[Corporations] FPIF News | Labor's FP Heads in New Direction

[IRC Communications]

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New at FPIF
"Working to make the United States a more responsible global leader and 
partner"
http://www.fpif.org/

August 14, 2005
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Introducing the latest policy analysis from Foreign Policy In Focus

Labor's Foreign Policy Heads in a New Direction
By Tim Shorrock

Lost amidst the publicity about the breakup of the AFL-CIO at its 
convention last month were two events that, in their own ways, could point 
to a radically new foreign policy for American unions and workers.

The first was the convention's passage of a resolution placing organized 
labor squarely behind a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq--the 
first time that the AFL-CIO has ever taken a public stance against an 
ongoing U.S. war.

The second event unfolded on the conference floor in the waning hours of 
the convention, and went virtually unmentioned in the mainstream and 
left-wing press. This was an unsuccessful resolution, advanced by the 
California Federation of Labor with the support of a dozen other labor 
councils, calling on the AFL-CIO to make a thorough examination and public 
explanation of its foreign policy activities, from the Cold War to the 
present, and to "exercise extreme caution" about seeking or receiving money 
from instruments of U.S. foreign policy, particularly the National 
Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development 
(USAID). Together, these two agencies account for more than 90 percent of 
the funds provided to the American Center for International Labor 
Solidarity (ACILSaka the Solidarity Center).

As the debate about labor's future played out over the last year, with the 
SEIU and Teamsters pressing for a huge infusion of resources into direct 
organizing and the AFL-CIO arguing for equal focus on political campaigns, 
little was said by either side about foreign policy.

Still, there are signs that unions on both sides of the split have 
abandoned the AFL-CIO's old-style labor diplomacy in favor of direct 
contacts with workers and unions overseas. It is in such campaigns, 
emerging directly from workers' struggles and demands rather than from the 
dictates of labor bureaucrats or government funding, where the future of 
labor's foreign policy lies.

Tim Shorrock has been writing about labor and foreign policy for many 
years. He is the co-chair of the National Writers Union DC chapter and 
represented his local at the founding convention of U.S. Labor Against the 
War in October, 2004. He can be reached at timshorrock at gmail.com or through 
his occasional blog, Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears, at 
http://timshorrock.blogspot.com. He's a regular contributor to Foreign 
Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org  ).

See new FPIF commentary online at:
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/261

With printer-friendly pdf version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0508labor.pdf

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For media inquiries:    Emily Schwartz Greco, emily at ips-dc.org  202-297-5412
                                 Kyle Johnson, kyle at irc-online.org 
505-388-0208

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International Relation Center (IRC)
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