American Labour’s Cold War Abroad From Deep Freeze to Détente, 1945-1970

During the Cold War, American labour organizations were at the centre of the battle for the hearts and minds of working people. At a time when trade unions were a substantial force in both American and European politics, the fiercely anti-communist American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), set a strong example for labour organizations overseas. The AFL–CIO cooperated closely with the US government on foreign policy and enjoyed an intimate, if sometimes strained, relationship with the CIA. The activities of its international staff, and especially the often secretive work of Jay Lovestone and Irving Brown—whose biographies read like characters plucked from a Le Carré novel—exerted a major influence on relationships in Europe and beyond.

Having mastered the enormous volume of correspondence and other records generated by staffers Lovestone and Brown, Carew presents a lively and clear account of what has largely been an unknown dimension of the Cold War. In impressive detail, Carew maps the international programs of the AFL–CIO during the Cold War and its relations with labour organizations abroad, in addition to providing a summary of the labour situation of a dozen or more countries including Finland, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Greece, and India. American Labour’s Cold War Abroad reveals how the Cold War compelled trade unionists to reflect on the role of unions in a free society. Yet there was to be no meeting of minds on this, and at the end of the 1960s the AFL–CIO broke with the mainstream of the international labour movement to pursue its own crusade against communism.

Anthony Carew has unlocked the secrets long held fast by Jay Lovestone, George Meany, and the CIA. In masterful fashion, he brings to light the complex skullduggery, the myriad rivalries, and the geopolitical impulses that propelled key leaders of American labour to collaborate with the US government at the depths of the Cold War and even afterwards. This is a fascinating book that commands the attention of all those, on both sides of the Atlantic, who seek to illuminate a hidden history vital to labour’s fate in the second half of the twentieth century.

Nelson Lichtenstein, Distinguished Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

Drawing on decades of original research, Anthony Carew’s magisterial survey provides the definitive account of American labour’s role in the Cold War. Spanning the origins of the East-West conflict, its expansion into the Third World, and the dawn of détente, American Labour’s Cold War Abroad profoundly deepens and extends our understanding of both the global Cold War and modern labour history.

Hugh Wilford, author of The Mighty Wurlitzer and America’s Great Game

Much of the relevant data and documentation of the American labour leadership’s response to the onset of the Cold War was buried in tightly guarded archives until Carew’s prodigious patience and persistence won him access. His American Labour’s Cold War Abroad is an absorbing and indispensable contribution to any informed understanding of the activities and mindsets of those febrile times.

Harold Lewis, General Secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, 1977–1993

The product of archival research conducted over four decades, American Labour’s Cold War Abroad is meticulously documented, compellingly argued, richly peopled, and vividly written. It will become the definitive text on organised labour’s role in the Cold War conflicts that dominated global politics from 1945 into the 1970s.

John McIlroy, Middlesex University

This is outstanding research that uses entirely new archival sources. Moving us through the corridors of political influence in Europe and America during the east-west Cold War, Carew reveals the intrigues, arguments, and double-dealing between labour activists who could be characters in an espionage novel. An important contribution to our understanding of international relations in this period of recent history.

Victor Rabinovitch, Distinguished Fellow in Policy Studies, Queens University

Twenty years ago, Tony Carew proved American labor depended upon CIA subsidies to finance its Cold War foreign policy operations. Now, with American Labour’s Cold War Abroad he tells the full, gripping story from the end of World War II to 1970. Combining drama, character studies, and hard facts, Carew shows the reader how American unions moved from early efforts in Europe to interventions around the ‘Third World.’ Seldom has a book combined such rich detail with careful attention to the overall arc of history, scrupulous fairness, and a notable flair for bringing out the drama of real life.

Robert Anthony Waters, co-editor of American Labor’s Global Ambassadors: The International History of the AFL-CIO during the Cold War

Anthony Carew has written a thoroughly researched history which is likely to be the definitive account of a now largely forgotten but crucial episode in American labour history, and which raises many questions of contemporary relevance.

Dan Gallin, Chair of the Global Labour Institute

About the Author

Anthony Carew is a lifelong trade unionist and is currently an honorary visiting reader in international labour studies in the Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester. Carew began work in the Canadian labour movement where became research director of the largest railway brotherhood. Later, he was a research fellow at the University of Sussex Centre for Contemporary European Studies focusing on European trade unionism, and for twenty-six years he taught industrial relations and labour history at the University of Manchester Institute for Science and Technology. Widely published, his books include Labour Under the Marshall Plan, The Lower Deck of the Royal Navy 1900-1939, and The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, (with co-authors Dreyfus, Van Goethem, Gumbrell-McCormick, and van der Linden). Find more of Carew’s work at anthonycarew.org.

Reviews

This is a tour de force of fine research. Carew writes in a clear and elegant manner, with a total absence of jargon. The main protagonists, European and American, are treated with respect. Their personal rivalries are explained and their own words quoted. Many secondary figures are acknowledged and given small biographies in the extensive footnotes section. This adds to the authenticity and texture of the main history, while the clarity of the central narrative still stands out.

International Review of Social History

Carew’s intervention adds greatly to what we know and, in a number of ways, re-establishes the groundwork from which future works on this subject must build.

Class, Race, and Corporate Power

For many readers, this book will serve to highlight the deeply contested nature of international trade union structures, purpose, and tactics and it promotes a more profound understanding of the tensions and dynamics; the traces of which persist to today. It is the attention to detail both of financial transactions and leading characters (money and actors) within those institutions that makes this a major contribution to knowledge.

British Journal of Industrial Relations

American Labour’s Cold War Abroad is a worthy testament to Carew’s years of scholarly research and publication. He has performed a great service by uncovering and piecing together the intricate story of the international trade-union institutions and their American puppet-masters from 1945 to 1970. He has sustained his argument, marshalled an enormous array of information, and delivered a fascinating account of one of the more significant intrigues of the Cold War years.

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations

This book is the most complete, nuanced, thoughtful overview of US labour’s own Cold War. It explores its subject in chronological fashion and includes virtually every relevant area and topic. […] Of this complex story at the intersection of international politics and transnational labour interactions, Anthony Carew has written the most authoritative account.

English Historical Review

Carew’s well-written and well-researched account offers a far fuller picture of US labor’s international activities than earlier studies.[…] This book makes a significant contribution to the developing historiography on US labor and the Cold War.

Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas

Carew’s work is an important addition to this debate and is highly recommended.

Industrial Relations / Relations Industrielles

This book is essential to understanding how the AFL-CIO operated during the Cold War. It opens up entirely new areas of research and potential analysis.

Labour History

A thoroughly researched history which is likely to remain the definitive account of a now largely forgotten but crucial episode in American labour history.

Global Labour Institute

Table of Contents

1. List of Illustrations
2. Acknowledgements
3. List of Abbreviations
4. Introduction
5. 1. Facing the Future—Labour’s World in 1945
6. 2. Building Labour’s Anti-Communist Opposition in Europe
7. 3. For Multilateralism or “Independent Activities”?
8. 4. The AFL and CIO Abroad: From Rivalry to Merger
9. 5. A Wedding Without a Honeymoon
10. 6. Into the 1960s: Claiming a Second ICFTU Scalp
11. 7. Who Speaks for American Labour?
12. 8. Toward an Independent Role
13. 9. Au Revoir Becomes Adieu
14. 10. Conclusion: The “Cold War” Within the Cold War
15. Abbreviations Used in Notes
16. Notes / Bibliography / Index

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.