LABOR PROTESTS CIA ROLE IN CHILE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000100200001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 2004
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 9, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

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In an une..,mected and unusual expression
of solidarity, the International Longshore-
men's _\ssociation (AFL-CIO) last month
sanctioned a 48-hour boycott of all Chilean
cargo.
The ILA action was evidence of a widening
:split in the AFL-CIO around the- question of
su-pporc for the-.:fascist Chilean junta. An
in,-:.easin. number of U.S. trade unions are
acjdin their voices to tale chorus of protests
against the role played by Secretary of State
Hertz Kissinger and the CIA in toppling the
democratic government of Salvador Allende
in Septerniber 1973.
Although only a minority of unions is
pointing to the complicity of the AFL-CIO's
own, American Institute for Free Labor-
Development (AIFLD). a substantial number
are nevcrthelcss raising strong criticisms of' the U.S. intervention and of the fascist
policies of the sulin ?Chilean junta. This is in
contrast to the official stand of AFL-CIO
president George ;Many who pushed
through a resolution at the labor federation's
last convention that directed its main fire at
the Alienc''e government and lightly tapped
ih. w fists of the junta for "excesses" during
the bloody September 1973 coup.
Tice swelling labor protests followed the
chsc',osu: s 'of Rep. Michael Harrington
(Ft-1 ass.) that contrary to official
dt el..i;; e; s, the.CLA was heavily involved in
finanLi..: ,llende's opposition and in
organizing lockouts and boycotts to harass
the Allende government.
- Other U.S. unions which have voiced
opposition to the CIA's sabotage and the
junta's repression include. the Amalgamated
Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen,
American Federation of Teachers (AFT),
International Longshoremen's and Ware-
housemen's - Union (ILWU), International
Union of Electrical Workers (IUE).. United
Auto Workers (UAW) and United Electrical
Workers (UE),
The most.dramatic protest to date was the
Sept. IS and 19 dock boycott of Chilean
ships- 'and cargo on the East, Gulf
and West Coasts. The two-day boycott was
the result of a resolution adopted last August
at the 31st congress of the International
Transport Workers Federatioriirt; Stockholm,
Sweden. The ILA. which represents East
and Gulf Coast longshoremen, is a member
of the federation. ILA president Thomas
Gleason in telegrams to all._ILA locals urged
them to boycott Chilein....cargo for that
two-day period. The Chilean ship, Copiapo.
was idled for the two days at a Brooklyn.
N. Y., pier when members of ILA Local 1814
refused to unload the ship's cargo.
The independent West Coast longshdre
union, ILWUU, although not a member of the
federation, also joined the boycott. When SO
demonstrators., including members of the
October League and the New American
Movement, picketed a ship carrying Chilean
cargo at Long Beach harbor, south of Los
Angeles, Calif., a crew of 10 longshoremen,
members of ILWU Local 13, walled pff th-
ship. The longshoremen greeted the
demonstrators with clenched fist salutes hu
returned to work four hours lat_r when at
arbitrator ruled the walkout an unauthorizec
work stoppage-
The ship. Pr,.ader.cial Lines' Santa Maria
was-boycotted the next day, Sept. 19, when.
it docked in Sari Francisco. Longshoremc:r
worked the ship but refused to touch its twc
tons of Chilean cargo, consigned _to Sax.
Francisco. when an:ijunta demonstrators s,e!
up a picketline at the pier. The -Santa Maria
sailed from the Bay Area for'-Vancouver,
British Columbia, witu`r its Chilean car_ o still
aboard.
In his telegram to the dock-locals, IL.A
president Gleason noted that the boycott was
meant to call attention to the situation in
Chile and was only a warning: He said the
boycott could be revived in Elite future if the
warning was, not heeded.
FEW ATTACK Ail: LD
In other actions, UAW president Leonsrd
Woodcock called for a full-scale, public
hearing on the CIA's role in Chile.
President Ford's defense 'of CIA
brou0; further --1 In response. iD
Ford's Sept. to statement that "our
gc yen rt rnenC, like other governmcrlt:. does
take rtaln acti.?ns 1:7 the ,.teiii cxene:..
field," IUE p:- s .'.ent Paull 1enni sax
remarked:
"To justify our actions on the grounds that
Others do the same Ching is to confess that
we have no standard of our own. Even if
such actions could be justified. why shcutld
we meddle in a democratic nation while
treating the earth's t'.-ra?nies hinds-off
respect.
Only a handful of U.S. unions, however,
have called for pro.)-as of the AIFLD, they C.rA
front-group set Lip by the government.
several multinational corporations and the
AFL-CIO. AIFLD is run by Many and his
international affairs director. formerly Jay
i.ovestone and now Ernest Lee. 1laanv's
son-in-law. In a Sear. 'd starement, Patric;.
Gor-man-
?
Ellie
i-
~a:?laced Meat C:urc union. erg-cd
C''n-tre3 to Invest: ?"? the functions of tilt
AIFLD in Chile.
At its recent int_rr:ati, nai ,:o-vention,
Sept. 9 to 13, in 14z,V ; or City, the UE also
adoptc:cl ,- resole:. n ....ch scored t"le -o'--
pi ed h the AF'-..-:t3 AIFLD
in , rire.in~ ab,w? essivt co^.3i::ons -.,
Hr ail an Chile.
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AFL-CIO silence on.. Chile.
The most prominent personalities who were in the
Allende government in Chile are reportedly being
transfered from Dawson Island to Santiago for trial.
Gen. Gustavo Leigh of the junta has said that about
6,000 political prisoners are ultimately to be tried, and
he has indicated that the present trial of leaders will
set the pattern for the rest.
l
f th
Th
. Among the 29 scheduled for
trial is Louis Corlavan, head of
the Communist Party of Chile,
and other leaders of the Corn-
munist and Socialist parties.
The entire labor movement of
the world, whether led by Com-
munists, Socialists or others, is
actively protesting against the
terror of Chile's junta. Many
governments have been influenc-
ed by this labor pressure to join
the protest.
Delegations of Communist and
Socialist labor groups have gone
."to Chile to observe events, and
all have come back to tell the
same horror stories.
There has also been consider-
s'' able pressure on the United
Nations to intervene for the
rights of the victims and for re-
storation of the supressed unions.
There is one notable exception,
however. I have looked through
the AFL-CIO News since the
AFL-CIO convention last October,
and I haven't found a single ref-
erence unfavorable to the events.
in Chile.
The paper published in its Nov.
3 issue the resolution of the con-
vention titled, "Restore Demo-
cracy in Chile," in the same
way as the other resolutions of
the convention were published.
But the very content of that re-
solution is contrary to its title.
Its main target is not the junta
gangsters but the Allende regime.
As our readers know, the
World of Labor column in the
Daily World frequently observ-
ed, before the AFL-CIO conven-
tion that began ' on' Oct. 18, that
through the weeks since the Sept.
11 coup in Chile, as the terror
and killing mounted and every
people's organization, including
the entire union movement, was
supressed, that there wasn't a
peep out of George Meany or the
AFL-CIO.
e AFL-CIO's In-
an o
e p
ternational Affairs Department
headed by Jay Lovestone was to
have the convention ignore the
Chile situation. The AFL-CIO
leaders did not foresee, however,
a petition by members of the La-
bor Press Association, consist-
ing of editors of AFL-CIO union
publications, that was holding its
convention on the eve of the
AFL-CIO parley. The petition,
condemning the junta and calling
on all unions to protest actively,
was signed by most of the dele-
gates to the convention of labor
editors.
This put Meany and Lovestone
on the spot. They solved the pro-
blem with a resolution that had
all the earmarks of a resolution-
they may have planned to con-
demn the Allende regime in line
with their support of efforts
through the three years of its
existence to overthrow it. But
they topped this condemnation
with a couple of paragraphs de-
ploring "excessive violence."
Anyone reading the resolution
would be expected to conclude
that it was a good thing the
Allende regime was overthrown.
x
In light of this swindle by the
AFL-CIO leaders, the conclusion
is obvious: they were happy over
the events in Chile. They simply
couldn't display their happiness
too openly because some of the
major unions in the AFL-CIO did
protest, quite a number in an
active way. Among them was
the largest affiliate, the United
Steel Workers of America.
In looking through the AFL-CIO
News since last September, 1 did
find major space given to dia-
tribes in support of Alexander
Solzhenitsyn and other so-called
"dissidents" in the Soviet Union,
to diatribes against the detente
treaties and to screaming edito-
rials against economic relations
and trade with the Soviet Union.
On the record of their policy
in Latin America in many years
and their activity through the
CIA cover, the American Insti-
tute for Free Labor Development
(AIFLD), with Meany its chair-
man and ?Lovestone the real oper-
ator, the AFL-CIO's leaders real-
ly support the four-power fascist
axis-Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia
and Chile. Their agents worked
to put dictarorship in power in
these countries and even boast-
ed. publicly of their part in put-
ting military juntas in power in
Guatemala and Brazil.
The brazen pro-fascist position
of Meany, Lovestone & Co. on
Chile shows to what extent they
isolated U.S. labor from "the
world's labor movement. And the
same goes for their lapdogs, the
Social Democrats-USA, who are
just as isolated from the reform
socialist movement of the world.
Chile is an important test for
the AFL-CIO. And every union
should give serious thought to
what it means for every labor
organization if its parent body
gives silent support to galloping
fascism on the Western continent.
Every union worthy of the name
should speak up against the ter-
ror in Chile!
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f~~i1L"'G"J~G `
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By RICHARD ASHBY and AMADEO RICHARDSON
id t
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o
a
CHICAGO. April 1-A wide campaign to compel Congress to cut off al
the Chile fascist junta was mapped here over the weekend at a national meeting.
The meeting was held at the political prisoners held by the symbols of all political prisoners
Loop YWCA here to coordinate junta. held by the juta.
activities in solidarity with the The. 115 delegates and 54 ob- The campaign to free the Chil-
Chilean people's resistance to the servers at the meeting here ap- can political prisoners will include
fascist junta. plauded a call to campaign within the writing of letters to the priso-
are not for-
t the
th
h
y
ow
a
It was planned to call a na- the labor movement against ers to s
n
o
1 t
ll
the end of May. which will seek
Congress action also to open U.S.
borders to political refugees from
Chile.
The legislative action is one of
four major areas of concentra-
tion decided on by the meeting
here. which was attended by re-
presentatives of labor, peace
church and community organiza-
tion.. and by Chile Solidarity
groups from 20 states.
To expose CIA labor front
Other main Chile solidarity ac-
tivities planned include working
to expose: the AFL-CIO's Ameri-
can Institute for Free Labor De-
velopment (AIFLD). a CIA front
engaged in subverting Latin Ame-
rican trade union movements;
holding local and national de-
monstrations in solidarity with
the people of Chile. and initiat-
ing a national campaign to free
~
a so a se
AIFLD. made by Fred Hirsch. gotten. Letters wi
chairman pro tem of the mer- the Chilean Embassy and United
gency Committee to Defend Dem- Nations mission. and to. military
ocracv in Chile. who is a member officers in Chile, demanding an
of Plumbers and Steamfitters end to the tortures and executions.
local in San Jose. Calif. and the closing of the Dawson
Hirsch. who has done extensive Island prison camp.
research on AIFLD activities, The meeting received a tele-.
urged that trade unionists present gram of solidarity from the Cuban
to their locals resolutions con- Chile Committee and from the
demning AIFLD activities in daughter of martyred President
Latin America. Salvador Allende.
Ernest DeMaio. general vice-
president Greetings were also received
of the United Electrical
Workers. emphasized that bring- from the Canadian Chile Solidar-_
ing 'up such resolutions for de- ity Committee.` -
bate in union meetings would put Individuals and groups named
pressure on AFL-CIO President to serve on a natioal continua-
George Meany to curtail AIFLD tions committee include Abe Fein-
activities. glass. international vice-president
Set days for mass rallies of the Amalgamated Meatcutters;
The meeting chose May 11 and Humberto Camacho of the Trade
Sept. 11 for national demonstra- Union Committee for Restoration
tions against the junta and in sup- of Democracy in Chile; (NICH)
port of Chilean political prisoners. (Non-Intervention in Chile); the
The delegates decided to conform Emergency Committee to -Defend
to the lead of the united Chilean Democracy in Chile, and Chile Soli-
Left in choosing which individual darity Committees in New York.
political prisoners -should be em- Philadeiphia. Michigan. Los Ang-
phasized in the demonstrations, as eles and Chicago.
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