Editor's note: The AFL-CIO is the leading labor union umbrella organization in the United States.
In April 2002, following a general strike led by oil company management and collaborating labor union leaders in Venezuela, parts of the Venezuelan military launched a coup to remove democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez Frias from office. After physically removing Chavez from the presidential palace in Caracas, Miraflores, the head of the national business confederation, FEDECAMARAS, Pedro Carmona, was sworn into office.1
In response, literally millions of Venezuelans swarmed to Miraflores, surrounding the palace, protesting the coup. Faced with the widespread public opposition, frustrated by loyal military forces who supported President Chavez, and condemned by heads of state across Latin America, the coup attempt collapsed. Chavez was returned to Miraflores, unharmed, where he resumed his duties as head of state2 (Ellner and Rosen, 2002).
Because of the apparent connection between the oil workers' union--the key union of the labor center Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV in Spanish) and whose leader, Carlos Ortega, was the president of the CTV--and the coup attempt, and the long-standing ties between the CTV and the US labor center, the AFL-CIO, questions have risen about possible involvement of the AFL-CIO in the coup attempt.
This article addresses the question of possible AFL-CIO involvement in the coup attempt, trying to confirm or deny any possible involvement. To do this, the paper proceeds in the following directions: (A) it discusses the AFL-CIO's foreign policy program and its history of foreign interventions; (B) it considers evidence of the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center staff activities in Venezuela prior to the coup attempt, and the coup attempt itself; (C) reports AFL-CIO statements as well as others' concerning the coup attempt that followed, and subsequent analyses of the coup and US involvement; and (D) it answers the question as to whether the AFL-CIO, through its Solidarity Center, was involved in the 2002 coup attempt. To this task, we now turn.
A. AFL-CIO's Foreign Policy Program
Before we can consider possible involvement of the AFL-CIO in the 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt, we must first consider any foreign policy it may have established: if the AFL-CIO has no history of foreign involvement, then obviously it was unlikely to be involved. However, if it has such a foreign policy program, then the possibility of such involvement is more likely to be substantiated.
Although not generally known by union members as it has been consciously hidden by its leaders, the AFL-CIO actually has a long-time foreign policy program that goes back to the days of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) during the 19-teens under then-president, Samuel Gompers. And, in fact, much of this foreign policy program--during Gompers' time but also since 1962--has been carried out in Latin America [among others, see Morris, 1967; Hirsch, 1974, n.d; Scott, 1978; Spaulding, 1984; Scipes, 1989; Andrews, 1991; Sims, 1992; Scipes, 2000, 2004a, 2005a, b).
This foreign policy program has been initiated and carried out behind the backs of American workers, although "in our name." The AFL-CIO has long been known to carry out a reactionary labor program around the world. It has been unequivocally established that they have worked to overthrow democratically-elected governments, have collaborated with dictators against progressive labor movements, and have supported reactionary labor movements against progressive governments (Scipes, 2000: 12; Shorrock, 2002, 2003; see, among others, Snow, 1964; Morris, 1967; Radosh, 1969; Scott, 1978; Spaulding, 1984; Barry and Preusch, 1986; Cantor and Schor, 1987; Weinrub and Bollinger, 1987; Armstrong, et. al., 1988; Sims, 1992; Scipes, 1996; Carew, 1998; Nack, 1998; and Buhle, 1999).
And while the AFL-CIO's regional organization, AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development), was especially known for its involvement in events leading to the 1973 coup in Chile (Hirsch, 1974, n.d.; Scipes, 2000; Shorrock, 2003), what is less well known is it's long-standing ties with the Venezuelan CTV. In fact, according to labor journalist Lee Sustar,
Venezuela--a key focus of U.S. foreign policy since the oil boom of the 1920s--became Washington's counterweight to the Cuban Revolution of 1959. The headquarters of the AFL-CIO-initiated Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) was moved to Caracas. In 1962, Venezuela was the linchpin of the AFL-CIO's newly launched American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD); the AIFLD board included both the AD leader Betancourt and his COPEI counterpart, Rafael Caldera. Next, in the mid-1960s, the AFL-CIO even provided funding for a CTV-owned bank. AIFLD chief Serafino Romualdi, later alleged to have been a CIA agent, called his relationship with Betancourt "the most fruitful political collaboration of my life." Romualdi helped engineer the expulsion of the Communist Party and other leftists from the CTV; elsewhere, AIFLD collaborated with the CIA and the State Department to undermine or overthrow Latin American governments opposed to the U.S. (Sustar, 2005; 3 see also Hirsch, 2005).
In other words, not only has the AFL-CIO had a long-standing foreign policy program, it long has been active in Latin America, and especially in Venezuela.
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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