LOVESTONE'S AID PROGRAM BOLSTERS U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820018-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 17, 2014
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: January 2, 1966
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT WA cr-TTNTrTrIKT T)sr1C1`
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820018-8
&A
?
[Labor's 'Cold Warrior?IV
vest
olsters.
JAN 2 1966
Last in a scries
By Dan Kurzman
WaShingtOn Post Staff Writer
Jay Lovestone, the powerful
director of AFL-CIO overseas
operations, is helping to open
;ate a trade union aid prOgram
in Latin, America and else-
where to to fight communism and
win support from international
!labor for United States foreign
: This program is consistent
!with his double-edged effort
;to push for a tougher U.S.
cold war policy on the one
;hand, and for conformity with
'U.S. policy by , foreign, par-
ticularly Latin,. labor on the
;other.
LOvestone, who at one time
:headed the American Com-
munist Party, wields substan-
tial control over the staunchly
'anti- communist Inter- Amer
can Regional Organization
`(ORIT). But this control is di-
:lilted by the voices of labor
leaders from other nations.
This limitation of power,
however, has been offset ? in
'part by the establishment of
strictly U.S.-operated Amer--
:can Institute for Free Labor.
iDevelopment (AIFLD).
/U.S. Backed
The AIFLD is a nonprofit
',:institute backed by the AFL-
:CIO, almost 60 U.S. business
:firms, and the U.S.. govern-
ment. The Government
. through the Agency for Inter-
national Development (AID),
:finances or guarantees about
,80 per cent of the program.
The Institute has two main
official functions: training La-
;lin American labor leaders in
;democratic ,unionism and fi-
?
WILLIAM C. DOHERTY JR.
complains of red tape
nancing social projects for
workers?mainly housing and
community centers.
Defenders of the Institute
point out that its educational
program .has so far reached
some 30,000 people, including
almost 400 graduates from a
training school in Washington
and about 2000 graduates of
13 regional schools.
The AIFLD has completed
a $10-million, 3100-unit work-
ers' housing project in Mexi-
co, and a few hundred houses
in Honduras. It has set up a
Workers' Housing Bank in
Lima, Peru, did spent some
$60 million on "impact"
projects such as food distribu-
tion and laundry cooperatives.
. Nevertheless, people close
to the AIFLD- say that its an-
nounced program is suffering
rogr
orei
from a preoccupation with its
unannounced activity ? intel-
ligence gathering.?
At least some persons work
ing- for the organization, in-
formed sources said, have
been asked to cooperate with
the Central Intelligence Agen-
cy. They are told, as one in-
formant put it, that "Latin
America's social revolution
must be diverted into proper
channels."
Some time, ago, the AIFLD
communicated with a certain
Michigan Fund about the
availability of funds. However.
the connection was severed
after Rep. Wright Patman (D-
Tex.) charged that this Fund
supplied the J. M. Kaplan
Fund of New York, which he
said was a CIA organ, With
nearly $1 million from 1961 to
1963.
Some Institute employes
express concern that AIFLD
engrossment , in intelligence
matters at the expense of 'social
development ? activities has
made more enemies than
friends among Latin American
workers.
Lovestone's . chief AIFLD
lieutenant, bluff, energetic
Director William C. Doherty,
Jr., says that delays in his so-
cial development program are
due mainly to the red tape
involved in obtaining U.S.
government housing loans.
Blasts From Up High
Criticism nevertheless has
come from some high sources.
At a meeting in September
of the Labor Advisory Com-
mittee on Foreign Assistance,
which embraces top U.S. gov!
. '
lie
-
ernment and labor officials,
Jack H. Vaughn, Assistant
Secretary of State for Inter-
American ? Affairs, was one
such critic.
Vaughn said US. Pmba ss a -
dors and mission directors he
had met on a recent trip to
Latin America, indicated that
the social projects program
was in trouble in a number of.
countries because of over-,
pro moti o n, admindstrativel
weaknesses, and failure to co-
ordinate activities with the
U.S! Embassy.
AFL-CIO President George
11/leany himself said at the
same Meeting that he; too, was,
troubled by the AIFLD's per-
fOrmance.
Meanwhile, criticism has
poured in from Latin America.
Leaders of four Argentine
unions, who were promised,
amidst great fanfare, a. $10-
million housing project in
April, 1984 are still waiting
for the first house to be built.
Doherty has replied that the
problem of inflationary costs
had held up the program, not
a very satisfactory answer to
either the workers or to some
Americans close to the pro-
gram.
Costa Rica Row
In Costa Rica, where a $1.2-
million housing program is
being contemplated, the press
has been strongly critical of
the AIFLD for trying to im-
pose "unjust" conditions. The
AIFLD says that it, and .not
the Costa Ricans, must decide
who will get the houses. It is
also requiring an interest rate
?
V
-????,-T?
Continued
neclassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/17 : CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820018-8