and violent confrontations with the police...
...l In Argentina the United States has had to face the particular phenomenon of Peronism and its deep roots in the working class...
...The period of labor activity which followed (1922-43) was heavily influenced by the reformist ideology of the German social democrats Karl Kautsky and Eduard Bernstein...
...Two conclusions can be drawn from this process...
...Rather, they are retired army officers, former employees of the OSS, CIA, CounterIntelligence Corps, Navy Intelligence and Department of State...
...Militant trade unionists and labor organizers have been tortured and killed by right-wing paramilitary groups, the most prominent of which is the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance.* The Left's Response The goal of militant trade unionists since the fall of the military dictatorship has been recuperacion sindical ("trade union recuperation"), the end of bureaucratic control and the democratization of labor organizations...
...Supporting "free trade unionism" became the AIFLD euphemism for fighting the Cold War in Latin America, for the creation of AFL-style unions throughout the hemisphere-in essence, for waging the class struggle on the side of the bosses...
...business institutions that have activities in that area (Latin America...
...Juan A. Junco (CGT...
...It was guaranteed some representation among Vandorists through Palma, Rodriguez and Baldassini...
...Appeals were useless since the Minister of Labor, Ricardo Otero, was a bureaucrat himself from the Metallurgical Workers Union...
...and key documents on the present period...
...By 1972, over 190,000 trade unionists from Latin America had attended in-country seminars on union organization and administration, book-keeping, cooperatives and credit unions, labor journalism and collective bargaining techniques...
...cit., p. 166...
...In 1898, during the national debate over the Spanish-American War, Samuel Gompers himself joined the "anti-imperialist" campaign...
...3 9 Wage levels in other key industries were subpar according to official standards...
...Internal divisions in the labor movement between socialists, syndicalists and communists were temporarily4 overcome in 1930 when the General Workers Confederation was formed...
...Peronism The Peronist administrations symbolized an alliance between the working class and the national bourgeoisie, with both expanding rapidly under the protection of the State...
...Michael D. Boggs, "Impressions of the Argentine Labor Movement," AFL-CIO Trade Union News, Vol...
...These industries could substantially raise their productivity and realize greater profits per unit of invested capital relative to other industries, which still relied on labor-intensive production...
...Without the pressure of a large reserve army of the unemployed, wages as well as labor's share in the Gross National Product rose substantially until the early 1950's...
...9, November 1974 Published monthly, except May-June and July-August when it is published bi-monthly, at 160 Claremont Ave., New York, NY 10027...
...3. These names were drawn from Jorge Correa, Los jerarcas sindicales (Buenos Aires: Editorial Polemica, 1972), p. 77...
...Unions not included in this list but with some ties to AIFLD include: the Construction Workers Union, the Association of Health Workers of Argentina, the Argentine Federation of Workers of the Noodle Industries, the Federation of Paper and Cardboard Box Workers Union, the General Workers Confederation, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, the Metallurgical Workers Union, the Transportation Workers Union and the Union of Naval Electricians...
...intervention in the Dominican Republic...
...labor experts realized that militant unionism in Argentina could not be broken through such a strategy and that Peronism itselfas a movement of heterogeneous political tendenciescould be divided and weakened...
...Metalworkers Fed...
...Three organizations have played an important role in this respect: the Peronist Workers Youth (JTP, the tradeunion wing of the Peronist Youth), the Movimlento Sindical Combative (MSC, a coalition of militant unions, locals and rank-and-file groups from the province of Cordoba, formed in February 1974), and the Movimiento *'This right-wing paramilitary group is occasionally referred to in the media as the Argentine Anti-Imperialist Alliance, creating confusion about its real anti-communist objectives...
...4 3 Between 1969 and 1973 AIFLD granted five large loans under the new Regional Revolving Loan Fund (RRLF) program...
...The program's political content contradicted the ideology of the top CGT leadership and constituted the first real indictment of class collaborationism...
...This battle has been led by independent trade-union leaders and the most important political organizations on the Left: the Peronist Youth, Peronismo de Base, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Revolutionary Workers Party, the Anti-Imperialist Front for Socialism and the Communist Party...
...unions would be turned over to "Democratic" leadership and the objectives and ambitions of labor would be guided into the "depoliticized" channels of collective bargaining suited to the interests of foreign investors...
...Harvey O'Connor, World Crisis in Oil (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1962), pp...
...Open collaboration between trade-union bureaucrats and the State began in the last two years of the Frondizi administration...
...The ITS can play this role more easily for three basic reasons: they are international organizations...
...It was the only ITS represented at the CGT Congress in May that same year, which voted to create a Department of International Affairs headed by Antonio Baldassini, General Secretary of FOECYT (see Chart II...
...to combat and defeat communist and other totalitarian movements...
...Subscriptions: $10 per year for individuals ($18 for two years...
...Local seminars were followed by regional and then, beginning in 1967, national courses-the last stage in the selection process for training at Front Royal...
...Romualdi, however, was not altogether satisfied with the proposal, since it still left room for some Peronist participation, conciliatory and bureaucratic as that participation might be...
...The major emphasis of the program is housing...
...In November, Romualdi, Meany and Dubinsky travelled to Buenos Aires, met key leaders of the "free trade union" sector,1 6 introduced them to U.S...
...labor expert Robert Alexander who was in Buenos Aires "researching" the labor movement for the AFL-CIO and making contacts with COASI elements...
...1 9 Frondizi proposed to reorganize the CGT "on the basis of exclusion of Communists and hard-line Peronists...
...It brought to a close a stage in Argentina's protracted struggle and opened a new phase of heightened class warfare...
...Progressive measures by the new government of Hector Campora and the heightened activity of left forces quickly drew a counterattack by the classes and interests which felt threatened., U.S...
...That new mechanism was AID...
...This selection process culminates at the Front Royal Institute, a 76-acre campus in northern Virginia where AIFLD offers a 5-week residential course for middle-level trade unionists...
...Gremial de Personal de Sanidad Ferroviaria) Conf...
...2 2 Monica Peralta Ramos points out that these struggles reflected a "trade10 unionist consciousness" and essentially economist demands, which did not necessarily contradict the political objectives of top CGT leadership...
...1, No...
...However, Romualdi was unable to convince the railroad unions themselves to trust Frondizi and enter into a pact with his government...
...7. Whereas the value of production for the food and textile industries, as a per centage of total industrial production, dropped between 1950 and 1960 from 27.2 to 20.5 and 16.6 to 10 respectively, chemical and petrochemical production rose from 10.2 to 16.7 and metallurgical goods production soared from 9.4 to 20.7...
...American Institute for Free Labor Development, AIFLD 1962-1972: A Decade of Worker to Worker Cooperation, p. 7. 25...
...Cordoba is also the home of Tosco and Ongaro, jailed leftist Peronists who at one time had been labor leaders...
...Alternativa de la claseobrera...
...To save Peron, you must be against Peron" was their slogan, but other sectors of the Peronist Movement successfully opposed it...
...Worker" delegates were never chosen by the rank and file but appointed by fellow union bureaucrats with management's approval...
...an analysis of the FREJULI government and the impact of new laws on the structure of the economy...
...The automotive industry was a case in point...
...To obtain its information, AIFLD submits the following questionnaire:27 I. Description of the Union: Here we are interested in knowing the potential of the union, its leaders, membership, orientation, ef- fectiveness as trade union entity, etc...
...Lovestone's Cold War," The New Republic, June 25, 1966...
...In the labor movement all militant unions and rank-and-file groups held a congress in the province of Tucuman and formed a National Coordinating Committee for the Trade Union Struggle...
...The military coup of 1955 marked the culmination of this process and the final deterioration of the class alliance...
...Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on the A.I.F.L.D., 91st Congress, 1st Session, August 1, 1969 (Washington, D.C...
...In the late 1950's and early 1960's the Plan de Lucha attempted to preserve the wage levels and social services which workers had gained under the Peronist administrations...
...cit., pp...
...In return, he reinstituted the Law of Professional Organizations (which granted unions their juridical status), promised to end government intervention in the CGT and agreed to let Peron return from exile...
...He opposes this to "Peronismo" which "means social justice, an independent labor movement free to bargain collectively, to strike, to collect dues and to carry out its traditional programs of a social nature (provide hospitals, clinics, vacation hotels and other services for its members...
...The backgrounds of AIFLD personnel reflect the Institute's multi-purpose dimensions...
...cit., p. 83...
...and Stanley Meislen, "Dubious Role of AFL-CIO: Meddling in Latin America," The Nation, February 10, 1964...
...Their campaign against Peron was chanelled through the Committee for Independent Trade Union Action (COASI), affiliated to ORIT...
...1958) and26thed...
...NYAIF Los ing Is Gri Argentina's working class numbers about six million.* or one quarter of the total population...
...By 1972 the Garment Workers had set up their own course cycle in Buenos Aires and a labor school in Tucuman...
...The labor bureaucracy became imperialism's Trojan Horse in the labor movement, while monopoly capital provided the material basis for the growth of a relatively privileged sector of the working class...
...The figure includes industrial, service and agricultural workers...
...de Maestros y Profesores) Textile Workers Association (Asoc...
...The consequences of this impoverishment were outlined by Monica Peralta Ramos: Therefore, if in general terms, we could conceive that reformist policies would be legitimate for a minority fraction of the working class, that fraction which benefits from the type of accumulation which was developing, this would have to be specified on the basis of the system's capability to grow in a stable way...
...they are deeply imbedded in the trade union structures...
...That such methods of collaboration are being tested in a state-owned company bears particular significance...
...ITS/AIFLD Division of Labor The International Trade Secretariats are autonomous confederations of unions of workers in the same industry or the same occupation...
...In contrast, the MSC and MSB discuss the need for an "alternative CGT:" In no way do we intend to create a new CGT, but faced with the situation in the organized labor movement, with the growing intervention of the State in the internal life of the trade unions, with the bureaucratization of the leadership and the latter's collaboration with the owners, we propose an alternative: the Movimiento Sindical de Base...
...de Trabajadores de la Industria del Cuero y Afines) Light and Power Union (Fed...
...Boggs, op...
...Romualdi (second from right) and his mentors: (from left to right) David Dubinsky, President of the Ladies' Garment Workers Union...
...The purpose of AIFLD's activities was to deny the existence of the class struggle and the contradiction between capital and labor...
...Once they have a foot in the door, they feed new friends and recruits into the AIFLD network: incountry seminars, scholarships and travel abroad...
...most assuredly, the Lanusse government will make the most of that fact...
...AIFLD quickly came to the rescue, as a new conduit for AID/CIA funds to U.S...
...9 (September 1969), p. 5. 36...
...Employees (Conf...
...After the Argentine office was closed, he was brought up to Washington as Al FLD's Assistant Director of Education...
...It began by sponsoring courses for smaller unions (lumberjacks, glass, leather, hospital, hotel and restaurant, and turf unions) and gradually moved on to the large unions, traditionally known as Peronist strongholds: textile, garment, light and power, postal and telecommunications...
...The government was finally able to break the strike after two months, when unions under right-wing Peronist and "free trade union" control refdised to generalize and politicize the struggle, withdrawing their support...
...We let them know something of the history of this country...
...labor strategy for the hemisphere...
...labor experts...
...Government Printing Office, 1968...
...1 (Winter 1966), pp...
...He would make a fresh start in 1963, but only after new conditions it the trade unions and new forces in the Peronist Movement pointed to a radically different strategy...
Vol. 8 • November 1974 • No. 9
