COMMUNISTS AND THE AFL-CIO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000100120009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 15, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 29, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/15: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100120009-5
WALL STREET JOURNAL
29 SEPTEMBER 1981
R EVIIIEW & OUTLOOK
-, Communists and the AFL-CIO
Poland's Solidarity movement is
holding the second stage of its national And, comrades, this is no accident.
convention in Gdansk without the Counterspy tells us that. AFL-CIO offi-
presence of one of its best known in- cials have always denied working with
vited'guests: Lane Kirkland, president the CIA or taking CIA money for their
of the AFL-CIO. Mr. Kirkland had pre- activities, but these denials "ring hol-
pared a speech to deliver to the Soli- low." After all, do we not have the tes-
darity meeting, but at the last minute timony of a former CIA official who
the Communist- government of Poland says-he actually handed over bucks to
refused to grant visas to him and his an AFL representative? Do we not
AFL-,CIO delegation. This is no big know that the CIA read the mail of
labor personnel "in order to non-
surprise, really; American labor's high
support for Solidarity has gravely em- itor their handling of CIA money"?
barrassed Warsaw, and the Polish SQ when we see American labor at
government keeps trying to discredit
the effort. It is also sadly unsurprising
that the Polish Communists are get-
ting` help here in the U.S.
Y'ou can get an idea of how the an-
ti=AFL campaign is working by taking
a look at a recent issue of Counterspy,
a Washington-based magazine that
proclaims itself devoted. to exposing
the nefarious work of the CIA and its
agents of American imperialism wher-
ever they roam in the world. An arti-
cle in the magazine is straightfor-
wardly titled "AFL-CIO: Trojan Horse
in Polish Unions." A special editorial
introduction to the article put the the-
sis just as straightforwardly: In coun-
try':after country,' "AFL-CIO aid has
iiiv .viably had the ulterior motive of
establishing, securing and expanding
U.S... corporate and strategic inter-
ests:"
How do we know this is true? For
one thing, says Counterspy, we ha,'e
before us the' record of American la-
bor's' reactionary efforts in Latin
America.. In Guatemala, . George
biedny worked with CIA-connected or-
ganizations to undermine the properly
progressive, truly "labor-oriented"
forces in the country. In the Domini-
cair Republic, the AFL-CIO set up an
organization that "ran propaganda
unifs as well as goon squads against
the .legitimate unions."
we're not viewing anything like an ex-
preSsion of genuine solidarity among
the:xvorking classes. Instead, what
w~rqg- got is just another variation on
a decades-old -American-capitalist 1
plot.
Counterspy was not the last source
to strike this theme. Just a little while
ago, broadcasts from the Soviet Union
could be heard denouncing Solidarity's 1
American connection and cutely refer- ;
ring to Lane Kirkland as among the
"chief stockholders" in the Polish dis-
sident movement. Over on this side of
the ocean, when Solidarity recently,
opened an office in New York, a re-
spectably-sized group of demonstra-
tors was organized to picket the open
ing in protest against the American
imperialism it allegedly represented.
American labor is indeed aiding
the Solidarity movement, openly and
unashamedly. It has a long history of
fighting Communist domination of la=
bor movements. It learned early in the
game that Communist parties and
free unions are natural mortal ene-
mies, more violently so because free
unions, more than any other free insti-
tution, threaten Communist claims to
legitimacy. When American labor
goes head to head with Communists,
the obvious counterattack for the
Communists is to claim that American
labor is an arm of the American gov-
ernment, manipulated by the CIA.
How easy it is to make lists of the CIA
connections: the parallel aims, the in-
stances of collaboration, the communi-
cations and shared acquaintanceships.
How easy to use the list to try to dis-
credit the AFL-CIO enterprise in Po-
land, and more important, to try to ex-
punge the colossal embarrassment
Solidarity represents to world-wide
communism.
This is a very dirty business we are
dealing with. American labor has been
active on the international scene in or-
der to further its own perfectly legiti-
mate purposes. One result of its activi-
ties has been to expose, time after
time, the gulf between Communist in-
terests and worker interests. This ex-
posure has often worked to the benefit
work in Poland, we should know that - of an activist U.S. foreign policy, and
opponents of such a policy have rea-
son to want to tarnish the whole con-
nection.
But they should not be allowed to
do so easily. While the American labor
movement has at times in recent
years identified itself too closely with
political parties and administrations
for our liking, on the whole it remains
a free and independent force pitting
its, weight against state power both in
the U.S. and abroad. Its efforts on be-
half of political freedom are thus sig-
nificant. Anyone seeking to delegitim-
ize its performance in this realm
should be aware of just how serious an
attack he is launching.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/15: CIA-RDP90-00845R000100120009-5