Meanv: the bosses' favourite

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The death of AFL-CIO leader George Meany has brought forth an outpouring of thanks for work well done, not only from the trade union bureaucracy but from the capitalist press as well.

This gratitude is well deserved for Meany and his cohorts put the interests of the corporations first and the working class second.

The January 14 issue of the Wall Street Journal compliments Meany for his acceptance of "the basic outline of our socioeconomic system" and his work to make 'the organisation (AFL-CIO) vigorously antiThroughout George Meany's dictatorship of the AFL-CIO, (he ran unopposed throughout his entire reign) he was absolutely opposed to the political independence of the American working class and the formation of a workers party.

Again the Journal gives thanks for this when it notes that Meany was against "the labour movement seeking to form a permanent alliance with a political party, put its own people into office, or pursue radically expanded notions about state ownership of services and production.

Instead Meany has supported one capitalist politician after another, even when these same political hacks openly launched attacks on the trade union movement.

Every Democrat and Republican that Meany and the AFL-CIO leadership have supported since the formation of the organisation has in one way or another sought to strip the labour movement of its power and its rights.

It is no accident that today the labour movement is in the worst crisis that it has ever been in and the reactionary policies of Meany and his supporters have very much to do with its weaknesses.

The most valuable international role that Meany played according to the Journal was keeping the AFL-CIO out of the World Federationd.of Trade Unions and being a "force behind the liberal internationalism of labour's support for Mr. Truman and the Marshall Plan."

His open support for American imperialism lasted until his final days. Even on his deathbead he. congratulated Carter for the recent reactionary campaign against Iran.

This of course followed his support for the Korean War and the American invasion of Vietnam with 500,000 troops.

One particularly onerous role of Meany was his relationship with the CIA in its international operations.

Not unsurprisingly, the New York Times in its obituary of Meany left out this important aspect of his collaboration with the CIA through the American Institute for Free Labor Development.

It was up to Peter Grace, chairman of Grace and Co., and also chairman of the board of the AIFLD, to rectify this glaring omission.

Founder On January 11 in a letter to the Times, he writes that as a matter of fact George Meany was "founder and president of the AIFLD, which he conceived on a visit to South America in 1962.

•The institute is supported by organized labour, by the business community and by the Over 100 million dollars was funnelled to the AIFLD by the CIA to conduct covert operations against the working class of Latin America and to protect American corporations which Grace represents.

W.R. Grace and Co. has extensive investments in Latin America along with the Caribbean countries. Included in this list is Chile.

with was budget it 145 Di $645,600, was involved in CIA operations to disrupt the labour movement and encourage a right wing military coup against the Allende government.

Meany was intimately involved in this coup since he was in charge of the AIFLD.

Yet he and his brethren in the AFL-CIO, including his appointed successor Kirkland, continually rant and rave about the need for "free unions"

Their "free unions" are the same bureaucratically controlled unions that continue to support capitalism in the US and collaborate with the CIA in subverting the democratic rights of the working class internationally.

For this Meany has earned the hatred of the working class throughout the world. Meany: boasted that picket

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Bill Sirs with Welsh TUC leaders: what chance has he got against crooks? Page t