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CIA, AFL-CIO, and Pinochet

From Kim Scipes
2 December 1998

December 2, 1998

Dear Folks--

I am delighted to hear that the Clinton Administration has decided to release some of the files relating to the tortures and killing of Pinochet (New York Times, December 2, 1998)." But they should fully disclose all of their files not only about events during Pinochet's rule, but for all of the events of which they have knowledge, and I especially refer to events both before and during the coup against the Allende government.

The Times reports that "The secret files on the Pinochet regime are held by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the National Archives, the Presidential libraries of Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, and other governmental agencies."

However, already high-level CIA officials--unidentified, of course--are arguing against such disclosure." In fact, a former CIA official who served in Chile was quoted in theTimes as saying, "The CIA had nothing to do with the coup ... but it wasn't a complete surprise."

As Bill Cosby might say, "Right!"

It's time for a little labor history." This is going to be a little long, since I'm going to try to tie a lot of stuff together." But damn few people know this story, and I think it will be worth following me to the end of this message."

In 1987, the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Union in Berkeley, California published a quite interesting two volume work entitled The Cold War Against Labor, focusing primarily on the period in the late 1940s-early 1950s, but not entirely--they also published some material that was contemporaneous." This, incidentally, was an anthology edited by Ann Fagan Ginger and David Christiano." (Meiklejohn can be reached at P.O. Box 673, Berkeley, CA 94701, USA.)

In Volume 2, there is a fascinating article on pages 723-768 by Fred Hirsch and Virginia Muir, that I recommend highly." The article, told from Fred's perspective, is titled "A Plumber Gets Curious About Exporting McCarthyism."" Fred, at that time, was a plumber and long-time member of Plumbers & Fitters Local 393; Viriginia a member of Local 29, Office and Professional Employees International Union, both affiliated to the AFL-CIO." [AFL-CIO stands for American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations:" this is the result of a 1955 merger between two separate organizations, although some of the CIO unions had been in the AFL before a split in 1935.]" Fred and Virigina lived in San Jose, California." (And although it's been a while since I've seen either of them, Fred and I worked together some in the 1980s to counter the AFL-CIO's international labor operations.)

Fred investigated the coup in Chile after it had taken place, and found that the AFL-CIO had been deeply involved." He presented his evidence to the Santa Clara County Labor Council, and the Labor Council condemned the AFL-CIO role in Chile." This article includes some of Fred's material about AFL-CIO labor activities in Latin America, in Chile and elsewhere.

This is a very detailed and extensive article that is extensively referenced--and I am going to try to summarize it." One word of warning--the article is very long, and to save space, the editors sometimes referred to the same entry several times, so they just referred to the general work and not to specific pages." This will probably irritate some readers, but it's a problem of the editing, not of my citing." This is complex, so you will have to be patient--I need to tell enough to make this comprehensible.

We have to go back to the founding of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in 1919." The "CFR calls itself a 'non-partisan and non-commercial organization studying the international aspects of America's political, economic, strategic and financial problems,' such study leading to 'actions the US or elements in the US should take about particular problems or questions in the world."" [Hirsch & Muir (hereafter, H&M): 728]."

[Kim note:" Although they didn't put it in their article, the CFR is basically the "braintrust" for one wing of the elite, and if my memory serves me correctly, was founded and funded by the Rockefellers." For those of you who know about the Trilateral Commission, the CFR was its US-based predecessor; the Trilateral Commission was basically the CFR, only expanded to the international level.]

According to H&M, "CFR membership is roughly 40% business executives, financiers and corporate lawyers; 20% top media, education, foundation and church people; 16% government, military and intelligence officials; 21% scholars; 2% journalists; and 1% top AFL-CIO men" (H&M: 728-729, based on Lawrence H. Shoup and William Minter, The Imperial Brain Trust." NY:" Monthly Review Press, 1967).

"CFR is unmatched in raw power." Top journalists call it 'the real State Department'." Newsweek says it is 'the foreign policy establishment of the US'." CFR scholars say, 'With access to the most sensitive and highly confidential state secrets, CFR can render "de facto control over the state".'" It is also known as the primary power base of the CIA." (H&M: 729." Sources:" Shoup and Minter; L. Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team:" The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the World." NY:" Ballantine, 1973).

"Council members slide in and out of government." Allen Dulles was on CFR's board for 42 years, moving from a law firm representing I.G. Farben in Nazi Germany to take a sensitive job in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)." He then designed the plan for CIA and became its longest serving director." In rare candor, Henry Kissinger once told CFR leaders, 'You invented me'." [Source:" Newsweek, October 2, 1972: 40.]" That truth also applies to OSS, CIA, AIFLD, State's Agency for International Development (AID), and an array of ex-presidents, presidential candidates, and diplomats' (H&M: 729." Sources:" Albert E. Kahn, The Plot Against the People." Lear Pubs, 1950: 227; Newsweek, October 2, 1972: 40; Shoup & Minter).

[Kim note:" Although the AFL had been active in Latin America since the early 1900s, its efforts had ebbed and flowed." Their first effort was the Pan American Federation of Labor, beginning in 1919, which was US government funded." The PAFL died in 1924, along with Samuel Gompers, who had been instrumental in setting it up.]

After World War II, the AFL set up ORIT, an acronym of the Spanish initials for Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers." The key person was a man named Serafino Romualdi, who had worked in the OSS during the war as well as worked for David Dubinsky, who had become president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in 1932." [Dubinsky was a member of CFR by 1939, and later had people like Jay Lovestone and Irving Brown work for him." Lovestone had the resources of the 500,000 member Jewish Labor Committee and worked with European refugees during and after WW II." They set up the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC), which was the foreign policy arm of the AFL between 1943-1955." Sources:" David Dubinsky and A.H. Raskin, David Dubinsky: " A Life with Labor." NY:" Simon & Schuster, 1977; Max D. Danish, The World of David Dubinsky." World Publsihing, 1957: 270.]

Romualdi got money for his operations in Latin America from the AFL, the FTUC, and some of the money came trhough a numbef of the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) such as the International Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers which "was an ITS formed directly by the CIA." From its start in 1954, the CIA paid salaries in the Secretariat's headquarters, not far from the headquarters of OCAW [Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union-Kim]." ***" For years, OCAW president O.A. Knight quietly received checks for IFPCW use" (H&M: 733." Sources:" Hearings, Committee on Foreign Relations, US Senate, 91st Congress, August 1, 1969; Council on Foreign Relations rosters and by-laws.)

[Kim note:" The ITSs are each an international organization of unions in a particular trade or industry." For example, besides the IFPCW, there the International Metalworkers' Federation (yep-IMF), the International Union of Food and Associated Workers (IUF), and a number more." While some of them have been identified as working with the CIA in the 1950s and '60s, as far as can be ascertained, most never did." The large majority of the ITSs are based in Europe, primarily Geneva and London.]

Hirsch and Muir describe how the money got from the CIA to the ITSs it worked with--this section in the book is headlined:" "CIA->U.S. Foundation->U.S. Union->ITS":" "ITS funds in Latin America largely came from US unions, which received money from a group of sham foundations established as cash conduits by the CIA." This conduit system was exposed in Congress by Representative Wright Patman in 1964, and in 1967 became a national scandal in the major media." The scam was organized by then CIA Director of International Organizations Cord Meyer, Jr. (CFR), reportedly the man who directly supervised Jay Lovestone (H&M: 732." Sources:" Drew Pearson columns, February 16 & 24, 1967; Hearings on the Committee on Foreign Relations, August 1, 1969; Washington Post, February 26, 1967).

"Some cases of CIA funding can be readily substantiated, to the Retail Clerks (now UFCW-United Food and Commercial Workers), Communications Workers (CWA), Newspaper Guild (ANG), Public Workers (AFSCME-American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), Oil and Chemical Workers (OCAW)." We may never know how much money went into CIA-Labor activity, but a well-known columnist pegged it 'around $100,000,000 a year' (H&M: 732." Sources:" William Grieder, Washington Post, May 21, 1969; Paul Jacobs, "How the CIA Makes Liars Out of Union Leaders," Ramparts, May 1967; New York Post, February 24, 1967).

However, due to publicity in 1968, the arrangement through the ITSs was no longer viable and so "A new arrangement was engineered by retired Marine Colonel Ernest Lee (CFR), son-in-law of George Meany, then AFL-CIO president." While ITS money still comes through US affiliate unions, the role of the secret CIA conduit is now taken by AIFLD, which receives its funds from the State Department" (H&M: 732." Sources:" Hearings, Commitee on Foreign Relations, August 1, 1969; Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, US Senate, by Comptroller General of the US, August 4, 1970, pp. 39-44; Senate Foreign Relations Committee press release #66, August 26, 1970).

[Kim note:" AIFLD stands for American Institute of Free Labor Development." AIFLD was one of four AFL-CIO regional based organizations:" there were parallel organizations in Asia and Africa, plus there was the FTUC in Europe." More on AIFLD below.]

Hirsch & Muir then discuss Romualdi's work in Guatemala." Basically, a very tame land reform program initiated by the Guatemalan government that pissed off "the powers that be," so they decided to do something about it." Briefly, "In June 1954, bombers supplied and flown by the CIA, along with Romualdi's workers' group known as the 'liberation army,' attacked the Guatemalan government." After ten days of siege, [Guatemalan President] Arbenz was overthrown and left the country." [Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas-trained Guatemalan Colonel] Castillo Armas took power and put United Fruit back in the saddle, with [AFL, and later AFL-CIO, President George] Meany proclaiming that the AFL 'rejoices over the downfall of the Communist controlled regime" (H&M: 733-744." Source:" Serafino Romualdi, Presidents and Peons." NY: Funk & Wagnal, 1967).

[Kim note:" The training of Latin American military personnel at the School of the Americas/School of the Assassins at Ft. Benning, GA--which has been faced with increasing protests--was previously done in the Panama Canal Zone in Central America, and before that, at Fort Leavenworth." That's what I call a pedigree.]

Although Romualdi tried to stop the revolution in Cuba, he failed." "With the success of the Cuban Revolution, it became clear that ORIT was neither sharp nor strong enough to do what the [transnational corporations] needed." Direct control by AFL-CIO officials seemed to be the answer in Latin America." An instrument for training leaders and molding labor to fit the corporate need came on the agenda--The American Institute for Free Labor Development." AIFLD was not planned by labor representatives, but by government and business consultants." It was designed to serve a corporate establishment bent on expansion abroad in cheap labor havens, where, as in Cuba, people were expressing new demands for national dignity and their rights as workers." Such demands could not be confronted directly, but could be attacked as 'communism' under the new strategy of 'counterinsurgency'.

"AIFLD arose, according to [AIFLD Director William] Doherty's timetable, 'in 1962 after some three years of discussion' about the best structure the AFL-CIO could devise to fit the program laid out in print by the CIA." That program was formulated by an unnamed group and written down by General Richard Stilwell (CFR) and Edward Lansdale (CFR)." It became the primer of counter-insurgency." the two men were known in the highest security circles as 'effective operators ... with, and in support of the CIA' who saw that 'the time had come ... to form a massive paramilitary international power under para-civilian leadership and a monstrous cloak of security' [Source:" Prouty, The Secret Team.]" Various writers have charged and speculated about the CIA ties of AIFLD officials." The truly ominous conclusion is that the US labor movement, with or without knowing cooperation, was used to flesh out a blueprint drawn by the CIA" (H&M: 734-735." Sources:" Hearings, Committee on Foreign Relations, August 1, 1969; Philip Agee, Inside the Company--CIA Diary." NY:" Penguin Books, 1975).

[Kim note:" As folks might remember, I have a special interest in Asia, and especially the Philippines." Beginning in 1946, Ed Lansdale was the brains behind the Philippine government's defeat of the Huk Rebellion in Central Luzon." Afterwards, he was sent to South Viet Nam, where he wasn't quite as successful." Lansdale is identified as "chief of the United States military's intelligence branch in the [Philippines]" in Benedict J. Kerkvliet, The Huk Rebellion:" A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines." Berkeley:" University of California Press, 1977." (My copy is a republication by New Day Publishers in the Philippines, and Lansdale is identified on p. 147--this may or may not agree with the UC Press edition." In Joseph B. Smith's tell-all-from-inside book, Portrait of a Cold Warrior:" Second Thoughts of a Top CIA Agent." NY:" GP Putnam's Sons, 1976, identified Lansdale as a CIA operative, and detailed some of his work in the Philippines and that he then was sent to Viet Nam.]

"The Stilwell-Lansdale program was titled Report of the Special Presidential Committee to Study Training Under the Mutual Security Program," May 15, 1959." ***"

"The monumental attempt to restructure and subordinate nations around the world under CIA direction had nothing to do with planting seeds of democracy." Trade union and government sector work was to interface with a truly sinister reorientation of foreign armed forces to become:

'the only cohesive and relaible non-communist instrument available to fledgling nations...." Those who lead or who are destined to lead must ... acquire qualifications and attributes beyond the crieteria which identify the successful commander in combat...." they represent too great an investment in manpower and money to be restricted to such a limited mission....

'Properly employed, the army can become an internal motor for economic growth and social transformation ... with a high degree of discipline, dedication and political moderation ... [it] will probably, as a unit, accede to the reins of government as the only alternative to domestic chaos and leftist takeover'" [H&M: 736." Source:" Prouty, The Secret Team.]

"The action framework blueprinted by the CIA generals had no precedent in US military thinking." It reflected the thoughts of a prime backer of AIFLD, current chair of CFR, David Rockefeller. ***

"In 1965, George Meany, President of the AFL-CIO and AIFLD, mirrored Rockefeller's thoughts in state the Institute's goal to: 'help the Latin America labor movement become full fledged partners with management and their national governments" [Source:" Proceedings of the sixth Constitutional Convention of AFL-CIO, Vol. II: 108.]" "AIFLD itself stated its corporate aim:" to build unions in which workers 'will be assured of representation [and] need not resort to the more radical means of violence and revolt'." AIFLD seeks to train 'national leadership' for political and social stability on the [transnational corporation] notion that 'true development is dependent upon investment'" [Source:" "A Union to Union Program for the Americas," AIFLD booklet, 1982: 4,5].

"The report turned in by Stilwell and Lansdale was tied down by George Labot Lodge, son of Henry Cabot Lodge, who figured prominently in covert operations from Greece to Viet-nam." Both father and son are leading CFR people." In 1962, George Lodge was Assistant Secretary of Labor under Arthur Goldberg."

Hirsch and Muir then provide some background on Goldberg:" "Goldberg held a union job briefly while studying to be a labor lawyer." he became counsel to the Steel Workers Union, wrote the first anti-Communist clauses into CIO bylaws and hobnobbed with the elite of the Chicago CFR." he landed in the wartime job as chief of the Labor Division of OSS." *** " Before the end of World War II, he was asked to write the legislation needed to create the CIA" (H&M: 737." Sources:" Robert Shaplen, "Profiles", New yorker, April 7, 1962, and Richard Dunlop, Donovan:" America's Master Spy." Rand McNally, 1982.).

"Boosted by Dubinsky and preaching labor-management-government cooperation, Goldberg became Secretary of Labor and used that post to help form a labor/management group that moved AIFLD off the drawingboard, funded openly by the State Department." President Kennedy then lifted Goldberg to the Supreme Court; President Johnson sent him to the United Nations as Ambassador" (H&M: 738).

Back to Lodge:" "Young Lodge produced a unique book on labor foreign affairs, Spearheads of Democracy." *** Lodge preferred to see unions abroad used as 'the first line of defense against communism'." ***" The book was developed in a 19-member CFR study group that include Cord Meyer, the CIA executive who set up covert funding through sham foundations." Two other CFR members who took part in the pre-publication process were Romualdi and Michael Ross, with the AFL-CIO Department of International Affairs" (H&M: 738." Sources:" George Cabot Lodge, Spearheads of Democracy:" Labor in the Developing Countries." NY:" Harper & Row, 1962; Council on Foreign Relations rosters and By-laws; Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets. Pocket Books, 1979).

"Parts of Lodge's book read like an instruction manual for AIFLD." It urges:" use of the international banks to finance special projects, cooperatives and housing; close liaison with the ITSs; establishment of national, regional and US training centers; linking up with exchange visit programs; funding through State's American Institute for Development (AID); working to control peasant movements; coordinating through labor attaches with union 'credentials that will open many doors closed to others'; prohibiting all contacs with unions in socialist countries and tying it all up with backing from the TNC [transnational corporation] giants" (H&M: 739." Source:" Lodge, Spearheads of Democracy)." "All of this became the practice."

"Arthur Goldberg hand carried AIFLD's first $100,000 grant from the President, and put together a Labor Advisory Committee on Foreign Assistance to regulate and assure all future government funds." The group was more than two-thirds government officials." AIFLD then opened its doors in June 1962, and Meany could brag of having 'a working agency of the US government, working with its expenses paid' (H&M: 741." Sources:" Joseph C. Goulden, Meany." Atheneum, 1972; Romualdi, Presidents and Peons; Hearings, Committee on Foreign Relations, August 1, 1969; Comptroller General's report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, August 4, 1970: 39-44; Washington Post, February 26, 1967; Sidney Lens, "American Labor Abroad:" Lovestone Diplomacy," The Nation, July 5, 1965; and Comptroller General Report to Congress, December 29, 1975: 6, 7).

"From that point forward, over 90% of AIFLD money has come from AID." The rest comes from labor sources and contributions from among over 90 of the biggest TNCs on the Institute's list of corporate sponsors." A reasonable estimate of AIFLD expenditures, including its varied projects through the years, would be over $150 million." Pme reason for an estimate, not an exact figure, is Victor Reuther's insistence that pulbished 'AIFLD funds were only the tip of the CIA iceberg'." Meany, discussing the open funds, tried to laugh off the intelligence link with:" 'When you get that kind of money, why do you have to go running to the CIA?' (H&M: 741." Sources:" Victor Reuther, The Brothers Ruether." Houghton Mifflin, 1976; Goulden, Meany; Hearings, Committee on Foreign Relations, August 1, 1969).

"By 1982, 393,481 unionists had been part of this AIFLD training program." Of those, 3,197 had the special treatment in the US." These figures are greater than the number of Latin Americans and Caribbeans trained under US military programs" (H&M: 743." Sources:" "AIFLD:" A Union to Union Program for the Americas," AIFLD booklet, September 16, 1965; Miles Wolpin, "External Political Socialization as a Source of Conservative Military Behavior in the Third World," Studies in Comparative International Development, 1974).

This is, obviously, long, so I will skip the report of AIFLD's involvement in the Brazilian coup of 1964." See H&M:" 746-750."

Let's get down to Chile:" "The destabilization process began in 1970 at the request of IT&T [International Telephone and Telgraph---a major TNC-Kim], when $1.1 billion US corporate bucks were invested in chile." It is a matter of record produced by admissions in Congressional hearings that killing Chile's democracy in 1973 was made possible by external forces." It was done with what richard Bissell (CFR) of CIA clandestine services called, 'A comprehensive effort ... with ... separate operations designed to support and complement one another and to have a cumulatively significant effect'." Those factors were:" gross electoral manipulation, financing the media for propaganda and disinformation, political conspiracy, military connivance, labor penetration, coup de etat, and bloodthirsty cruelty" (H&M: 751." Sources:" "US and Chile During the Allende Years," Hearings, Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Government Printing Office 1975: 302; "The ITT Co. and Chile 1970-71", Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, US Senate, June 21, 1973: 1-20; CFR Study Group Minutes, 1968; "Covert Action in Chile," 1963-1973," Staff Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities, Senate).

"All of this has been documented in other published works." Here we will show some of the work of the AIFLD network in labor penetration.

"In 1970, President Nixon (CFR) ordered his National Security Council to face down Allende's nationalization of IT&T and the copper transnationals [including Kennecott and Anaconda, if I remember correctly--Kim] by making 'the economy scream,' and the AIFLD network began to move seriously." At this time, Robert O'Neill was AIFLD Country Program Director in Chile." His role merits major scruttiny not possible in this section" (H&M: 751." Sources:" Hortensia Allende speech, Yale University, 1975; AIFLD report, April 1975; El Siglo, September 7, 1971).

"AIFLD brought the number of trainees to 8,837 by 1972, with 79 graduated from 'studies' in the US." By early '73, those trained in the US jumped to 108" (H&M: 751." Sources: Eduardo Labarca, "Chile Invadido," Editorial Austral, Chile, 1968; CLASC (Conference Latino Americano de Sindicatas Christianos) Report of Second National Congress (Christian Democratic Party), September 1966; AIFLD Report, Vol. IV, #5, May, 1966.)" [Kim note:" The dates here do not make sense regarding the evidence--I believe these are typographical errors, and that the dates should be 1978, 1976, and 1976, respectively--the AIFLD Report should be checked.]

[AIFLD head since 1965 William] "Doherty has denied activity in Chile during the Allende period." What do AIFLD records and contracts reveal?" Coordination and subcontracting with seven ITSs in that period." Funds were supplied by the State Department and dispensed to the ITSs through appropriate US unions, i.e.:

*" International Transport Federation (ITF) thorugh the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks (BRAC)

*" Postal, Telephone & Telegraph International (PTTI) though Communication Workers of America (CWA)

*" International Federation of Petroleum & Chemical Workers (IFPCW) funded directly, but with with Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers (OCAW), Glass Bottle Blowers, and Sailors International Union (SIU)

*" International Federation of Commercial, Clerical & Technical Workers (FIET-French initials) through Retail Clerks International (RCIA-now UFCW)

*" International Federation of Free Teachers Unions (IFFTU) through the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

*" Inter-American Federation of Textile, Garment & Leather Workers (FITITUC) through Textile Workers of America (now part of Textile & Garment Workers [which has since merged into ACTWU and since then, UNITE, if my memory is correct-Kim]

*" Inter-American Federation of Entertainment Workers (FITE) through the American Federation of Musicians (AFM)" (H&M: 751-752." Source:" Letters and Reports to Regional Operations Division, Department of State, signed by Angelo Verdu, on AIFLD stationary, August 10, 1973).

"Some of these organizations, using government funds through AIFLD, worked in Chile to promote destabilizing political strikes that occurred among truckowners, shopkeepers, textile workers and among professioanls in the mines, banks and Chile's national airline, LAN CHILE." ***

"In a poor country with a thriving black market, the millions of dollars spent to promote strikes went a long way." Ray Cline (CFR) of State Department Intelligence said some of the cash 'was intended for financial support of small businessmen and truckers'" (H&M: 752." Sources:" George Morris, CIA and American Labor." NY: International Publishers, 1967; Goulden, Meany; BRAC report, Section A, April-June 1973, No. 1 (SG); Interviews with Anibal Severino and Rodolfo Ortega in June 1975; AIFLD report to Department of State, September 10, 1973, submitted by Gerald O'Keefe, Director of International and Foreign Affairs for RCIA, Section D: 3, Organizing Programs; NACLA news release (mimeo), November 1973; and Chilean Christian Democratic Party document, December 31, 1971).

"The new military junta immediately outlawed the CUT [the labor center with a membership of 2 million covering 90% of the workforce-Kim from H&M: 752] (and 1,279 unions in Santiago alone) and attempted to form a new national body CNT." Wenecslao Moreno, one of Romualdi's first contacts in Latin America, was reported 'in the highest rank of leadership in the effort to replace the CUT'." The report also said Moreno was 'identified as a CIA agent" (H&M: 753." Source:" Chile Boletin, #6, December 1-7, 1973, Files of Casa de Chile, Mexico: 8).

"Alfredo Montecinos, President of COMACH (Chilean Maritime Confederation) was taken to a concentration camp because COMACH had become too militant under his CUT-oriented leadership and had fallen away from AIFLD." The military replaced Monecinos with Eduardo Rios, who went on to become a prime speaker abroad for the junta and was praised as 'heroic and very positive' by Pinochet's subsecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." He was introduced as a visitor to the 1975 AFL-CIO convention" (H&M: 753." Source:" El Mecurio, July 7, 1974, CUT Boletin Informativoi #2, June 6, 1974).

"Within four months of seizing power, the junta led by General Augusto Pinochet killed 20,000 and jailed 30,000, many of whom suffered unspeakable torture." William Colby (CFR), then head of the CIA, siad the junta's executions did 'some good' in reducing the danger of civil war" (H&M: 753." Sources:" Le Nouvel Observateur, March 4, 1974: 82; Victor Marchetti and John Marks, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence." Dell, 1974: 19).

"What other government officials and corporate leaders on the CFR list were involved with the intervention in Chile?

*" Henry Kissinger, National Security Advisor

*" Melvin Laird, Secretary of Defense

* William Rogers, Secretary of State

* Edward Korry, US Ambassador to Chile until 1971

* Charles Meyer, Assistant to Kissinger

* Richard Nixon, US President

* John McCone, Director of IT&T [and if memory serves me correctly, a former director of CIA--Kim]

* Harold Geneen, President, IT&T

* Vicron P. Vaky, Assistant Secretary of State--Latin America

* Richard Helms, CIA

* William Colby, CIA

* J. Peter Grace [Grace had been identified earlier in the article--see exerpt below-Kim]

* Juan Trippe, former President, Panama

* Ray S. Cline, State Department Intelligence [and if memory serves correctly, Cline was involved in the Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba, in Viet Nam and Southeast Asia; Samuel Del Rosario identified him as a former CIA deputy director, who worked with retired US General John Singlaub, Chairman of the World Anti-Communist League, in the Philippines beginning in October 1986, and this was part of the "Low Intensity Conflict" strategy implemented which used death squads--and I've included in my book on the KMU Labor Center of the Philippines (Kim Scipes, KMU:" Building Genuine Trade Unionism in the Philippines, 1980-1994." Quezon City, Metro Manila, 1996: 54; and Cline also was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal--Kim]

* Deanne R. Hinton, National Security Council on International Economic Policy

* Timothy Stanley, IT&T

* Ralph A. Dungan, US Ambassador to Chile until 1970

* Arnold Nachmanoff, Snior Adviser on Latin American Affairs

* Jack Kubisch, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, 1973

* Nathaniel Davis, US Ambassador to Chile, 1973

* Thomas Mann and McGeorge Bundy, Interdepartmental Commission to Manage Chilean Elections" (H&M: 753-754." Source:" Names taken from various Congressional Hearings on Chile, cross-checked with CFR Rosters.]

[Material on J. Peter Grace, Chair of the Board, W.R. Grace Co.:" "Grace is a leader of the US Council of the International Chamber of Commerce." He is also president of the 1,000 member US branch of the highly secret Catholic society, the Knights of Malta, a group liberally sprinkled with CIA and CFR people:" William Donovan, World War II head of OSS; William Casey, Reagan's CIA Director; Alexander Haig; William Simon and William F. Buckley." It also includes Jeremiah Denton, a most dedicated anti-union Senator, and a supporter of AIFLD funding" (H&M: 741-742." Source:" San Jose Mercury, Janaury 10, 1980: 10-E).

["Grace's company has shifted from Latin American trade into chemicals." By 1980, the biggest stockholder was the Frick Group of West Germany, which grew fat financing the Nazis and taking over Jewish-owned enterprises" (Source:" San Jose Mercury, Janaury 10, 1980: 10-E)." "A top executive in his German subsidiary is Otto Ambrose." J. Peter Grace wrote of his 'deep admiration' for Ambrose in a letter recommending him for a visa for this country." Ambrose had an entry problem based on his war-time position in I.G. Farben at Auschwitz death camp and ran all poson gas operations" (H&M: 742." Source:" San Jose Mercury, Janaury 10, 1980: 10-E)." The usually talkative Grace has evaded reporters' questions on the matter.

[After 19 years on the AIFLD board, Grace resigned to become President Reagan's chief cost cutter, to slash even bigger holes in the safety net of social legislation" (H&M: 742).]

"The original junta was composed of military men long and intimately tied to the US military." Pinochet had been military attache in Washington for ten years and had been trained extensively at our Ft. Gulik in Panama." By 1973, some 4,000 Chilean officers were trained in US military assistance programs." The importance of such contact was outlined in 1971 by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird (CFR):" 'It is important for us to bear in mind that the military is the only cohesive group in many countries in Latin America... they are very important" (H&M: 754." Sources:" "Training Programs for Foreign Military Personnel:" The Pentagon Proteges," NACLA Latin America and Empire Report, Vol. X, No. 1, January 1976; US Labor Lawyers' Delegation to Nicaragua, "Are Nicaragua's Trade Unions Free?" A Response to the American Institute of Free Labor Development (AFL-CIO) Report, 'Nicaragua, A Revolution Betrayed:" Free Labor Persecuted'," December 1984." Excerpt in Congrssional Record--House, April 8, 1985, #2188-2189.

Folks--that's it." It's enough--and yet I cut a lot out of the Hirsch and Muir article." I refer you to the original.

I have NOT researched this material myself, so I cannot vouch for its accuracy--I am merely exerpting from the original article." But I've given you, my readers, the citations provided by the authors so you can check out the original sources." I would love to have any verifications you can find.

Three more things before ending:"

(1) As the authors' clearly state on pp. 739 and 740, the rank and file members of the various unions named, and throughout the AFL-CIO, did not know about these foreign policy operations." These efforts took place at very high levels in the AFL-CIO hierarchy.  And officials have made extensive efforts to hide these activities from rank and file members.

(2)" Since John Sweeney has taken over the presidency of the AFL-CIO, beginning in 1995, his Administration has made major efforts to clean out all of the "cold warriors" that had gathered in the Department of International Affairs, and I've been told that they had done away with AIFLD and its sister organizations in Africa and Asia, bringing foreign operations under centralized control." But I argue that's not enough:" I believe that the AFL-CIO must make available a public document that details ALL of their international operations (including those of the AFL and/or CIO) since at least 1919." Without doing that, this history that has affected so many people around the world, will be lost, and could revive again in the future." I think they could make a major step forward by voluntarily coming forth with all the details from their archives concerning events before and after the coup in Chile, and make that available to the British and Spanish judges that are ruling in Pinochet's case--but they should release the information in any case.

(3)" A little about my background:" I am a former printer, high school teacher, and office worker, and have been a rank and file member of the Graphic Communications International Union, AFL-CIO; the National Education Association; and the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.  I have been a long-time activist in the labor, international solidarity, anti-plant closures, anti-nuclear weapons, and veterans movements in the US. I am currently a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

My published articles on AFL-CIO foreign operations include "Trade Union Imperialism in the US Yesterday:  Business Unionism, Samuel Gompers and AFL Foreign Policy," Newsletter of International Labor Studies [The Hague, Netherlands] Nos. 40-41, January-April 1989: 4-20; "Book Review:  Workers of the World Undermined:  American Labor's Role in US Foreign Policy by Beth Sims," Z Magazine, November 1993: 61-62; "The AFL-CIO Meddles in the Philippines," The Progressive, November 1989: 33; and "AFL-CIO's International Bulletin is Sophisticated Misinformation," Labor Notes, January 1987: 15.  Additionally, in my book on the KMU Labor Center of the Philippines (citation above--available in North America thorugh Sulu Arts and Books in San Francisco), I detail efforts by the largest union of the labor center that works with the AFL-CIO (the Associated Labor Unions of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines) to break a KMU union and this involved collaboration with death squads--see pp. 116-125.  (Between 1983-1988, the TUCP received over $5.7 million from the AFL-CIO's Asian-American Free Labor Institute, and this was greater than that sent to any other labor center in the world by the AFL-CIO according to the journal International Labour Reports.)