LOVESTONE'S COLD WAR THE AFL - CIO HAS ITS OWN CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 8, 1999
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: June 25, 1966
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Sani zed, -
,
L
THE NEW REPUBLIC STATINTL
25 June 1966
~tone e For Release : C - D 5-001
s Lot
ar
The AFL-CIO t1AS Its Own CIA
by Dan Kurzman
Victor Reuther, director of international affairs for the
United Auto Workers, told reporters after a visit to
the Dominican Republic that the AFL-CIO was "un-
fortunately" supporting a "small and unrepresentative
group" of Dominican trade unions and ignoring the.
larger democratic ones. Behind this casual reriark
simmers a bitter dispute within American labor. AFT-
C:io President George Meany and his AFL cohorts sup-'
port an "anti-Communist" foreign policy that is at
]east as rigid and narrow as that of the Goldwatcrite;;
UAW President Walter P. Reuther and his followers
accent political democracy and social reform alL.road
rather than negative anti-Communism. Their differ-
ences surfaced at the recent AFL-CIO convention in
San Francisco when Meany men, to loud obje c, on ;,
demanded a resolution urging the Administration to
step up its military activities in Vietnam. It was due
only to Reuther's unremitting resistance that compro-
mise was reached - leaving it all up to Mr.. Johnson.
The man who pushed the 'Meany resolution" was'
barely mentioned in news accounts. Jay Lovestone
thrives on anonymity. Yet, few non-governmental fig-
DAN KURZMAN reports ? on' Latin America, for The
Washington Post,
ures wield so much influence over foreign policy. As
director of the' AFL-CIO's international activities,
which consume over zo' percent of the federation's $z
million annual budget, Lovestone is Meany's foreign
minister, with his own private network of ambassadors,
aid administrators and intelligence agents. Labor at-
ta;:h s in key countries, or their assistants, are often
more loyal to him than to their diplomatic superiors.
Many of his agents overseas are believed to work
c1o$ elf with the (;pa
tlrajaI t ll g~ ceA.
gen cy. Consider
able government aid money is channeled through his
"ministry" - after he decides who deserves to receive it.
Meany entertains little doubt that Lovestone's guid-
ance is enlightened. For who should know better how
to fight Communists than a founder and Secretary,-Gen-
eral of the American Communist Party, as well as a
founder of the Comintern? Lovestone's attitude to
Communism, of whatever variety, is that it must be
completely isolated; "peaceful coexistence" is appease-,' ment. Virtually unlimited force should be used to crush
Communist "aggression," whether in Vietnam or in the
Dominican Republic. There is no real distinction be-
tween Soviet and Communist Chinese policies.
To CIO leaders, Lovestone is a man who, in his disil-
lusionment, seeks the expiatory satisfaction 61 bringing
r
.Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
 Sanitized - Approved FoT,RGJea ervC{A-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
down the pagan temple. He and his followers, they are often linked to political parties, so why shouldn't
claim, envisage a world split into neatly defined Corn- the unions of Africa and Asia have similar links. In
munist and anti-Communist 'spheres destined to meet fact, they argue, close collaboration between labor, par-
at Armageddon. ties and government is desirable in nations seeking
Meany-Lovestone policies have bred antagonism not swift economic and social development.
only inside the AFL-CIO but within the International The Afro-Asian governments themselves are no
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which longer anxious for the AFL-CIO presence in their coun-
comprises many of the non-Communist world's im- tries, though American unionists were more than wel-
portant labor federations. Ironically, Lovestone was one come in the postwar years when the organization sup-
of the leading organizers of the ICFTU, which was ported their independence movements. Now they want
formed in 19.19 to counter the strength of the Com- to control their domestic unions. Nearly a dozen Afri-.
munist-dominated World Federation of Trade Unions can unions have withdrawn from the US-dominated
(WFTU). Since the death of Stalin in 1954, however,, ICFTU in recent months and joined a neutralist fedora-
most ICFTU union leaders have gradually moved to- tion. They haven't forgotten that in 1955 Meany called
ward the more accommodating policy of "peaceful co- Jawaharlal Nehru an aide and ally of Communism.
existence," in line with the sentiments of their govern- In the hope of doing unilaterally what the ICFTU
meats. In so doing, they have come into sharp' conflict refuses to do multilaterally, one of Lovestone's top
with the AFL-CIO leadership. And Meany, enraged by agents, Irving Brown, has set up an African-American
the ICFTU's refusal to approve his policies, shouted to Labor Center (AALC) with US government financial
an AFL-CIO executive committee meeting in March, support. Designed to permit retention of an AFL-CIO
1965 that the world labor group is an "ineffective bu- foothold in Africa, this center has sponsored a tailoring
reaucracy right down to the fairies." institute in Kenya and a motor drivers' school in Ni-
Last July, the anti-AFL-CIO feeling found an explo- geria. It is giving vocational training, planning commu-
sive outlet at an ICFTU meeting in Amsterdam at- nities, and building cooperatives and housing. It is also
tended by some 300 labor representatives from almost promoting "workers' education."
10o countries. To ringing applause, Louis Major, head Many Johnson Administration officials are by no
of the Belgian Federation of Labor, replied to Meany's means jubilant about Lovestone's thesis that cold war
taunts. "In an organization such as ours," he said, tensions must not be relaxed unless the Communists
"should not a large organization have to listen to what agree, to such unlikely concessions as the reunification
others have to say? Instead of pursuing a unilateral of Germany on US terms, or the tearing down of the
policy, should not we all listen to each other's experi- Berlin wall. Those government officials who wish to
ences and ideas.... Do you not think we have a con- further "peaceful coexistence" with the Soviet Union
tribution to make?" and to build "bridges" to Eastern Europe through in-
Even usually friendly Canadians got in the act. When creased trade and cultural relations, did not appreciate,
Meany became involved in a heated dispute with them for example, AFL-CIO support of longshoremen who
over the question of how many seats they should have recently refused to load wheat intended for Russia.
on the executive board, they charged that. he was out Nevertheless, as one high US official told me, "labor
to humiliate them because they had not gone along as ",-.s more a factor in the conduct of our foreign policy'
a "me-too colony." Nor did Mean)- have the support. than anyone might have dreamed was possible a few
of even part of his own. delegation on some of his pro- years ago." (As already indicated, with his network of
posals. Reuther, for. example, voted. with the majority agents on both sides of the Iron Curtain, Lovestone is
against Meany on 'the relatively minor question of. believed to be cooperating closely with the CIA, though
which of two Tunisian delegations should be seated
d
i
Afro-Asian Unions
en
e
es it. He maintains that, as a good American
,
he would naturally supply his government with infor-
mation he might receive' bearing on the national secu-
In debates on how to deal with labor in the under-
developed world, Meany insisted that the ICFTU use
its solidarity fund, which is largely contributed by the
FL-CIO, more speedily and efficiently to help build
p unions in the Afro-Asian countries.. By this he and
ovestone meant the money should be spent to foster
nti-Communist sentiments, collective bargaining tech-
niques and union independence from governments.
Many European unionists objected. Their own unions
rity.) So valuable is Lovestone regarded that the ap-
pointment of labor attaches in many embassies, includ-
ing such key posts as London, Paris, Rome and Brus-
sels, usually must receive his approval,. according to
responsible US labor sources. If the attache is not a
"Lovestone man," his assistant often is, and he realizes
that the quickest way to advancement is to keep Love-
stone posted on his superior's activities. A former labor
attache in a- Latin American embassy said that he had
refrained from meeting'with local labor leaders not ac-
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved"For Release CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
 Sanitized - Approved For ReI,eagp,:9ClA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
c.eptable to the AFL-CIO for fear that Lovestonc might numerous party members, w1-o believed they were par-
find out. titularly favored by him.... He sold [Communism]
In one recent case, an official in our embassy in Bel with particular success to ambitious intellectuals, cspe-
grade reported to Lovestone that an AFL-CIO employee daily the naive and the uninitiated, with the persistence
was visiting Yugoslavia. On returning to Washington, ,'of a Fuller brush salesman.... Lovestone seldom failed.
the traveler, who was trying to get a job as a labor ;:;Inside the party he high-hatted no one. He could stoop
attache, found that he had to explain to Lovestone why to the plane of the most backward party member."
he went to Yugoslavia (he went as a tourist) and what After becoming Secretary-General, Lovestone, as a
't Q n ress and
2 co
his political views were.
Lovestone's critics in the AFL-CIO, the Labor De-
partment and other government and non-government
agencies are reluctant to speak a word against him, as
I discovered, except in out-of-the-way restaurants and
bars. Some used aliases when telephoning information.
"I'd be branded as a Communist and lose my job if it
were known that I spoke against Jay," one explained.
After a series of articles I wrote on Lovestone's inter-
national operations appeared in The Washington Post,..,
g
leader or the Comintern, went W s -1g
supported Nikolai Bukharin in his struggle for, power
with Stalin. "I was not only a personal friend of Buk-
harin, Lovestone told the House Un-American Activi-
ties Committee in_-1939, "but I had fundamental agree-
ment with him on international questions, though on
Russian questions .1 had agreement with Stalin and not
with him."
In' :929, Lovestone confidently went to Moscow to
,pead his case after winning a go-percent majority in a
Lovestone persuaded Labor Department officials and .:. party election. "I had an illusion in which I was wrong
not to
th
i
h
Leonard Marks, director of the United States Informa-
tion Agency, to cancel plans for distributing the arti-
cles to US missions abroad.
em ...
nce
em, or conv
- that I could change t
declare war on us," Lovestone explained a decade later
to the House committee. But'the illusion was soon dis-'
;gelled. Lovestone and other American Communist lead-
closed to a soul. In that way he won the support or the war, selected Lovestone to direct is trou a-s oo -
Something of a Mystery ers were charged with promoting party factionalism
and "exceptionalism," the doctrine that under special
Lovestone's remark~~bl.e, achieyemen .l ,,mo~,ing from,circumstances it is possible to diverge from the party
the leadership of the American Communist Party to an K ,;line. On his return home, Lovestone found himself an
inEormal position "-o-f-power within the policy m eking outcast from the party on Stalin's orders. He did not
r`structure of the US reflects his extraordinary drive, abandon Communism, but established an opposition
resilience arid` political skill. A tough but distinguished- Communist Party whose members became known as
`looking `man with white hair and_a. large nose, Love- Lovestonites. Finally, giving up on Stalin, Lovestone
"stone, despite his ,67 years, often,;works. up to -13 hours 'converted his group in -1936 into the Independent Labor
a day in his apartment in New York or in Washington,;. League of America. A pamphlet he wrote called for the
Migrating with his p'afents from Lithuania at the age "establishment in the transition period between the
of -1o, Lovestone graduated from the College of the capitalist and socialist societies of a workers' state -
City of New York. He spent the following years study- a dictatorship of, by, and for the workers, but free
ing law and accountancy and working as a druggist, . from the errors and terrors of Stalinism."
statistician, envelope-maker.and social worker. 'Having "Capitalism," Lovestone thought, "has succeeded in
joined the Socialist Party while still in college, he destroying almost all vestiges of freedom." He opposed
helped to split off the party's left wing and reorganize ,any war conducted by. a capitalist government in
it into a Communist Party in %g-1g. He edited the offi- Washington because such a war can be only reactionary
cial party newspaper, The Communist, and gradually and for imperialist ends."
worked his way to the top. But the Lovestonites bitterly fought the Stalinists in
Even in the conspiratorial atmosphere of Bolshevik the labor unions in the late 1930's, supporting in this
politics, he was, as he is now, regarded as something effort President Homer Martin of the United Auto
of a mystery. Benjamin Gitlow, who also defected even- Workers and David Dubinsky of the Ladies' Garment
tually from the Communist Party, writes in his book, Workers' Union - ironically, since Lovestone had tried
I Confess, that "not a man in the party knew anything earlier to destroy Dubinsky's leadership.
more about him" than that he was unmarried. He was In 194o, Lovestone disbanded his organization, gave
"a veritable Tammany chieftain among 'us Cornmu- .up Marxism, and threw himself into the struggle
nists," Gitlow writes, "One of his most successful., !against Hitler, taking a'job as head of the labor com-
methods was to call a comrade into his office, tell him mittee of the American Committee to Defend America.
extremely confidential information, obtaining in return Dubinsky, fearful that the Communists would grab
a solemn promise that the matter would not be dis- control of the world free trade union movement after
h' bl h t
CPYRGHTSanitized -Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00.149R000400550023-6
 Sanitized - Approved For fteles6' .`C'IA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
ing international relations department. Subsequently,
Lovestone took on a second anti-Communist job, Ex-
ecutive Secretary of the Free Trade Union Committee,
established by Dubinsky, AFL President William
Green, Meany (then Secretary-Treasurer), and other
labor leaders.
During the postwar years, Lovestone played a vital
role in meeting Stalinist thrusts. His principal agent
was and is Irving Brown. The two had met in 193z at a
socialist club meeting at New York University, and
four years later Lovestone got Brown a job with the
UAW. In 1945, he sent Brown to Europe on a trouble
shooting assignment. Brown stayed for 17 years.
Supplying European unions with money, typewriters
and technical help, Brown managed to split some labor
groups away from Communist-dominated labor federa-
tions in France and Italy. Though some critics say this
simply gave the Communists complete control of the
largest federations in these countries, it apparently pre-
vented the success of general strikes that threatened to
paralyze the Marshall Plan. Brown also financed and
organized strong-arm squads to thwart Communist of-'
forts to keep French stevedores from unloading ships
carrying Marshall Plan goods.
Elsewhere, too, Lovestone's agents were active after
the war. Harry Goldberg, an old Lovestonite, promoted
free labor movements in India, Indonesia and Italy.
Carmel Offi worked in the State Department, Ben-
jamin Mandel for congressional security committees.
While the AFL was thus fighting Communism
abroad, the CIO found itself in a dilemma. It had
helped form the World Federation of Trade Unions,
which included Communist unions. But, as the AFL had
warned, the Communists came to dominate the organ-
ization, and in 1948, the CIO finally withdrew and
joined the AFL in forming the ICFTU.
Latin American Agents
In Lovestone's vast international labor empire, no
area gets more attention, advice, money and intelli-
gence agents today than Latin America. Here, Love-
stpne works through two instruments. One is the In-
ter-American Regional Labor Organization (ORIT)
the Latin branch of the International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) - which he and his agents
dominate much as the US government dominates the
Organization of American States (OAS). The second
instrument is the American Institute for Free Labor
Development (AIFLD), which has its US government
counterpart in the Agency for International Develop-
ment (AID). The announced functions of this latter
organization are to train Latin workers in democratic
unionism and to provide housing," banks and other in-
stitutions for-them. But many US and Latin American
Labor officials view as one of the principal functions o
both ORIT and AIFLD one that is unannounced - sup-
port of Central Intelligence Agency operations.
The willingness of ORIT members to accept almost
all AFL-CIO recommendations, however reluctantly at
times, is a welcome relief to Lovestone after the rebel-
liousness of some other ICFTU members. Nor is ORIT's
work without merit. It teaches Latin labor leaders the
essentials of democratic unionism at regional seminars,
at a school in Mexico City, and through cooperation
with outside educational institutions.
GRIT-trained pupils have won control of some un-
;,ions that had been dominated by Communists and re-
duced Communist influence in others. Such leaders
recently wrested from the Communists Honduras'
Central Federation of Labor and Standard Fruit Com-
pany workers, Uruguay's port workers, and key El
Salvadorean unions. In British Guiana, AFL-CIO ad-
visers and funds helped in 1964 to derail a strike called
by former Prime Minister Cheddi Jagan to force re-
placement of a democratic ORIT sugar workers' union
with one that Jagan controlled as the sole union bar-
gaining agent.
Like the US government, however, the AFL-CIO is
reluctant to promote genuinely profound social change
for fear that the Communists will turn a revolutionary
situation to their advantage. It is a policy, naturally,
that lends itself to the support of dictatorships in the
name of anti-Communism, so long as the AFL-CIO is
given a free hand in the "guidance" of local unions.
Thus, the US labor' federation has cooperated with.
"military dictatorships" in Honduras and Guatemala,
where AFL-CIO activities ' are welcomed, but has
snubbed what are referred to as "totalitarian dictator-
ships," such as Haiti, Paraguay and Spain, because
these governments wish to monopolize control of their
unions. The AFL-CIO has even"indicated a preference
for the forcible ouster of a constitutional government,
if such a regime does not cooperate with it and the
forces ousting it do. The AFL-CIO backed the military
in last year's Dominican revolution, the goal of which
was to.bting Bosch back from exile to the presidency.
~Lovesfone thought that the US had erred in sending
the Marines to put down the Dominican revolution,
rather than sending soldiers. Marines, he reasoned,
have'.''a bad reputation in Latin America for doing in the'
past `exactly what they did last year. Otherwise, how-
ever,' he staunchly supported the intervention..
The AFL-CIO's support of dictatorial regimes has a
long;. and sometimes ironic, history. 'When Col. Carlos
Castillo Armas challenged the Guatemalan government
of President Jacobo Arbenz, AFL-CIO representatives
exerted enormous pressure on Latin American members
of ORIT to pass a resolution 'endorsing Castillo Armas
by name. The Latins finally agreed, though they did
CPYRGHT
Sanitized Approved For Release : C1A-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
 Sanitized - Approved For k6feesa9tIIA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
not want to go on record as backing Castillo Arm :s,
Who had dictatorial ambitions himself. Subsequently,
the Americans were embarrassed when the victorious
Castillo Arenas suppressed the union movement and
would not cooperate with the AFL-CIO.
In the -1964 Brazilian revolution, Lovestone and
ORIT, like the US government, threw their weight be-
hind the new military regime immediately after it took
office, and while it was arresting thousands of people
and eliminating the political rights of others. The new
Brazilian leaders, an AFL-CIO official explained, had
promised to reform Brazil's labor system under which
the government had long controlled the unions. But it
soon became apparent that these leaders had little
intention of changing this system.
"How did we know that we'd be double-crossed?"
an AFL-CIO official lamented.
The AFL-CIO also backed the Cuban Confederation
of Labor (CTC) during the regime of Fulgencio Batista,
though this organization was one of the dictator's
principal pillars of support. The CTC, when confronted
with an ORIT resolution denouncing Batista and the
CTC, found the AFL-CIO a loyal friend. Though faced
with massive resistance, the American federation man-
aged to'eliminate from the resolution any condemnation
of the CTC. As Latin pressure on the AFL-CIO in-
creased and Batista's position weakened, Lovestone, in
March, -1958, secretly sent Serafino Romualdi, then the
AFL-CIO delegate to ORIT, to Havana to feel out
rebel Fidel Castro on a "deal." Romualdi got CTC
Secretary-General Eusebio Mujal to contact Castro and
offer him the CTC's support if he would agree to let it
retain its freedom, and presumably, the AFL-CIO's
tutorship. Castro ignored the offer, and when he took
power, the CTC leaders fled and new democratic union
leaders emerged. They cut relations with the AFL-CIO
for having supported a Batista-controlled apparatus. In
the view of some observers, Cuban labor might have
been able to resist eventual domination by Castro, and
possibly thwarted his betrayal of the Cuban revolution,
if the democratic leaders had had AFL-CIO support.
Not surprisingly, former CTC leaders who had
worked with Batista - and are suspected of having CIA
connections - were soon attached to organizations
backed by the AFL-CIO; Eusebio Mujal as head of the
Central Cuban Workers in Exile in Mexico; Jose
Artigas Carbonel, former CTC treasurer, as representa-
tive of the AIFLD in Central America; and Esieban
Rustan, former Secretary-General of the Confederation
of Bank Employees, as ORIT man in Costa Rica.
Lovestone's chief agent in Latin America is Andrew
McLellan, editor of the Inter-Anierican Labor Bulletin
and the AFL-CIO delegate to ORIT. McLellan, enjoys
more independence than other Lovestone agents. His
quick rise to his present important position despite a
limited trade union background is regarded by some
AFL-CIO colleagues as more the result of ties with
certain government agencies than of his labor experi-
ence. As tough as he looks, McLellan reports that in
.early -1963 "we actually had to fight the Communists
in the streets" of Santo Domingo. Young rioters armed
with bicycle chains took over the main shopping center
of the city and threatened to smash the windows of
any shops that opened. With McLellan's encourage-
ment, "the port workers brought their hooks, which
.had a powerful psychological effect." A mob paraded
with a casket bearing McLellan's name, but the streets
were soon cleared.
Parallel Operations
To some degree, recent close coordination between
his operation , and the State Department's in Latin
America can be attributed to McLellan's long friend-
ship with Thomas C. Mann, until recently Undersecre-
tary of State for Economic Affairs. Mann is a native
of Laredo, Texas. McLellan lived nearby and says he
.,knew the Mann family. The two men worked together,
in El Salvador in the mid--195o's, Mann as Ambassador.
and McLellan as ORIT representative in Central Amer-
ica. They found much in common.
Hardly had Mann taken over as Assistant Secretary
for Inter-American Affairs under President Johnson
than he invited McLellan. and Lovestone to speak to his -
staff. Lovestone did most of the talking, vigorously
taking issue, incidentally, with the thesis of Walt Ros-
tow, then State's Policy Planning Council Chairman,
that differences between the Soviet Union and Com-
munist China are meaningful.
One indication of the regard in which the State De-
.:partrnent has held Lovestone and McLellan was an
effort to insert AFL-CIO influence in matters concern-
ing the Organization of American States. This hap-
pened late in -1964 when OAS officials asked a finance
committee to' support the training of Latin American
workers in development planning. The US representa-
tive suggested' that they consult first with McLellan
to make sure the program would not interfere with
the AFL-CIO's activities. The officials reluctantly
agreed to do so, and over lunch McLellan, after sharply
questioning them, agreed to the plan. He suggested
that they meet with him for regular consultations, but
the officials, already nettled, saw no reason why they,
:should consult with a private organization.
The close rapport between the AFL-CIO and the US'
government in their parallel Latin American operations,
particularly their common "pragmatic" attitude toward
political and social development, has hardly turned
ORIT into a popular champion of Latin labor. US and
Latin .critics say that ORIT today, though embracing
CPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
 Sanitized - Approved FoF'Refetise'~ CIA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6
six million of Latin America's estimated 15 million
organized workers, has little real vitality and is re-
garded with disdain by many workers, including a large
number within the organization itself. What mainly
holds ORIT together, say these critics, is the willing-
ness of the AFL-CIO, as in Europe and elsewhere, to
pay cooperative union loaders well for their scrvicccu -
from what, appears to be an inexhaustible kitty.
Lovestone and ORIT have also benefited from a
scarcity of competition. Fidel Castro failed in one effort
to set up a Communist-controlled rival confederation,
though he may have better success with a new one
that is designed for greater appeal to non-Communist
workers. About two million workers, including the
Cubans, now belong to Communist-dominated unions.
More popular, and perhaps the labor organization
of the future, is the Latin American Confederation of
Christian Trade Unions (CLASC), which attacks ORIT
as a tool of US "imperialism." McLellan has repii.cd
that it is hard to view CLASC as non-Communist.
Various attempts at reconciliation have failed. CLASC
demands immediate social revolution, apparently in-
cluding the use of force when necessary. It reflects the
nationalism and the fear of American-style free enter-
prise that many Latin Americans feel. In short, it is a
Latin-dominated, and not a US-dominated organization.
Footwork
in Guyana ?
In the face of such threats, Lovestone is counting on
the AIFLD to help keep Latin labor in line behind his,
or at least CIA, policies. As it is a strictly US organiza-
tion, he can use AIFLD more openly for this purpose
than he can the multilateral ORIT. The AIFLD is a
non-profit institute administered by the AFL-CIO, but
backed as well by 6o US business firms and the US gov-
ernment, which finances or guarantees about 8o percent
of its program.
This program, since inauguration of the Institute in
1962, has produced about 400 graduates in democratic.
labor education from a training school in Washington,':,'
and some z,ooo graduates of schools in over a dozen!
Latin American countries. It has sponsored construc-
tion of a $1o million workers' housing project in Mex-
ico, embracing 3,100 units, and several hundred houses
in Honduras. It has established a Workers' Housing
Bank in Peru and provided over $6o,ooo'for "impact"
projects, including food distribution and laundry co-
operatives. In mid-May, urgent telephone calls from
State Department officials to Meany elicited an AIFLD
commitment of $z million for the building of over 500
houses in the newly independent nation of Guyana to
get the US off on the right foot in that country.
Nevertheless, the AIFLD has made enemies in Latin
America. The Costa Rican press recently castigated the
CPYRGHT
Institute for trying to impose what it called unjust
Conditions for participation in a proposed $1.z million
housing program. It particularly criticized AIFLD in-
sistence that the Institute determine which individuals
will fret the houses, feeling that they should not be
distributed as possible offerings to "cooperative" labor
leaden,. Nor did the Co;+ta 121cons hide their fury about
a stipulation that they hire US rather than local engi-
neers, to design the houses.
In Argentina, labor leaders have all but given up
on a $io million AIFLD housing project promised their
workers in April, 1964. The first house has yet to be
built. In the Dominican Republic, a US technician
supervising an AIFLD housing project wrote AID of-
ficials that "the major defect in the planning of the
project is that it was obviously designed to impress the
USA with the tremendous impact of the AIFLD rather
than serve the practical necessities of the Dominican
Republic and Dominican labor."
The Institute's labor training program, in particular
the policy of paying graduates almost a year's salary
after they finish their course, has also drawn fire. How
can such a labor leader go back to his union and run
it independently, they ask? Nor is the image of "inde-
pendence" enhanced, they say, when Lovestone and
his agents boast that their pupils have participated in
the overthrow of governments, however undesirable.
Such a boast was publicly made, for example, following
the ouster of Brazilian President Joao Goulart in 1964.
No less intolerable to the critics is the makeup of
AIFLD's board of directors, which includes many big
businessmen such as Board Chairman J. Peter Grace,
who is not reputed for his friendly attitude toward
labor. According to Lovestone and Doherty, their pres-
ence on the board offers an example to Latin American
workers how capital and labor can cooperate.
In short, say the critics, though very quietly, the
principal purpose of the AIFLD is not to build houses
or to promote democracy, but to help the CIA gather
intelligence and manipulate political forces. At least
some persons working for the Institute are known to
have been asked to cooperate with the CIA. They'.are
told, one informant said, that "Latin America's social
revolution must be diverted into proper channels."
"Proper" means acceptable to Jay Lovestone.. .
"The tragedy is," one US labor authority said, "that
the AFL-CIO, which has done so much to promote
social reform in this country, is afraid to do as much
for workers abroad for fear that too much change will
play into the hands of the Communists. As a result, it
.has allied itself with the forces most disinterested, or
opposed to, change-rightist dictators, espionage
groups, corrupt labor leaders, and feudalistic politicians
- the. very. people on whom the Communists are de-
pend:aig for ultimate victory.".*
' . `
~f.
Sanitised = Approved For Release,: 0IA-RDP75-00149R000400550023-6