AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?

by Kim Scipes

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739135020
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	08/29/2011
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kim Scipes is assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University North Central.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Business Unionism, Samuel Gompers and AFL Foreign Policy
Chapter 2: One Hundred Years of Reaction: From Gompers to Sweeney
Chapter 3: War Within Labor—The Struggle to Build International Labor Solidarity
Chapter 4: The U.S. Government and Labor
Chapter 5: Conclusions, Some Ramifications, and Effects On Sociological Theory

What People are Saying About This

Fred Hirsch

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..

David Nack

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...

Editorial Reviews

This work is an important contribution….provide a rich resource for future activists and scholars who want to explore these histories further or take them on politically in their union….it is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Entrepreneur Media Inc.

While much has been written on this issue over the past 30 years, this work is an important contribution in a number of ways…. It is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Vol. 67 Labour/Le Travail: Journal Of Canadian Labour Studies

While much has been written on this issue over the past 30 years, this work is an important contribution in a number of ways…. It is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Labour/Le Travail

A welcome, overdue, and highly informed expose of U.S. labor imperialism and its nefarious effects both in the "third" or 'developing' world…. Scipes' knowledge of the secondary academic and journalistic literature on American labor's foreign policy record is encyclopedic.

Z-Net Global Research

A welcome, overdue, and highly informed expose of U.S. labor imperialism and its nefarious effects both in the "third" or 'developing' world…. Scipes' knowledge of the secondary academic and journalistic literature on American labor's foreign policy record is encyclopedic.

Znet

A welcome, overdue, and highly informed exposé of U.S. labor imperialism and its nefarious effects both in the...developing world and in the eye of the imperial hurricane—the American homeland…. Scipes' knowledge of the secondary academic and journalistic literature on American labor's foreign policy record is encyclopedic.

Global Research Z-Net

It belongs in every library in the country.

Online Journal

Scipes's approach to this history and the issues arising from it is very clearly linked to and revealing of his many years as a union activist engaged in struggles to build grassroots international solidarity within the US labour movement. AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage? draws from decades of activist work and scholarship that emerged from a number of international solidarity movements within US labour that challenged the AFL-CIO's participation in American imperialist projects. ...The importance and urgency in challenging the AFL-CIO's past and present collaboration with US imperialism arises from the threat it poses to trade unionists globally and the obstacle it creates for those who are working to transform the labour movement locally....While much has been written on this issue over the past 30 years, this work is an important contribution in a number of ways. It offers to current and future labour activists a compendium of the vast array of writing on labour imperialism, as well as the debates on the AFL-CIO's historical record. The endnotes alone provide a rich resource for future activists and scholars who want to explore these histories further or take them on politically in their union. ....It is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Entrepreneur

This work is an important contribution….provide a rich resource for future activists and scholars who want to explore these histories further or take them on politically in their union….it is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Entrepreneur Media - 2011

While much has been written on this issue over the past 30 years, this work is an important contribution in a number of ways…. It is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Labour/Le Travail: Journal Of Canadian Labour Studies

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.

David Nack

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.

Fred Hirsch

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.--David Nack, 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.--Fred Hirsch, Executive Board Member, Plumbers & Fitters Local 393, Delegate to the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Santa Clara and Sa

It belongs in every library in the country.--Online Journal

From the Publisher

This work is an important contribution….provide a rich resource for future activists and scholars who want to explore these histories further or take them on politically in their union….it is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Entrepreneur Media

While much has been written on this issue over the past 30 years, this work is an important contribution in a number of ways…. It is a great resource that should be made accessible to trade union activists and rank-and-file members.

Vol. 67 Labour/Le Travail