AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers:
Solidarity or Sabotage?
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Dr. Kim Scipes' latest book (published September 2010)
Published by Lexington Books, Lanham, MD
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To order and get 20% off: Solidarity or Sabotage?
Paperback version published in August 2011--ISBN: 978-9-7391-3502-0.
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From Back of Book:
The principles of trade unionism are based on working people acting together
in solidarity with each other, to improve wages, working conditions,
and life for themselves and all others. In its most developed forms, this
extends not only to the worker next to you, but to working people all around the
world, wherever they might be. Some of the foremost proponents of these
principles in the United States since the 1880s has been the American Federation
of Labor (AFL), then later the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and
since their merger in 1955, the AFL-CIO.
However, unknown to many labor leaders and most union members in the U.S., the
foreign policy leaders of the AFL and then the AFL-CIO, have been carrying out
an international foreign policy that has worked against workers in a number of
"developing countries." This has been done on their own, and in collaboration
with the U.S. Government and its agencies, such as the Central Intelligence
Agency, U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for
Democracy, and the U.S. State Department's Advisory Committee for Labor and
Diplomacy.
In the post-World War II period, this foreign policy program has led to the
AFL-CIO's foreign policy leadership helping to overthrow democratically elected
governments¡XGuatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), Chile (1973); to support
dictatorships in countries such as Guatemala, Brazil and Chile (after their
respective military coups), as well as in countries such as Indonesia, the
Philippines, and South Korea; and to support efforts by reactionary labor
leaders to help overthrow their democratically-elected leaders as in Venezuela
in 2002. It has also included providing AFL-CIO support for U.S. Government
policies around the world, including support for apartheid in South Africa.
This book argues that these activities¡Xdone behind the backs and without the
informed knowledge of American trade unionists¡Xacts to sabotage the very
principles of trade unionism that these leaders proclaim to be advancing. It
shows how labor activists have been fighting this sabotage, and calls for all
Americans to support these efforts.
About the Author
Kim Scipes is associate professor of sociology at Purdue
University North Central, Westville, Indiana.
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"A welcome, overdue, and highly informed exposé of U.S. labor imperialism and its nefarious effects both in the¡Kdeveloping world and in the eye of the imperial hurricane¡Xthe American homeland. Scipes' knowledge of the secondary academic and journalistic literature on American labor's foreign policy record is encyclopedic."¡XPaul Street, ZNet
"It belongs in every library in the country."¡XNick Egnatz, Online Journal
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"This is an important new book for students of
American labor's international activities and policies. Combining his own
research with a vast knowledge of the secondary literature in this important
but too often overlooked field, Kim Scipes has produced a unique historical
and sociological synthesis. It is also a passionate brief for the need for
change, transparency and democracy in American labor's foreign policy. Those
who are interested in developing a truly progressive American labor movement
will need to consult these pages, and wrestle with our interventionist labor
history, before arriving at their own conclusions."¡XDavid Nack,
School for Workers, University of Wisconsin-Extension
"The AFL-CIO's Secret War" answers its own title question:
Solidarity or Sabotage? Kim Scipes draws together more evidence of the
latter than can be found between any other two book covers. This volume is
clearly written out of love for the union movement and our international
working class. In focusing from various points of view on the historically
concealed government funded role of AFL-CIO officialdom, carrying the bags
for Corporate America abroad in pursuit of Empire, Scipes lets the cats out
of the bags. This scholarly work will piss off key players in labor's
hierarchy who, not wanting to wash our dirty laundry in public, have let
the dirty laundry accumulate so its stink undermines honesty, transparency
and solidarity. Getting this book into the hard working hands of the women
and men who ARE the unions will contribute immensely to building
international solidarity and the vitality, vision and power of our labor
movement itself."¡XFred Hirsch, Executive Board Member, Plumbers & Fitters
Local 393, Delegate to the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Santa Clara
and San Benito Counties Building Trades Council
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See Fred Hirsch's "Why You Should Read AFL-CIO'S Secret War Against Developing Country Workers" at http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/hirsch130810.html.
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For an on-line interview of Kim Scipes,
See Michael Barker, "AFL-CIO: Solidarity or Sabotage: An Interview with Kim Scipes"
Swans Commentary, September 12, 2011: http://swans.com/library/art17/barker88.html.
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For video presentation by Kim Scipes on book and issues related to subject of this book:
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2010 (September 18). 10 min. Part One (of 9), Open University of the
Left, 9-10-10.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUV-EzkcpM.
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For interviews of Kim Scipes on book and related issues:
2012. (March 5). "Kim Scipes on AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?" 57 min. Video interview by Steve Zeltzer of Labor Video Project of San Francisco. On-line at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUsLrlie_Q.
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2011. (October 11). "10-11-2011, Radio interview with Vince Emanuele, featuring "Dr. Kim Scipes in studio and discussion about Occupy Wall Street." approximately 1 hour. http://www.veteransunplugged.com/theshow/archive/83-10-11-2011.
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2010. (December 12). "Takes on the Word: Kim Scipes on American Labor," 39
minutes.
Radio
Interview with Jeff Blankfort.
http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/48572 .
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2010. (May 10). "AFL-CIO's Secret War: Solidarity or Sabotage? with Kim
Scipes," 16 min.
On-line at
http://blip.tv/laborvideo/the-afl-cio-s-secret-war-solidarity-or-sabotage-with-kim-scipes-3593922.
Video interview by Steve Zeltzer of Labor Video Project of San
Francisco (at Labor Notes Conference).
2005. (July 26).
"Unholy Alliance? The AFL-CIO and the National Endowment for
Democracy in Venezuela." Amy Goodman, "Democracy Now," (with Fred Hirsch). Interview begins at 49.30 minutes.
http://www.democracynow.org/2005/7/26/unholy_alliance_the_afl_cio_and .
(10 min.)
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Published Reviews of Scipes' book (by alphabetical order of reviewer's last name):
Buhle, Paul. 2011. "Kim Scipes' AFL-CIO's Secret War."
Swans Commentary, July 4.
On-line at
www.swans.com/library/art17/pbuhle12.html
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Egnatz, Nick. 2011. "A Union Activist's Call for Change: A Review of AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?
Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social Thought,
No. 55, Spring 2011: 28-30.
On-line at http://www.greens.org/s-r/55/55-08.html .
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Garver, Paul. 2011. "Servitors of the National Security State?"
New Labor Forum
Vol. 20, No. 3, Fall: 104-107.
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Müller, Stefan. 2011. "Kim Scipes, AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?" (in German).
Archiv für Sozialgeschichte (online) 52, October 18.
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
On-line at http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/afs/81285.pdf
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Nastovski, Katherine. 2011. "Review of AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?"
Labour/Le Travail, Issue 67, Fall: 246-248.
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Street, Paul. 2011. "A Betrayal of the Highest Order: Reflections on Kim Scipes' Important New Book on U.S. Labor Imperialism." Z Net, April 23.
On-line at www.zcommunications.org/contents/177776/print.
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