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Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa holds up the George Meany Human Rights Award as AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland applauds during the AFL-CIO convention in Washington (Nov. 14, 1989).
J. Scott Applewhite / ASSOCIATED PRESS
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I suspect that the outspoken
anti-Communist legacy of Munkastanascok, just like that of
Solidarnosc, was one of the reasons for the special interest of the
North American AFL-CIO. President Imre Palkovic told me once that he
personally had been invited by AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland to
visit him in Washington officially but also at home. An unusual state
of affairs. That Munkastanascok had a special meaning for the
AFL-CIO, was confirmed in april 1994 when I had a lunch with three
staff members of the AFL-CIO in Washington about their policy in
Central and Eastern Europe. At the beginning of the lunch they
congratulated me with the affiliation of Munkastanascok to the WCL
as if we had won a kind of super prize.
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"From 1979 to 1995
Kirkland was president of the American
Federation of Labor – Congress
of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
On the international front, Kirkland's support of
the Solidarity movement
in Poland contributed to the decline of communism.
According to Michael Szporer's Solidarity:
The Great Workers Strike of 1980,[6] American Unions under the
leadership of Lane Kirkland contributed $150,000 shortly after the
successful Solidarity Strike, as early as September 1980. At the
time, the Carter administration, including its two prominent Polish
Americans, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Ed Muskie advised
against such aid fearing Soviet reaction. Kirkland boldly took the
initiative persuading Zbigniew Brzezinski of the wisdom of
supporting the Solidarity movement. In all US union support of
Solidarity far exceeded its European counterparts. Solidarity aid was
part of Lane Kirkland's internationalist vision for the labor
movement and the building of the global consensus on human rights.
After the changes in Eastern Europe, Kirkland became a mentor for
many prominent labor leaders who saw him as a visionary and visited
him in his office at the George Meany Center. He befriended Lech
Walesa as well as Marian
Krzaklewski who replaced Lech Walesa at the helm of
Solidarity. Kirkland was awarded posthumously with the highest Polish
award, the Order of the White Eagle."
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While the AFL-CIO was a member of the
ICFTU, it had its own policy in Central and Eastern Europe. This
policy was executed by offices of the AFL-CIO through the Free Trade
Union Institute FTUI in various capitals in Central and Eastern
Europe and even in Moscow.
“The Free Trade Union Institute
(FTUI) was created in 1977 when the AFL-CIO resurrected and renamed
the moribund Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC). The purpose was to
increase U.S. influence with European trade unions, especially in
Spain and Portugal. (16) It was almost defunct in 1983 when Congress
began funding the newly-created National Endowment for Democracy
(NED), and FTUI has been the largest grantee ever since. (3) NED's
purpose is "to encourage the establishment and growth of
democratic development in a manner consistent both with the broad
concerns of United States national interests and with the specific
requirements of the democratic groups in other countries which are
aided by the endowment."(14) FTUI is one of four core grantees
of NED. The other three are the Center for International Private
Enterprise (CIPE), National Republican Institute for International
Affairs, and the National Democratic Institute for International
Affairs. In 1988 NED received over $20 million from the U.S.
taxpayers. (15) Congress authorizes U.S. Information Agency (USIA)
funds for NED which in turn gives money to FTUI and other grantees.
FTUI then funds overseas projects which are usually managed by
AFL-CIO's three regional labor institutes: American Institute for
Free Labor Development (AIFLD), Asian-American Free Labor Institute
(AAFLI), and the African-American Labor Center (AALC). (2)”
FTUI says it "supports programs
that provide assistance for democratic education, training in basic
union skills, and organizing assistance... sponsors exchanges between
trade unionists... and supports research on labor rights and human
rights..." ( see: Right Web of the Institute of Policy Studies)
The direct
involvement of the AFL-CIO in Central and Eastern Europe had been
started with Solidarnosc in Poland. On support for Solidarnosc we
read the following on the afore mentioned website:“Poland: The
largest recipient of FTUI grants from 1985-1989 is the Solidarnosc.
(8) With its funding Solidarnosc was to disseminate information,
sustain union ativists, maintain its adminstrative infrastructure,
and through its Brussels-based office disseminate information to the
West on worker rights violations in Poland. (15) Jerry Milewski,
director of Solidarnosc's Brussels bureau said the grants were used
for a social fund for Solicarnosc members, and for printing and
communications equipment. Radical factions within Solicarnosc
criticise the tight hold on funds by Lech Walesa and the union
leadership. (8)”
On the same webpage
we find Portugal, Spain and France. In Portugal, the support went to
the social-democratic oriented trade union confederation UGT as a
counterweight to the Communist-oriented CGTP. The WCL maintained
friendly relations with a group of Christian workers within the CGTP.
In Spain, the Basque nationalist trade union confederation ELA-STV was
supported as a counterweight to the radical left terrorist group ETA.
ELA-STV was like Solidarnosc member of both ICFTU and the WCL, these
two federations were the only ones in the world with a dual
membership. In France FTUI / AFL-CIO supported the trade union
confederation Force Ouvrière as a counterweight to the then
socialist government of President Mitterand, according to the
website.
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| Photo taken during the Cartel Alfa Congress in 1995 in Rumania. On the right Amaia Betel, international relations ELA-STV. in the centre WCL President Willy Peirens. The Spanish Journal El Pais published on the 18th of June 1988 an article on the funds ELA-STV was receiving from the United States. |
I assume that
European Social Democratic Parties and Trade Unions were at least
aware of this AFL-CIO policy in Europe. It can be concluded that the
Cold War was waged also in European trade union country by the
AFL-CIO. Given the network of AFL-CIO/FTUI offices in Central and
Eastern Europe and Russia, the mission of the FTUI / AFL-CIO had
apparently not yet completely finished after the fall of the Berlin
Wall (1989).
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| Photograph taken at the meeting of the ITF-WCL mission to Poland (march 1992) with the Presidents of the Solidarnosc National Federations for Chemistry (Christoph Hnatio) and Energy (Ludwik Zagwojski) talking to Leo Dusoleil, President of the World federation of Industrial Workers (WFIW) of WCL on the left).The man on the right is the translator. "Then there's a discussion between the two presidents. Zagwojski seems not won for joining ICF (International Chemistry Federation), given the socialists of Western Europe in the past have always adored Communism and now suddenly changed track." (report L. Dusoleil, March 1992. |
During our trip
through Poland along the various national sectoral federations
affiliated with Solidarnosc at the beginning of this year (1992),
regularly we heard about North American trade union assistance. A few
times, we met some North American trade unionists, usually with a
Polish background. They were involved in some kind of solidarity
program of a national federation or regional organization. So Ryszard
Dabrowski, President of Solidarnosc Wood and Building Federation,
told us that his union gets help from Canada, Italy, Sweden and North
America. "The help from North America consists mainly of
technical training of steel benders, masons and carpenters. The North
American people are giving this technical training. "(Report,
L.Soleil, March 1992) Of course, it is not surprising that Polish
migrants in the U.S. like to help their former compatriots to rebuild
their country and trade union.
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| Bob Fielding listening to a presentation at the seminar on "World Federation of Labor for New Trade Unionism after Communism", Budapest March 1993. On his left writing Marleen Mens, one of the very capable WCL secretaries. |
I was soon
introduced to the North American Bob Fielding who worked at the
International Department of Solidarnosc. When I asked how he had
become involved with Solidarnosc, he told me that while he was
studying in Poland during the rise of Solidarnosc, he had become
active in the clandestine Solidarnosc. His stay in Poland and his
involvement with Solidarnosc pleased him so much that he decided to
stay in Poland and help Solidarnosc with its international contacts.
A few years later he told me he went to work for the AFL-CIO in one
of the Caucasian republics. I believe he mentioned Georgia, but I can
be wrong.
To be continued
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