AFL-CIO Against the AUCCTU: Struggle for Influence in Tradeunion Movement of Africa (the Late 1950th - 1960th)

doi:10.26565/2220-7929-2019-55-07

Л.С. Чернявський V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9105-5047

DOI: https://doi.org/10.26565/2220-7929-2019-55-07

Keywords: trade unions, the American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organisations, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the World Federation of Trade Unions

Abstract

One of important episodes of cold war is considered in the article, when two leading trade-union centers of opposing parties (AFL-CIO and AUCCTU) developed a fight for influence and attraction on their side of trade union movement of the African countries. In this context the aim not to admit strengthening of the rival in the given region and to use the influence for advancement of foreign policy of their states was pursued. The expansion of the US trade union center in Africa began in the North African region, where the AFL-CIO supported national liberation movements in these countries, helped establish national trade union centers in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco; the reasons for the deterioration of their relationship with the AFL-CIO in the future are considered. There are analyzed the methods used by AFL-CIO and the AUCCTU to attract African unions to their side, and the policy of balancing African labor leaders in these conditions. The changes in the policies of the Soviet and American trade union centers after 1960 (“Year of Africa”), when immediately 17 African states became independent, are analyzed. After that, the AFL-CIO and the AUCCTU identified for themselves priority countries in Africa, which are becoming a kind of «bridgeheads», «strongholds» for the development of their activities on the continent. For the AUCCTU this is Guinea; for the AFL-CIO – Kenya. It was found out how it happened that the AUCCTU actually lost its «bridgehead». The history of the confrontation between the trade union centers of the two superpowers for the influence in the trade union movement of Kenya, which became the stronghold of the AFL-CIO in Africa, is examined. The author concludes that the balance of power following the results of the struggle between the AFL-CIO and the AUCCTU for influence in Africa by the end of the 1960s evolved not in favor of the latter.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Государственный архив Российской Федерации (ГАРФ).

Пегушев А. М. Кения. Очерк политической истории (1956—1969) / А. М. Пегушев. – М., 1972. – 272 с.

Мирский Г. И. «Третий мир»: общество, власть, армия / Г. И. Мирский. – М., 1976. – 408 с.

Российский государственный архив новейшей истории (РГАНИ).

Эттвуд У. Красные и черные. Личные впечатления / У. Эттвуд. – М., 1968. – Вып. 1. – 183 с.

AFL-CIO Executive Council Statements and Reports, 1956-195. – V. 2. – (1960- 1963). – Westport (Conn.); London, 1977. – pp. 553-1120.

Bülow Mathilde von. Irving Brown and ICFTU Labor Diplomacy During Algeria’s Struggle for Independence, 1954-1962 / In: American Labor’s Global Ambassadors: The International History of the AFL-CIO during the Cold War [Text] / Mathilde von Bülow. – New York, 2013.

Carew A. Conflict Within the ICFTU: Anti-Communism and Anti-Colonialism in the 1950s // International Review of Social History / A. Carew. – Vol. 41. – Issue 2. – August 1996. – pp. 147-181.

Conde A. Guinée: Albanie del’Afrique ou Néo-colonie Américaine? / A. Conde. – Paris, 1972. – 270 p.

Goldsworthy, D. Tom Mboya: The man Kenia Wanted to Forget / D. Goldsworthy. – Nairobi; London; New York, 1982. – XII, 308 p.

Kaké I. B. Sékou Touré, le Héros et le Tyran / I. B. Kaké. – Paris, 1987. – 254 p.

Morgan T. A Covert Life: Jay Lovestone, Communist, Anti-Communist, and Spymaster / T. Morgan. – New York, Toronto, 1999. – 402 p.

Stoner John C. Anti-Communism, Anti-Colonialism, and African Labor: the AFL-CIO in Africa, 1955-1975 / J. C. Stoner. – Dissertation, 2001. – 678 p.