University of Bath PHD Labour imperialism or democratic internationalism? U.S. trade unions and the conflict in El Salvador and Nicaragua, 1981-1989 Sweeney, Sean Award date: 1990 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 08. Oct. 2021 Labour Imperialism or Democratic Internationalism? U.S. Trade Unions and the Conflict in El Salvador and Nicaragua, 1981-1989 Submitted by Sean Sweeney for the degree of PhD of the University of Bath 1990 COPYRIGHT 'Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author1. UMI Number: U050B88 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U050B88 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 For my late brother, Peter ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I thank my supervisor at the University of Bath, Dr. Frank Longstreth, for the many hours he worked with me on this thesis. From the start he made me feel that the subject I was pursuing was an important one. For its financial assistance and helpful staff, I thank the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). For their advice and encouragement during the early months, I thank Ian Roxborough (London School of Economics), Robin Cohen (University of Warwick), James Dunkerley and Richard Southall. I am doubly grateful to Peter Waterman (Institute for Policy Studies, the Hague). Peter's work in (and enthusiasm for) the area of workers' internationalism helped give this research a particular focus. Moreover, Peter provided many leads and ideas. I am particularly indebted to Hobart A. Spalding of Brooklyn College, both for his invaluable research in the field of AFL-CIO involvement in Latin America, and for his friendship and constructive advice which began from the moment I first arrived in New York. Robert Armstrong, author and formerly a leading figure in the North American Congress of Latin America (NACLA) and NACLA editor Mark Fried were of enormous assistance during this period. i In terms of gathering material, providing office space and sharing thoughts and insights, I am grateful to David Dyson, director of the political action department (Union Label) of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) and coordinator of the National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador. David's trust and cooperation, as well as his files, collections of letters, etc., profoundly affected the character and shape of this thesis. Daniel Cantor, his partner at ACTWU, deserves similar appreciation. Their contribution to this work is truly immeasurable. Other U.S. trade union activists, officials, and commentators who offered advice and assistance include Barbara Briggs, Larry Drake, Debbie Duke, Denys Everingham, Mike Finlay, Hank Frundt, Stanley Gacek, Paul Garver, Ernesto Jofre, Jim Kaplan, Amy Newell, David Slaney, Jane Slaughter, Fred Soloway, A1 Weinrub and, in particular, Charles Kernaghan. Trade unionists from Central America working in the U.S., particularly Francisco Acosta and Jose Pena in the Washington D.C. offices of the National Federation of Salvadoran Workers (FENASTRAS), were also helpful. This thesis makes many criticisms of the American Institute For Free Labor Development (AIFLD). However, it's officers and staff made available to me numerous documents, obscure articles, old Institute publications, etc., and I am grateful for their time and effort even though they may view the outcome as somewhat less than satisfactory. AIFLD*s consultant, Dr. William Douglas, deserves a special mention. There are many people and organisations who, because of their political, journalistic and academic work concerning Nicaragua and El Salvador, made it possible for me to develop a firm understanding of the situation in those countries and to stay in touch with day to day developments. William Bollinger*s remarkably deep knowledge of the Salvadoran labour movement warrants special note, as does A1 Weinrub and colleagues who worked on the Labor Report on Central America in Oakland, California. For their helpful advice and timely interventions to prevent computer-related disasters, I am deeply grateful my close friends Linda Hall and Nigel Cammann, and to Steve Meacham and Marguerite Lucia Scholar. I would like to thank my friends and colleagues at the Institute of Applied Social Science at the Hofstra University campus at District 65, United Auto Workers, in New York City: Bonnie Borenstein, Ellen Gurzinsky, Bonnie Johnson, Dr. Barbara Joseph, Roanna Judelson, Bob Kirkman, Rick Pieto and Karen Wagner. As for my students, working adults and members of the UAW, I thank you all for your love and openness, and for giving me an education. My partner Susan Kraft, despite her own trials and struggles, has been a true friend and inspiration throughout. My gratitude to her extends beyond words. Finally, a word for iii friends and family who did not live to see the completion of this work, namely Diane Jackson, fellow postgraduate at the University of Bath, Sonya Kraft, Selma Cohn, and my brother Peter, to whom this work is dedicated. iv ABSTRACT This thesis is an empirical study of a conflict within U.S. labour during the 1980s over U.S. Government and trade union policy towards Nicaragua and El Salvador. It demonstrates how the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO) actively supported U.S. Government objectives in these two countries by providing political and financial support for anti-Sandinista unions in Nicaragua and moderate unions in El Salvador. It shows how this type of trade union intervention (which some commentators have termed "labour imperialism") has had a serious impact in Central America and in numerous other locations historically. As the 1980s progressed, trade union opposition to U.S. foreign policy increased. With it came a challenge to the AFL- CIO' s "democratic internationalism." This thesis pays particular attention to the form, method and ideology (or, rather, ideologies) of this challenge and how it was spearheaded by activists and lower-level union officials, many of whom had been part of the 1960s anti-war movement. It shows how an alternative internationalism emerged from a network of "anti-intervention" committees and caucuses who forged links with the pro-Sandinista v unions and the left unions in El Salvador. This thesis argues that the serious proportions of this conflict can be attributed to the collapse of the Keynesian '*social pact" between U.S. business, government, and organised labour which had hitherto sustained the AFL-CIO1s active "Cold War unionism." The political and economic attacks on U.S. unions, and the changed structural relationship of U.S. workers to the world economy, has altered the perceptions of many in the U.S. labour movement regarding the role of the U.S. Government, the multinational corporations and the significance of challenges to U.S. hegemony abroad. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Volume I Acknowledgements...............................................i Introduction................................................... 1 Table of Acronyms (by category)................................59 ChapterOne.................................................... 6 6 The Controversy of AFL-CIO Foreign Policy: Democratic Internationalism or Trade Union Imperialism? Chapter Two.................................................. 150 The AFL-CIO in El Salvador 1965-1983: Reforms Amidst Repression Chapter Three................................................ 187 The AFL-CIO and the Rise of the Sandinistas Chapter Four.......................... ....................... 220 Intervention and Anti-Intervention: The Foreign Policy Conflict in U.S. Trade Unions vii Chapter Five..................................................309 El Salvador: Trade Unions and the "Democratic Opening”