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Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Labor Series Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Labor Series THOMAS R. DONAHUE Interviewer: James F. Shea and Don R. Kienzle Initial interview date: April 9, 1997 opyright 1999 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS The Free Europe ommittee in Paris, France 1957-1960 Program Officer and Liaison Officer for Eastern and entral European )nions in Exile International enter of Free Trade )nionists in Exile Funding of the ommittee Free Europe Exile ,elations Division Evaluation Service Employees International )nion, Local .2 0, 1e2 3or4 ity 0est and ompany Department Store, Elevator Operator 1957-1959 Local .2 0 Employee, 1959-1956 Family 0ac4ground and Education 6anhattan ollege 1e2 3or4 )niversity, 7raduate Student, Labor Economics Fordham )niversity, La2 Degree, 1956 Irish 0ac4ground Service Employees International )nion 1960-19.7 Executive Assistant to National President Dave Sullivan 6ove to 8ashington 196. Executive Secretary 1969-1971 First 9ice-President 1971-197. International Trade Secretariats Labor Department, Assistant Secretary for Labor-6anagement ,elations 1967-1969 AFL- IO 197.-1995 Positions Held Executive Assistant to AFL- IO President 6eany 197.-1979 Secretary-Treasurer 1979-1995 1 President 1995 International Affairs Department 6i4e ,oss :ay Lovestone Ernie Lee Irving 0ro2n Tom Kahn 7eorge 6eany<s ,ole in International Labor Affairs International Labor Organization International onfederation of Free Trade )nions Inter-American ,egional Organization of 8or4ers (O,IT) Influence of David Dubins4y and 6ott 8oll Lane Kir4land<s role in International Labor Affairs International Labor Issues South Africa 8or4ers< ,ights Issues 7eneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (7ATT) 1orth American Free Trade Agreement (1AFTA) 6exican onfederation of Labor 7eneralized System of Preference (7SP) and onditionality 6ost Favored 1ation (6F1) Status and hina The 7erman onfederation of Labor Former ommunist )nions in Easter and entral Europe AFL- IO Labor Assistance Institutes and ).S. 7overnment Funding Labor AttachA Program and its role in American Foreign Policy INTERVIEW Shea: Good afternoon. I am Jim Shea. It&s the afternoon of April 9, 1997, and we are here in the office of Tom Donahue, the former President *and earlier Secretary- Treasurer, of the AF-- I. *American Federation of -abor- ommittee for Industrial .rganization,, who is now wor0ing for the enter for Dispute Resolution. Tom, can we as0 you to tell us a little about your bac0ground, especially your connections with international labor. DO1AH)E: Sure. I have 2or4ed in the labor movement since 195C and became involved relatively early on 2ith the Labor AttachA Program and 2ith people 2ho 2or4ed in international affairs, because I spent three years, from 1957 to 1960, 2or4ing in Paris. I 2or4ed for ,adio Free Europe and the Free Europe ommittee in Paris and conseDuently came to have an interest in 2hat 2as going on in the international labor 2orld and in the Labor AttachA Program. In my early years in the movement, I 4ne2 lots of people, many of them 2ere just names 2 to me but they 2ere names of some reputation, 2ho 2ere going into the labor attachA field in the late 1950s and 1950s. Then, through the years, 2or4ing for the Service Employees International )nion (SEI)) and later for the Federation (AFL- IO), I had a lot of ongoing contact 2ith people 2ho 2or4ed in the Labor AttachA orps all around the 2orld. I have al2ays been interested in it, and I have al2ays lamented the fact that it has by no2 become a fully career Foreign Service group of people. I thought that the early concept of the program of dra2ing from the labor movement people 2ho had experience in labor 2as a sound concept. I 2ished al2ays that that system of the ,eserve EForeign ServiceF Officer could have continued. It is obviously impractical for a lot of other reasons, but it had great virtues in putting into the Labor AttachA Program, as it did in those early years, a group of people 2ho 2ere already 4no2ledgeable about the labor movement in the )nited States and conseDuently had some standard or a sense of the mission of the labor movement by 2hich they could judge 2hat 2as going on in the labor movements of foreign countries. Kienzle: 1ere you involved in the early years in assignments of people from the labor movement into the Labor Attach2 Program3 DO1AH)E: No. I didn<t go to the AFL- IO until 197., and my early career 2as 2ith the Service Employees )nion. 7eorge 6eany didn<t as4 other people outside the AFL- IO to comment on the assignments. 0ut I 4ne2 a number of the labor attachAs, and since I 2as very young 2hen I started 2or4ing in 195C, these people 2ere largely my heroes. They 2ere people 2hom I loo4ed up to. In revie2ing the list of people you have intervie2ed, I see a number of names there from the earliest years of the program of people for 2hom I had enormous respect. Shea: 1ho was the Labor Attach2 in Paris at that time3 DO1AH)E: 8hen I 2as there in 1957 I thin4 it 2as Dan Horo2itz. At that point he had an assistant. I can<t remember 2hat his name 2as. Shea: Did you travel to Italy during those years and did you 0now Tom Lane at that time3 DO1AH)E: I did. 6y role in ,adio Free Europe and the Free Europe ommittee 2as as the program officer and liaison officer for the Eastern European and entral European unions in exile. They had a headDuarters in Paris. The Force .uvri4re had given them space in their offices on Avenue du 6aine in Paris, and the International enter of Free Trade )nionists in Exile, I FT)E, existed at that point. I 2or4ed 2ith all of those entral European exiles and conseDuently traveled all over 8estern Europe and 2as in contact 2ith a number of labor attachAs 2ho 2or4ed in the area. Kienzle: Paul Bergman would have been the Assistant Labor Attach2 in Paris at that time. DO1AH)E: Paul 0ergman, right. 3 Kienzle: ould you describe in a little more detail your wor0 with Radio Free Europe, because that certainly is relevant to the international labor function. DO1AH)E: The International enter of Free Trade )nionists in Exile had been established, I guess, sometime in the early 1950s, in 1952 or 195., 2ith the assistance of the I FT) and Force .uvri4re, and the people 2ho had made it up 2ere the national representatives of each of the countries in exile. It had its headDuarters in Paris. The president of it 2as a man named Francise4 0ialas, 2ho had been the leader of the social security 2or4ers in Poland during the pre-2ar period and immediately after 8orld 8ar II. The Secretary-Treasurer 2as a man named Arno Heis, 2ho 2as a zechoslova4 trade unionist living in exile. Essentially the Free Europe ommittee provided financial support to the I FT)E to enable them to publish their national journals, 2hich they did and to publish trade union studies of conditions in their home countries and to publicize those conditions in the 8est. onseDuently, I had ongoing contact every couple of days or every 2ee4 2ith these people and 2ith their programs. Additionally, I served as a 4ind of liaison bet2een the Free Europe ommittee and the I FT), the exile organizations and the AFL- IO. So I used to travel up to 0russels freDuently and meet 2ith 6r. Oldenbroe4 at that time and then 2ith his successor. Shea: 1as that .tto Kersten3 DO1AH)E: It 2as before Kersten. It 2as Oldenbroe4, I guess. It 2as probably Oldenbroe4 all the 2hile. He and 0ialas 2ere great buddies. He had great respect for 0ialas. It<s funny I just came from the memorial service for Al Shan4er, Ethe late President of the American Federation of TeachersF, 2here I sa2 Stefan Nejins4i and 2e 2ere tal4ing about those early years. I remember 0ialas al2ays used to say to me, GDo you 4no2 Stefan Nejins4iHI And I said, J1o, I don<t.J Stefan had just then been appointed an Assistant Secretary of the PTTI EPostal, Telegraph and Telephone InternationalF. He said, GHe<s a splendid man, splendid man.I I never see Stefan that I don<t thin4 of Gsplendid man.I He drummed it into me. JHe 2as a splendid man.J He 2as a fello2 Pole obviously. Kienzle: 1ho funded the Free Europe ommittee3 DO1AH)E: In those years, 2e said it 2as funded by Jyour truth dollars.J The advertisement for ,adio Free Europe 2as, G3our dollar buys a minute of truth behind the Iron urtain.I In more recent years, it has been revealed that there 2as government funding. It 2as IA fundingKor supplemental fundingKfor the Free Europe ommittee. Kienzle: 1as that a private organization3 DO1AH)E: Oh, it 2as a totally private organization. Kienzle: It wasn7t connected with the I FT83 4 DO1AH)E: No. It 2as a private American organization, 2hich 2as the official sponsor of ,adio Free Europe. It had three divisions: ,adio Free Europe, Free Europe Press, 2hich 2as producing printed materials for dissemination behind the Iron urtain, and the Free Europe Exile ,elations Division, 2hich 2as 2here I 2or4ed and 2here 2e funded and assisted exile organizations to put them in contact 2ith their counterparts in the 8estern 2orld and to enable them to tell their story in the 8estern 2orld. Kienzle: 1as Irving Brown involved3 DO1AH)E: Irving 2as in Paris in those days, and of course I 2ent to see Irving Duite freDuently and chatted 2ith him. It seems to me that during that time, probably sometime in 195C or 1959, Irving came bac4 to the )nited States and 2as in Ne2 3or4 setting up the African-American Labor enter and representing the AFL- IO at the )1.
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