Labor Politics In Latin America
Jerez, Jose Antonio
Labor Politics In Latin America By Jose Antonio Jerez 0BCENT events in South America—the coup d'etat in Argentina, the overthrow of the Feneration regime in Bolivia, the attempted insurrection in...
...Ibhr.ex reported to the C.I.O...
...leaders here...
...A wise U. S. policy would have attempted from the start to encourage the democratic elements in the revolution for the inspiration behind it was hatred of the Peneranda tyranny, and te separate the democratic wheat from the totalitarian chaiT...
...The recent events in Bolivia are an important illustration...
...Today the junta is swinging to the right...
...THE chief motivation for the recent attack on lbanez is envy and political'assassination...
...Although Bernardo Ibanes is a vice-president of the CTAL and Velasquez of the Mexican CTM its secretary, Lombardo makes his decisions without consultation and announces them himself...
...The Council issued a strong and eloquent message to the workers of Latin America, reinforcing its resolution of the Boston Convention in October...
...These attacks have come mainly from Communists who have sought to use the Coordinator's Office as an entering wedge into the labor movement...
...While Cardenas took a democratic course, Lombardo trod the party line...
...When in August, 1943...
...The only request the United States delegation made was that there be no speeches of political nature and that the meetings be devoted to a discussion of labor problems, labor conditions and the common fight against the Nazis and Fascists and Japanese militarists...
...Ibanes also addressed the C.I.O...
...the group visited the labor movements of these countries...
...The division is hesded by John Herling, who knows the labor movement thoroughly and is regarded highly by the A.F.L...
...Hence, after all this, along comas lbanez, modest, eloquent Socialist, leader of Chilean workers, and succeeded in achieving a united interest of almost all parts of the labor movement in the ijnited States...
...Executive Council...
...Committee the failure of the mission to which he had been assigned...
...If Lombardo cannot control the Latin Amei Iran labor movement, he will delilierately try to ruin the chances of inter-American labor cooperation...
...The $2,500 fund of the C.I.O...
...it has refused to admit Jose Antonio Arse, the leader of the revolutionary anti-Nasi PIR, into the government, and the reactionary element, are becoming solidified...
...there are always mixed element...
...At the same time Lombardo has been trying to increase his influence in the American labor movement and be recognized as the ambassador from Latin American labor...
...He waa feted at a luncheon arranged jointly by thirty leaders each of A. F...
...His labor career started during the regime of General Obregon when he became educational director of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Lsbor (CROM...
...Last week the Daily Worker featured a front page attack by Earl Browder on Bernardo Ibanes, the head of the Chilean Confederation of Labor...
...This, of course, ia not true...
...yiNCENTE LOMBARDO has always been an adventurer...
...After the New York meetings, lbanez proceeded to Miami where he addressed the A.F.L...
...It was proposed at the joint A.F.L.-C.I.O...
...until March 1943, succeeded in convincing many people, including Potofsky, that lie was the undisputed spokesman for, Latin American labor...
...Bernardo lbanez was invited last year to the United States by both Ihe American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organisations...
...That government refused to let him enter and, finally, even refused to permit any one else to bring in such relief...
...At the request of both the A. F. of L. and the C.I.O., Herling helped arrange the lbanez trip...
...When he went to Havana to the CTAL conference last July he was accompanied by a leading Ger-*¦» GPU agent, Andre Simon, alias Kats, alias Brader...
...An office of labor and social relations has been established and • number of South American labor leaders, including Joan Antonio Solan of Argentina and Bernardo Ibanes of Chile, have been brought to the United States to discuss mutual problems with A. F. of L. and C.I.O...
...while in Latin America lombardo tried to appear to be an ambassador of labor from the United States...
...Political events are not cut to any simple political pattern...
...But wo had no adequate sources of information and did not know how to act...
...Certain valiant attempts have been made by the Rockefeller Office of Inter-American Affaire to reach South American labor...
...In addition to the Daily Worker and the Council foi Pan-American Democracy, the Allied Labor News is another channel which spreads a great quantity >f Communist Lombardo Toledano propaganda in the guise of news...
...lombardo Toledano would give his eye teeth to have had the same warm, hospitable treatment...
...They have been resisted successfully...
...The CTAL has become his pei-sonal organ...
...Their efforts are a concerted drive to ruin the chances of inter-American labor cooperation, since Lombardo finds he can't make it his empire...
...Thus, when lbanez came to the United States in March 194:1, following the fiasco of Lombardo, his success was esne-eially bitter lo Lombardo whose vanity is colossal...
...Labor Politics In Latin America By Jose Antonio Jerez 0BCENT events in South America—the coup d'etat in Argentina, the overthrow of the Feneration regime in Bolivia, the attempted insurrection in Peru— underscore the need for a close working relationship between the labor movements of the Latin American countries and the powerful federations in the United States...
...War Relief Committee in New York, which had last Spring designated Ibanes as its relief representative to the families of the Bolivian tin miners who were shot down under the Peneranda regime...
...te ten per cent ia addition to the heavy surtax rates that it already •»»•• M the soroo time the war-een-ipatts loophole, together wits) other tax loopholes, eoa-tkiiiT ContTsojsmaa who want tew and unfair taxes...
...Again and again, efforts were made by the Communists to obtain organizational commitments from '.he delegation, to which the delegates replied that policy decisions were up to their conventions or equivalent bodies in the United States...
...The ambassador, Pierre Boat, friendly to the Peneranda government, evidently suspected nothing of the impending revolt...
...When General Laxaro Cardenas began his fight against President < a lies, Lombardo be-csme his ally and founded the CTM to Aght the CROM, which supported Calles...
...luncheon fat New York on January 14 that perhaps • test of the character of the new regime would be for lbanez to try to enter Bolivia once again, on his return early in February...
...of L. and the C.I.O in Washington...
...In the last several years Lombardo has moved more '•'ssoly within the inner circles of the Communist apparatus...
...This •"••nee, incidentally, stood him in good stead when U*ss acted aa an intermediary between Lombardo Toledano and William Rhodes Davis, when the latter ***ght to buy the expropriated Mexican oil for re-***ries in Nasi Germany...
...the A. F. of L, C.I.O...
...This attack was echoed by the Council for Pan-American Democracy...
...he was replaced ky Fidel Velasques...
...So it hi important for the North American lsbor movement to have dose fraternarties with South American labor as that it can be kept fully informed...
...The revolution was not simply a Nasi-inspired revolt, at least not in its beginnings, for the new junta evidently had the support of Bolivian trade unionists, of anti-imperialist elements, of national iat elements— in short of the masses who hated the Peneranda regime and the three-man oligarchy of tin magnates that stood behind it The United States Government, from various indications, did not know the nature of the social forces behind the revolution...
...As a university professor he flitted from Bergsonian idealism to Comptian Positivism and dialectical materialism...
...Robert J. Vtatt and James B Carey represent the A.F.L...
...In 1932 Lombardo Tolednno *e»t to Moscow and came home with the blessing of the Comintern...
...The Labor Relations Division of the Office of Inter-American Affairs has attempted to stimulate Interest and render service to all labor groups in the United States and Latin America, in Ihe belief that understanding between peoples runs deeper and lasts longer than mere diplomatic protocol...
...He was greeted on his arrival last March to the United Ststes by Philip Murray and William Green...
...He was guest at a luncheon addressed by Matthew Woll and Jacob Potofsky...
...He certainly is not a Communist...
...The delegation was accompanied by Chilean trade unionists of Socialist, Communist, Radical and no-party designation...
...Just as the Department of Commerce aids business men in Latin America and Ihe commercial attaches operate similarly, the division in accordance with the policy laid down by the agency itself, makes a contribution to the war effort by working to bring understanding among labor and similar groups...
...and C.I.O., respectively, as advisers to the labor program of the office...
...War Relief Committee has now been matched by the Labor Chest of the A. F. of L. lbanez will therefore go to Bolivia in his capacity as an accredited relief representative of both C.I.O...
...On bis trip Ibanes was accompanied by Ernesto Galarza, chief of the Division of Social and l.»l>m Information of the Pan-American Union, and John Herl-ing, director of the Division of l.ahoi Relations of the Office of Inter-American Affairs...
...and most of the C.I.O...
...In Chile, the host organization was the Chilean Confederation of workers, headed by lbanez...
...His influence within Mexico declining, Lombardo has M*ffct te carve out a wider sphere of influence through tbt Confederation of Latin-American Workers (CTAL) termed in 1938 in alliance with John L. Lewis...
...On three different trips to this country, he tried to win A. F. of L. support, but his followers succeeded only in arranging a dinner sponsored by the New York City Industrial Council over which J. S. Potofsky presided and at which he nominated Lombardo for the Presidency of Mexico...
...and A. F. of L. His plan is to go to that country with a group of Chilean journalists in an effort to obtain first-hand information as te the character of the regime which reputedly has the support of the Bolivian tin miners...
...His several trips to this country, and the publicity exploitation given to it by the Communist organizations in Latin America made it appear, moreover, that he bad the approval of the Government of the United States...
...and the Railroad Brotherhoods sent a delegation to the other American republics, accompanied by Herling...
...The Communists have eyed the Division of Labor Relations for some lime, hoping lo charm or intimidate it into following Iheir line...
...I .oinliii 11lii had...
...fVN his recent trip this month to the United States, lbanez was on his way back from a conference at the International Labor Office in Montreal . He was asked to meet with the various groups of the A. F. of L. and the C.I.O...
...The latter ia a well-known admirer of Lombardo, having been his guest in Mexico in the summer of 1942...
...The result was »st Toledano loot out within the CTM...
...Lombardo Toledano is now making desperate efforts to restore his prestige...
...Both organizations sponsored dinners and meetings in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Bridgeport, Waterbury...
...The Communists vainly attempted to exploit the delegation from the United States for partisan purposes...
...This office, however, has been under attack lately-by elements that seek to sabotage its work...
...Both attacks on lbanez spring from the same searce—Vincente Lombardo Toledano...
Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 7
