American Institute for Free Labor Development
The American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) was founded in 1962 as the international arm of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) for the Western Hemisphere .
financing
Philip Agee described the AIFLD as being CIA controlled. The AIFLD is financed either directly by the US government or from the budget of the State Department by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); from the 1980s onwards, funding was provided by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The AIFLD was built by Jay Lovestone and Irving Brown (1911-1989).
AIFLD
A report by the US Court of Auditors explains it this way: "In May 1961, the AFL-CIO sought funding for the proposed institute from private foundations, business people and government agencies." George Meany, President and Authorized Officer of the AFL-CIO and President of the AIFLD, clauses it as support from the largest corporations in the USA: Rockefeller, ITT, Kennecott, Standard Oil, Shell Petroleum ... Anaconda, also Readers Digest ... even if some Of these companies, at best, having no union relationship, they agree that it was in the interests of the US to support and invest in the development of "free" unions in Latin America.
J. Peter Grace, chairman of the board of directors of the AIFLD and also chairman of the board of directors of the chemical company WR Grace and Company , one of the 95 transnational corporations that sponsored the AIFLD, explains AIFLD calls for "cooperation between workers and management and an end to the class struggle" and "teaches how employees contribute to the profits of their company «. He says the goal of the AIFLD is "to prevent communist infiltration, and where it exists ... to get rid of it."
Serafino Romualdi
AIFLD managing director Serafino Romualdi (1900–1967) was head of AIFLD until September 1965, worked for the Office of Strategic Services since May 1944 , where he worked on a study of the impact of US policies in Europe on the large European population in Latin America . He described his collaboration with Rómulo Betancourt as the most politically fruitful.
William Doherty, Sen.
William Doherty Sr. was Inter-American Representative of the Post, Telegraph and Telephone Workers International (PTTI). He became head of the AIFLD's social project, responsible for the day-to-day business of the AIFLD for the CIA.
William Doherty, Jr.
William Doherty, Jr. was the managing director of AFL-CIO until 1995. In October 1995, John Sweeney Lane replaced Kirkland in the direction of AFL-CIO.
American Center for International Labor Solidarity
In 1997 the AIFLD was renamed the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS).