THREAT OF LABOR SPLIT LAID TO CIA CASH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 17, 2014
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: February 26, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

TV S.) N.,? %J., A STAT
A wrn .-rry'r T-77? A T
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2014/01/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820006-1
FEE 2 CI 1CS7
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.f1T7 77
77"
1/4;)
?
Drew Pearson and
ilzu:orson
nside reason why the giant
1:.;lor combine is on
ti..c verge u; breaking up is
??nie or Central Intelligence
? secretly pumped into
"lr.ernational Affairs De-
resident George Meany has
c]cneci that the AFL-CIO re-
?c::ive.s CIA money; but it does.
:';rthermore, part of t h e
money is used to follow for-
eign policy exactly opposite to
of President Johnson.
? Backstage story of the CIA
-battle inside the labor federal
tion goes back to May 22, when
Ecuther, brother of the
president of the United Auto-
mobile Workers and head of
the Auto Workers' Interna-
tional Affairs Department,
charged that Central Intelli-
gence money was "involved"
in the
Victor stated that AFL for-
eign arfzirs activities "are a
vest-pocket operation 'run by
?
J. Lovesione . . . who seems
,to have brought into the labor
.movement the working habits
a n d undercover techniques
? which he learned when he was
in the highest .echelons of the
.Communist Party. I guess it's
,awiuily hard to break those
,!hai)its;"
AFL supporters of Lovestone
.immediately saw red, especial-
ly' Joe Beirne, head of the
Communications Worker s.
,Beirne wrote a letter to Meany
"r1 o 77 .0
77-1! 'if 7 'if' rrYi i)/
be disciplined. Moony referred'
the matter to the next AFL-
CIO Executive Council, and
Walter Reuther, brother of
Victor, countered by asking
for a review of all the Meany-
Lovestone foreign policies dur-
ing recent years, which in-
cluded opposition to cultural
exchanges with East European
Communist countries and op-
position to trade with Russia.
Reiitlier is Slapped
At this point ,it looked as if
there might be a bitter cat-
and-dog fight between power-
ful labor executives just on
the eve of a congressional
election in which united labor
support was 'needed for the
re-election of liberal Congress-
men. ? ,
So Walter Reuther?report-
edly at the suggestion of the
White House ? approached
Meany with a proposition that
the review of AFL-CIO for-
eign policy be postponed until
after the November election.
Meany agreed. He told Reuth-
er to propose such a resolu-
tion at the upcoming Execu-
tive Council meeting. "I, will,
second it," he said.
But at the meeting, held
Aug. 22, Jay Lovestone pro-
posed a surprise resolution
which endorsed Meany's en-
tire foreign policy for the
postwar years. ? '
The. vote on the Lovestone
resolution was 21 to 2, with
demanding that Victor.Reuther.only,Walter ,Reuther and Joe
Curran, president of the Mari-
time Union, opposing it.
? Meanwhile, Joe Beirne had
submitted a report to the
Council attempting to
slap down Victor Reuther's
criticism of CIA funds.
Beirne particularly defend-
ed the American Institute for
Free. ? L a b or Development
(AIFLD), which has spent tens
of millions of dollars in Latin
America, most of it from the
CIA since it receives only
about $200,000 annually from
the AFL-CIO and about
$230,000 from business execu-
tives such as Peter Grace of
the Grace steamship lines.,
Mean), Gets Slapped
Earlier, Meany had tried to
withdraw American support
from the International Labor
Office because the ILO, with
headquarters in Geneva, hail
elected a Polish president?a
Commun ist.
The International Labor Of-
fice is the oldest international
organization, havisng been
started by the League of Na-
tions 20 years before the
founding of ? the United Na-
tions. For many years Commu-
nist nations boycotted it, but
they affiliated in 1945 when
the U.N. was created. It" has
been the -opinion of David
Morse, head of the U.S. dele-
gation to the ILO, and of Jim
Carey, former head ? of the
Unit ed Electrical Workers,
that the communist labor
unions were' becoming . more
Cash
independent of their govern-
ments and leaning more to-
ward the type of trade union-
ism existing in the West.
However, Meany called a
meeting April 8,-1965, after .?
the ILO had elected a Polish
Communist as president, and
recommended that the United
States not send a delegation
to the ILO that year. Carey
vigorously disagreed.
In a ? showdown vote Carey,
won; one :of the few times
Meany has been overruled.
One of the gripes which the
Reuther brothers have against
the Meany-Lovestone-CIA for-
eign policy is that they swing
their weight behind dictator-,
ships in Latin America and use
CIA funds to do so.
In the Dominican Republic,
Meany was 'dead opposed ? to ?,
President Juan Bosch, and it
was AFL-CIO confederates,
backed by CIA money either ?
directly or indirectly, who
helped to oust Bosch.
Later, during the 1966 elec-
tion, , Meany and Lovestone
again swung their influence,.
backed by CIA money, to de. ???'
feat Bosch.
In Brazil, AFL-CIO agents,
backed by CIA money, helped '.?\
overthrow President Joao?-?
Goulart in 1964. ? ?
(4)ls67, Bell-McClurc ?Synillc3te. Inc.
Drew Pearson will predict ? ?
what .the House ? will do on
congressional ethic; as a re-
atilt of the Powell case at ?
.6:40 p.m; .today 'over Radio
WTpP., ,?? .. ?
-0?
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/17 : CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820006-1_2