THREAT OF LABOR SPLIT LAID TO CIA CASH

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP75-00149R000600460017-1
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
K
Document Page Count: 
1
Document Creation Date: 
November 17, 2016
Document Release Date: 
July 17, 2000
Sequence Number: 
17
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
February 23, 1967
Content Type: 
OPEN
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PDF icon CIA-RDP75-00149R000600460017-1.pdf107.5 KB
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ApprQved For Release 2U/08i'0/CIA-RDP CPYRGHT CPYRGHT n. .rte :i l: '4 L1 iGxC"i'k'y GOg o ::C FOIAb3b .~iy Drew PearsonL and sue reason v. ry re bean 'L CIO lai:or combine is o he verge of breaking up i :: use of Central Intelligent : aaey secretly pumped hit is "In to notional Affairs Do tment." ;'residc?t George lieany ha denied imat the AFL-CIO re ceives CIA money; but it does %u'thermore, p a r t of t h e :;Toney is used to follow for ?'rat of President Johnson: Backstage story of the CI battle inside the labor federa Lion goes back to May 22, whe Victor Reuther, brother of th president of the United Auto mobile Workers and head o he Auto Workers' Interna- tional Affairs Department charged that Central Intelli Bence mosey was "involved" in the Air L-CIO. Victor stated that AFL for cign affairs activities "are vest-pocket operation 'run b J. Lovestone . who seem. to have brought into the labor .movement the working habit a n d undercover technique which he learned when he wa in the highest echelons of the Communist Party. I guess it' ,awfully hard to break thos ha bits:" AFL supporters of Loveston immediately saw red, especial :y Joe Beirne, head of the Communications Workers. Beirne wrote a letter to Mean 'demanding that Victor Reuther the matter to the next AFL- CIO Executive Council, and time Union, opposing it. Invents and leaning more to- ? Meanwhile, Joe Beirne had ward the type of trade union- Victor, countered by asking for a review of all the .lieany- Lovestone foreign policies dur. ing recent years, which in- eluded opposition to cultural exchanges with East European Communist countries and op- position to trade with Russia, ReiltLer Is Slapped At this point it looked as if there might be a bitter cat- nd-dog fight between power- ul labor executives just on he eve of a ? congressional lection 'in which united labor upport was needed for the re-election of liberal Congress. men. So Walter Reuther-report- dly at the suggestion of the Vhite House - approached Ieany with a proposition that he review of AFL-CIO for- ign policy be postponed until fter the November election. %leany agreed. He told Reuth- r to propose such a resolu- ion at the upcoming Execu- ive Council meeting. "I, will, econd it," he said. But at the meeting, held tug. 22, Jay Lovestone pro- osed a surprise resolution vhich endorsed Meany's en- ire foreign policy for the os-twar years. The. vote on the Lovestone esolution was 21 to 2, with my Walter Reuther and Joe ccutive Council attempting to However, llcany called a slap down Victor Reuther's meeting April 8,-1963, after criticism of CIA funds. the 1LO had elected a Polish Beirne particularly defend- Communist as president, and ed the American institute for recommended that the United (Free Labor Development) States not send a delegation (AIFLD), which has spent tensito the 1LO that year. Carey of millions of dollars in Latin America, most of it from the ,CIA since it receives only about $200,000 annually from the AFL CIO and about $280,000 from business execu. tives such as Peter Grace of the Grape steamship lines., Mcany Gets Slapped Earlier, Mieany had. tried to withdraw American support from the International Labor Office because the ILO, with headquarters in Geneva, had elected a Polish president-a Communist. The International Labor Of- fice is the oldest international organization, h a v i'n g been started by the League of Na- tions 20 years before the founding of the United Na- tions. For many years Commu- nist nations boycotted it, but they affiliated in 1945 when the U.N. was created. It' has been the 'opinion of. David Morse, head of the U.S, dele- gation to the ILO, and of Jim Carey, former head 'of the U nit e d Electrical Workers, that the Communist l a b o r vigorously disagreed. In a'showdown vote Carey, won; one . of the few times illeany has been overruled. One of the gripes which the Reuther brothers have against the lieany-Lovestone-CIA for- eign policy is that they swing their weight behind dictator- ships in Latin America and use CIA funds to do so. In the Dominican Republic, lieany was 'dead t~pppsed to President Juan Bosch, and it was AFL-CIO confederates, backed by CIA money either directly or indirectly, who helped to oust Bosch. Later, during the 1966 elec- tion, , Mcany and Lovestone again swung their influence, backed by CIA money, to de-' feat Bosch. In Brazil, AFL-CIO agents, backed by CIA money, helped' overthrow President J o a o Goulart in' 1964. ? 1964. Dell-TlcCiura BYniHcate. Inc. Drew Pearson will predict what the House will do Olt. congressional ethic, as a re- suit of the Powell case at .6.40 p.m, today 'over Radio . unions were becoming morel- WT,OP,, ~; a r, Approved For-Release 2000/08/03 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600460017=1