The American labor movement in Fizzland: The free trade union committee and the CIA

Labor History

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 25-42

  Carew, Anthony ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0032394165     PISSN: 0023656X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00236679812331387276     Document Type: Article

References (79)

1. Tom Braden, "I'm glad the CIA is immoral," Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1967.
2. Jay Lovestone was General Secretary of the Communist Party (USA) until ousted by Stalin in 1929. He led the Communist Party Opposition throughout the 1930s before aligning with anti-Communist labor leaders in the garment and auto industries. After the war, while on the payroll of the ILGWU he headed up the Free Trade Union Committee which acted as the focal point for AFL foreign policy during the early cold war. His extensive collection of papers are divided between the Lovestone Collection (hereafter LC), Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department (Lovestone) Collection (hereafter IAD-L) at the George Meany Memorial Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland.
3. Irving Brown was a follower of Lovestone from his student days in the early 1930s. In the late 1930s, he worked for Lovestone as an organizer in the auto industry in the factional fights with the Communists. After working for the War Production Board during World War II, he was assigned to Europe in 1945 as the representative of the Free Trade Union Committee, working under Lovestone and remaining there for 17 years. His papers are part of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department Collection (hereafter IAD-B) at the George Meany Memorial Archives.
4. Roy Godson, "The AFL foreign policy making process from the end of World War II to the merger," Labor History, 16 (1975), 325-337; Philip Taft, Defending Freedom: American labor and foreign affairs (Los Angeles: Nash Publishing, 1973), chapt. 4; Anthony Carew, Labour Under the Marshall Plan (Manchester: University Press, 1987), chapt. 4.
5. Roy Godson, "The AFL foreign policy making process from the end of World War II to the merger," Labor History, 16 (1975), 325-337; Philip Taft, Defending Freedom: American labor and foreign affairs (Los Angeles: Nash Publishing, 1973), chapt. 4; Anthony Carew, Labour Under the Marshall Plan (Manchester: University Press, 1987), chapt. 4.
6. Roy Godson, "The AFL foreign policy making process from the end of World War II to the merger," Labor History, 16 (1975), 325-337; Philip Taft, Defending Freedom: American labor and foreign affairs (Los Angeles: Nash Publishing, 1973), chapt. 4; Anthony Carew, Labour Under the Marshall Plan (Manchester: University Press, 1987), chapt. 4.
7. AFL-CIO News, May 13, 1967; interview with Lane Kirkland, July 10, 1996.
8. Eric Thomas Chester, Covert Network (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1995), 26-28.
9. Memorandum, Nov 24, 1950, LC 528 (Offie).
10. In the code used by Lovestone, $1000 was referred to as a "volume" or "book" and CIA funds as a "library." Lovestone wrote to Brown regarding the "Pager" donation: "The arrangement was that Ray [Murphy of the State Department's Euro-X department which liaised with the OPC] was to let you know through right channels the full story of the 35 volumes given to our library by the...colonel...The volumes deal with famine relief and reconstruction plans for France. It is grand to have a library with books concerning all countries and at least four languages. But that costs funds to maintain and I have a tough time raising it to keep books and buildings in order." Lovestone to Brown, Feb 1949, IAD-B, 29 (6).
11. FTUC Financial Accounts, 1949, 1950. Financial Accounts are to be found in LC Boxes 403 and 417 and in IAD-L 73. Typically the "donors" would be listed with innocent sounding names such as R. Cowley, M. Slater, Richard Hunt, J. Lawrence, and Henry Smallwood.
12. FTUC Financial Accounts, 1949-58.
13. On the use of the JLC as a conduit, see for example Brown to Lovestone, Mar 13, 1947, IAD-L 11 (8); FTUC Minutes, Mar 21, 1947, IAD-L 35 (29); Brown to Lovestone, Aug 25, 1947, IAD-L 11 (7); Lovestone to Brown, Jan 12, 1948, IAD-L 11(9); Hannah Haskel to Brown, May 13, 1948, IAD-B 29(4).
14. On instances of Jolis's work see Lovestone to Brown, May 28, 1947, June 2, 1947, June 24, 1947, IAD-L 11 (7). Eventually they concluded that his political judgement was suspect and avoided using his services. Lovestone to Brown, July 10, 1950, Brown to Lovestone, Oct 23, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
15. Interview with Paul Sakwa, Sept 1995. Sakwa was Brown's CIA Desk Officer in Washington.
16. Burton Hersch, The Old Boys: the American elite and the origins of the CIA (New York: Scribners, 1992), 296.
17. Ibid, 320.
18. Lovestone to Brown, Jan 26, 1949, IAD-L 11(11); Brown to Lovestone, July 8, 1950, IAD-L 11(12). An indication of Brown's impetuous style and the tensions that arose over delays in transferring funds is evident from an exchange of correspondence in February 1949. Brown wrote: "I am preparing a report on the library situation. You must know that the volumes left with you must be sold as soon as possible since I have already made the transactions. I cannot understand the delay...After all, the volumes were left with the understanding that they would be sold. I cannot understand why there must be additional supervision since the agreement was clearly made. Meanwhile, we are in debt to Frank's [Frank Wisner, Head of OPC] estate to the extent of about 12 volumes...I shall have a complete accounting of how these books are being utilised." Brown to Lovestone, Feb 8, 1949, IAD-L 11(11). Lovestone responded: "The library situation has grown so complicated that it can be explained only in person. And you will be here in a few weeks...," Lovestone to Brown, Feb 1949, IAD-B 29(6).
19. Lovestone to Brown, Oct 31, 1950, IAD-L 11(12); Brown to Lovestone, Nov 16, 1950, LC 283 (I. Brown).
20. Lovestone to Brown, Aug 1, 1949, IAD-L 11(10).
21. Lovestone expanded: "We are particularly concerned about our very-well intentioned friend Tom [Lane] who presumes that all he has to do is to make a commitment and...the AFL-FTUC will have to accept it. We also think that his two most authoritative officers are likewise fatally mistaken when they think they are doing the AFL a great favour by presuming to act in its behalf in this way...The Committee is definitely opposed to continuing the previous procedure of handling Italian pottery." On the recent merger between LCGIL and FIL to form CISL, and continuing requests for financial support from the Italian unions, he wrote: "The wedding which recently took place improves the picture from a certain point of view but what we have heard... about the requests of the ailing pottery workers flabbergasted us. I am comparing the requested hospital bill with others and find that these Italian demands are fantastic." Lovestone to Brown, May 16, 1950, IAD-L 11(12), June 21, 1949, IAD-L 11(10).
22. Memorandum, Nov 24, 1950, loc. cit. Five per cent of counterpart worth $200 million per annum was put at the disposal of the US government and from this a portion was available for use on secret projects.
23. CIO International Committee, Minutes, Oct 24, 1950, Ross Collection, 7 (19), George Meany Memorial Archives.
24. Interview with Robert Crowley, Sept 19, 1995.
25. Offie was a personal friend of former Ambassador to Moscow and Paris Bill Bullitt. He was one of Mrs Wallis Simpson's favorite bridge partners. He was close to Ambassador Joseph Kennedy who used to phone him for advice. And he acted as host to Kennedy's sons, Joseph jnr, and John F. Kennedy during a holiday visit to Paris. He was a regular correspondent of Franklin Roosevelt's secretary Missy LeHand and he was in the habit of enclosing occasional friendly notes for the President himself. While working for the OPC/CIA it was variously said of him that he was the last man to see a piece of paper before it went to Wisner, and the last man to see $2 million before it disappeared. Hersch, 44, 63-64, 66.
26. Ibid, 442-443. For details of an episode in September 1943 when Offie was arrested in Washington for loitering and was supplied with an alibi by future Ambassador James Dunn, see LC 529 (Offie). Lovestone to Brown, June 26, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
27. Brown to Lovestone, July 8, 1950, IAD-L 11(12); Lovestone to Offie, July 10, 1950, LC 310 (Offie, 1952); Brown to Lovestone, Nov 16, 1950, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951). On the French budget, Brown complained that the total sum being spent in Italy was 15 times greater than in France. Brown to Lovestone, Dec 22, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
28. Brown to Lovestone, Nov 16, 1950, LC 283 (I. Brown 1951); Lovestone to Brown, Nov 20, 1950 IAD-L 11(12).
29. A full account of this meeting is reported in Memorandum, Nov 24, 1950, loc. cit. The participants are thinly disguised as "Soldier" (General Beddell Smith), "Lawyer" (Frank Wisner), "Plumber" (George Meany), "Garment Worker" (David Dubinsky), "Photo Engraver" (Matthew Woll), "Intellectual" (Jay Lovestone) and "Liaison" (Carmel Offie). The following passage draws on this report.
30. Tom Braden interview with Frances Stonor Saunders, July 1996. Transcript in author's possession.
31. Lovestone to Brown, Dec 1, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
32. Lovestone to Offie, Dec 1, 1950, LC 310 (Offie, 1952).
33. Brown to Lovestone, Nov. 30, 1950; Lovestone to Brown, Dec 4, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
34. Lovestone to Brown, Dec 26, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
35. Brown to Lovestone, Dec 9, 1950, Jan 22, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951), Dec 22, 1950, IAD-L 11(12).
36. Brown to Lovestone, Jan 9, 1951, LC 282 (I. Brown, 1951).
37. See Lovestone to Brown, Mar 26, 1951 reporting the CIA's reaction to Brown's "roughness and brusqueness" when he met them in Washington. LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
38. Lovestone to Brown, Jan 15, Mar 26, Apr 2, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
39. Lovestone to Brown, Mar 13, 26, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
40. Hersch, 279.
41. Lovestone to Brown, Mar 26, 1951, loc. cit.
42. Ibid.
43. Lovestone to Berger, Apr 3, 1951, 283 (Sam Berger, 1951); Lovestone to Brown, Apr 4, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
44. Offie to Lovestone, Apr 6, 1951, LC 381 (Monk, 1951).
45. Lovestone to Brown, Jan 19, 1952, IAD-L 11(16).
46. "Monk" to Lovestone, Apr 18, 1951, LC 381 (Monk, 1951).
47. Lovestone wrote to Brown: "I am now convinced that Victor [Reuther] and his friends are operating not only with a lot of cat nip [counterpart funds controlled by Milton Katz] but with the aid of substantial injection of Dr Fizzer." Apr 30, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
48. The ICFTU had been formed in 1949 by trade union centers which had broken away from the Communist-dominated World Federation of Trade Unions. Viewed by some as the voice of labor in the Western Bloc, it was often the subject of Communist allegations that it was financed by the CIA. Therefore it is interesting to see the FTUC lamenting that this was not the case.
49. "Monk" to Lovestone, Apr 6, 1951, loc. cit.
50. David Dubinsky with A.H. Raskin, David Dubinsky: A Life with Labor (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977), 261.
51. "Monk" to Lovestone, Apr 18, 1951, loc. cit.
52. Tom Braden interview with Frances Stonor Saunders.
53. Lovestone to Dulles, Apr 24, 1951, LC 367 (Dulles, 1951-64).
54. Dulles to Lovestone, Apr 26, 1951, LC 367 (Dulles, 1951-64).
55. Lovestone to Brown, Apr 30, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
56. FTUC Accounts, 1951.
57. Draft Lovestone to Mr Welsh [Allen Welsh Dulles], undated. Offie had consulted with Admiral Hillenkoeter, the former Director of Central Intelligence, over this matter and according to Offie the formula proposed was Hillenkoeter's. Offie to Lovestone, Sept 11, 1951, LC 703 (C.D. Jackson). It is an interesting reflection on the politics of the intelligence community that a disgraced member of the CIA would still have the ear of the former Director of Central Intelligence and that the two of them would be working to assist Lovestone in his dealings with the current Director of Central Intelligence.
58. Brown to Lovestone, May 21, 1951, LC 355 (I. Brown, 1949-53).
59. "A lot of the problems that have been placed on your shoulders should no longer be a source of interest or grievance to you. Consider that phase just that much water over the dam." Lovestone to Berger, May 18, 1951, LC283 (Berger, 1951).
60. Brown to Lovestone, Nov 15, 1951; Lovestone to Brown, Nov 21, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951).
61. Lovestone to Mr Welsh [Dulles], Dec 21, 1951, IAD-B 29(11).
62. Mr Phenix to Mr Augustine, Sep 19, 1951; C.D. Jackson to Royall Tyler, Sept 18, 1951, LC 355 (I. Brown, 1949-53); Lovestone to Brown, Oct 12, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown 1951); Dennen to Lovestone Oct 29, 1951, IAD-L 11(16).
63. Lovestone to Dennen, Oct 3, 1951, IAD-L 26(9); Lovestone to Brown, Oct 12, Dec 21, 1951, LC 283 (I. Brown, 1951); Lovestone to Meany, Dec 21, 1951 (Meany Presidential Papers Box 56 (1), George Meany Memorial Archives); Jackson to Brown, Jan 15, 1952, IAD-L 11(16).
64. Lovestone to Berger, Apr 23, 1952, IAD-L 10(11); Lovestone to Brown, May 8, 1952, IAD-L 11(15).
65. Westbrook Pegler, "Fair Enough," Washington Times-Herald, Mar 26, 1951; "Plans to Sift Dubinsky's Union Activities in Europe," New York Journal American, Nov 9, 1951. Similar columns followed on Nov 15, Dec 31, 1951; Jan 3, 16, Oct 9, 1952.
66. Westbrook Pegler, "Fair Enough," Washington Times-Herald, Mar 26, 1951; "Plans to Sift Dubinsky's Union Activities in Europe," New York Journal American, Nov 9, 1951. Similar columns followed on Nov 15, Dec 31, 1951; Jan 3, 16, Oct 9, 1952.
67. "1. Inestimable damage has been done to the Free Trade Union Committee..." Untitled and undated LC 403 (FTUC). Lovestone suspected that the person in the CIA who was responsible for encouraging Pegler's attacks was Freeman Matthews.
68. Cord Meyer interview with Frances Stonor Saunders, July 1996. I am grateful to Ms Saunders for this information.
69. FTUC Financial Accounts, 1950-52. Harry Goldberg was reassigned to Rome to keep a closer watch on Italian labor politics and the activities of Labor Attaché Tom Lane. On Brown's financial transactions see "Leon Dale," Mar 31, 1953, IAD-B 14(6).
70. "Leon Dale," loc. cit.
71. Dale to Paolo Giornelli, Jan 13; Giornelli to Brown, June 6, 1953, IAD-B 13(2); Volonte to Brown, Oct 25, Nov 21, 1952; Brown to Volonte, Dec 18, 1952 IAD-B 12 (2).
72. Brown to Lovestone, Feb 24, 1953, IAD-L 11(18).
73. FTUC, Minutes, May 17, 1947, Mar 31, 1953, IAD-L 11 (7), 35(29); Lovestone to Dubinsky, Apr 21, 1953, IAD-L 38(8).
74. Lovestone to Woll, May 12, 1953, IAD-L 65(5); Brown to Lovestone, Nov 26, 1953, IAD-L 11(19); Lovestone to Brown, Nov 30, 1953, IAD-B 29(16).
75. The New York Times, Mar 5, Dec 16, 1954; Offie to Brown, Mar 13, 1954, IAD-B 32(2).
76. FTUC Financial Accounts, 1954-58.
77. Victor Reuther to Walter Reuther, Feb 6, 1956 (UAW International Department Collection, Reuther-Carliner, 1956-62, 83(24), Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State Univ., Detroit); Lovestone to Meany June 18, Oct 1, 1956, Meany Presidential Papers, 56(11) and (15); Anthony Carew, "Conflict within the ICFTU: anti-Communism and anti-colonialism in the 1950s," International Review of Social History, 41 (1996), 160-171.
78. Lovestone to Deverall, Dec 12, 1957, Victor Reuther Collection, 31(7), Walter Reuther Library.
79. Virginia Tehas to the author, Feb 7, 1996.