AFL-CIO Statement of Principles: We Want a Just and Decent World

By Alan Singer 

Historically, the AFL-CIO has had at best a checkered record with its positions on American foreign policy and its support for broader social justice movements. The history of the AFL-CIO’s role as a junior partner in the U.S. government’s anti-working class activities during the Cold War is documented in Blue-Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade by Jeff Schuhrke (Verso, 2024).

Before merging in 1955, both the AFL and CIO supported purging leftists from the American labor movement and the AFL worked in partnership with the U.S. government’s aggressive efforts to undermine leftwing labor movements around the world. After the merger, the federation promoted its model of business unionism in other countries in an effort to suppress worker militancy and support for left-wing movements. During the 1960s the AFL-CIO supported the U.S. War in Vietnam and provided funds and resources to anti-communist labor groups. These activities continued for the rest of the Cold War era.

On the domestic front, under pressure from HUAC, the CIO expelled left-led unions representing hundreds of thousands of workers. While the union movement broadly supported the African American Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, many unions continued to restrict Black membership and job advancement.

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Source: LAWCHA 

Alan Singer is the director of Secondary Education Social Studies Teaching Learning Technology at Hofstra University and the author of Class-Conscious Coal Miners. Blogs, tweets, essays, and interviews present his views and not those of the university.