COMMUNISTS AND THE AFL-CIO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100050008-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 6, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 29, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100050008-7
,~ -? ~` 29 SEPTEMB M 1981
]REVIEW & OUTLOOK
ernment, manipulated by the CIA.
How easy it is to make lists of the CIA
connections: the parallel aims, the in.
stan
f
ces o
collaboration, the communi-
Communists and the AFL-CIO cations and shared acquaintanceships.
How easy to use the list to try to dis-
Poland's Solidarity movement is _ credit the AFL-CIO enterprise in Po-
holding the second stage of its national And, comrades, this is no accident. land, and more important, to try to ex-
convention in Gdansk without the Counterspy tells us that AFL-CIO offi- punge the colossal embarrassment
presence of one of its best known in. dais have always denied working with Solidarity represents to world-wide
vited&guests: Lane Kirkland, president the CIA or taking CIA money for their communism.
of the AFL-CIO. Air. Kirkland had pre- activities, but these denials "ring hol- This is a very dirty business we are
pared a speech to deliver to the Soli- low:"; After all, do we not have the tes- dealing with. American labor has been
darity meeting, but at the last minute timony of a former CIA official who active on the international scene in or-
theCorirmunist government of Poland says-he. actually handed over bucks to der to further its own perfectly legiti?
refused to grant visas to him and his an AFL representative? Do we not mate purposes. One result of its activi-
AFr -CIO delegation. This is no big knave that the CIA read the mail of ties has been to expose, time after
surprise, really; American labor's high labor personnel "in order to mon- itor heir handling the gulf between Communist in
support for Solidarity has gravely em- . n
g of CIA mo e y"? terests and worker interests. This ex-
barrassed Warsaw, and the Polish SQ when we see American labor at posure has often worked to the benefit
government keeps trying to .discredit work in Poland. we should know that - of an activist U.S. foreign policy, and
the effort. It is also sadly unsurprising we're not viewing anything like an
ex- opponents of such a policy have rea-
that the Polish Communists are get- ;preVon of genuine solidarity among son to want to tarnish the whole con-
ting' help here in the U.S. thZ~ivorking classes. Instead, what nection.
wd've? got is just another' variation on I, But they should not be allowed to
You can get an idea of how the an- a aecades-old American capitalist do so easily. While the American labor
ti-AFL campaign is working by taking plot. movement has at times in recent
a look at a recent issue of Counterspy, Counterspy was not the last source years identified itself too closely with
a Washington-based magazine that to strike this theme. Just a little while' political parties and administrations
proclaims itself devoted. to exposing ago, broadcasts from the Soviet Union I for our liking, on the whole it remains.
the nefarious work of the CIA and its could be heard denouncing Solidarity's a free and independent force pitting
agents of American imperialism wher- American connection and cutely refer- its weight against state power both in
ever they roam in the world. An arti- ring to Lane Kirkland as among the the U.S. and abroad. Its efforts on be-
Cie J11 the magazine is straightfor- "chief stockholders" in the Polish dis- half of political freedom are thus sig-
wardly titled "AFL-CIO: Trojan Horse. sident movement. Over on this side of nificant. Anyone seeking to delegitim-
in Polish Unions." A special editorial the ocean, when Solidarity recently; ize its performance in this realm
introduction, to the article put the the- opened an office in New York, a re-: should be aware of just how serious an
sis just as straightforwardly: In coun- spectably-sized group of demonstra- j attack he is launching.
try?:after country,' "AFL-CIO aid has tors was organized to picket the open-
irnai-iably had the ulterior motive of ing in protest against the American
establishing, securing and expanding imperialism it allegedly represented.
U.S:.. corporate and strategic inter- American labor is indeed aiding
ests:" the solidarity movement, openly and
How do we know this is true? For unashamedly. It has a long history of
one thing, says Counterspy, we ha"ve fighting Communist domination of la=
before us the- record of American la- bor movements. It learned early in the
bor'e' reactionary efforts in Latin game that Communist parties and
America. In Guatemala, George free unions are natural mortal ene-
Mear}y worked with CIA connected or- cores, more violently so because free
ganizations to undermine the properly unions, more than any other free insti-
progressive; truly "labor-oriented" tution, threaten Communist claims to
forces in the country. In the Domini- legitimacy. When American labor
care Republic, the AFL-CIO set up an goes head to head with Communists,
organization that "ran propaganda the obvious counterattack for the
uniis as well as goon squads against Communists is to claim that American
the ,legitimate unions." labor is an arm of the American gov-
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/06: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100050008-7