Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anti Communist Crusade by Jeff Schuhrke (2024).
Have you ever wondered why the labour bureaucracy became sedated, entrenched in business unionism, overly friendly with industry leaders and politicians? Why is it so hostile to the peace movements, and busy suppressing democracy within the rank and file? Why did “Anti-Communism” and “red baiting” become the official policy?
Labour historian Jeff Schuhrke has written a detailed, eye-opening, must-read account about the AFL-CIO’s alliance with the U.S. state department. The book Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anti Communist Crusade is for history buffs, union stewards, peace councils, organizers, and everyone in between. It is academically accurate but also accessible, which helps activists on the ground to educate workers on history, understand the present and help us shape the future of the labour movement.
Blue Collar Empire presents the sinister history of labour leaders who spent millions of dollars of their own members’ dues to sabotage labour struggles domestically and globally, and expunge membership ranks of any radical tendency under the banner of “democracy”. That same tenacity was applied beyond American borders to expand the US empire into the Global South. Business unionism neatly intertwined with the US state’s foreign policy, focused on containing “reds” and spreading capitalist logic while thwarting socialist possibilities. This book exposes how the U.S. labour movement has been complacent in imperialism and with that militarism around the world.
From Communist organizing to business unionism
The 1930s saw the unprecedented rise of union density through industrial labour organizing, often spearheaded by Communists. The ideological commitment to mass organizing across job title, race, ethnicity, and gender led to millions of workers joining unions. The end of the Great Depression brought a wave of militant strikes and the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organisations (CIO). All the way into the 1940s, Communists played a huge role in organizing, leading wildcat strikes, and of course bringing in millions of new members. So much so, they have gained credit from anti-Communist historians, recognizing they included all racial backgrounds and ethnicities, and activated the masses.
This forced concessions from employers and the government. With the gains and uptick in unionism, the state shifted its response to unions. The New Deal led to transformation of the American labour movement as a whole: cooperation between state and unions became more acceptable as the governments provided working class Americans with a basic safety net.
At the same time the US government contained labour militancy, drawing on the cooperation of labour bureaucrats. The potential of labour unrest in industries like mining, steal and meatpacking could hinder the US war effort in Europe. So Presidents like Wilson pulled in the federation leaders to keep the war economy moving. During the second world war, labour leaders ensured there would be no strikes or lockouts to disrupt war time production. The U.S was able to expand its power and control with military expenditure but also through other conduits like finance, media and publishing, charities, international bodies and unions. As Schuhrke explained, “The emergent international capitalist system would function under the auspices of an informal U.S. empire. Instead of the United States acquiring new territory or holding outright dominion over foreign countries as would a traditional empire, in this informal empire, Washington would assert its economic, political, and cultural power over the world in service to the accumulation of capital.”
Anti-capitalism, nationalisation, and worker control was anathema to the U.S. empire, and usually deemed as communist interference. In a similar vein, the AFL-CIO leadership always understood capitalism as a way to get a larger slice of the pie. George Meany, Walter Reuther, Jay Lovestone all believed that the American workers would benefit from American dominance globally, and the US capitalist system, hence union leaders should negotiate rationally for better wages, benefits and “dignity”.
McCarthyism and labour-management cooperation
Into the 1940s, McCarthyism paved the way for a more viscous coordinated attack on all leftists inside the ranks of unions and labour leaders. The Taft-Harley Act handcuffed the labour movement, and the outright war on militancy and with that Communism became fervent. Heavy state involvement in labour relations, and the pivoting of labour leaders to more cooperation with government, led to less militant strikes and a weaker labour movement. The 1950’s ushered in labour liberalism, and the end of the wave of militant strikes and labour unrest. Militancy was replaced with labour negotiations in closed door boardrooms in Washington.
The development of labour-management cooperation became the dominant logic, and those who fought for revolutionary class consciousness were sidelined. Strikes were made illegal in many sectors. Labour officials sought out business relationships with industry and government officials, often colluding to uphold “labour peace”. Schuhrke’s book focuses on this ideological commitment to capitalism in these leaders, which was seen as the fundamental priority, even if it meant sowing division with trade unionists around the world. The logic of capitalism was central to their work, and containing radicalism amongst their own members became their expertise, sought after by the U.S. governments. This ideological commitment underlined their hysterical and hawkish attack on radicals and socialists who threatened this status quo.
Schuhrke helps us understand how the hatred for Communism went from covert and overt, and how red baiting became the main mission for the AFL, leaving worker’s struggles in the dust. Blue Collar Empire provides the historical trajectory of labour purges and deportations at home, while with the same tenacity aided the embedding of authoritarian regimes in the Global South. This helps readers understand leaders like Walter Reuther, former President of United Auto Workers, and the infamous Reuther brothers in Detroit, who were hostile towards their own membership and compromised union growth. Ex Socialist, Walter Reuther’s ruthless campaign against the reds really took a more aggressive formation after Henry Wallace’s third party presidential campaign that was backed by Communist Party allies and militant unions like United Electrical Workers. Walter Reuther set out to seek revenge, actively supporting the raiding of UE. This history of raiding between unions is not only a set back for the labour movement as a whole, but as Schuhrke argues it really initiated its decline. Arguably, labour never actually recovered from this history of raiding that was detrimental to new organizing, strikes, and losing thousands of members and with those locals being expelled from a national body. All this work advanced the U.S. economy into global markets; eventually to offshore production, outsource and accumulate more wealth. These gains did not benefit the American working class, quite the opposite, it only exacerbated disparities.
Labour, U.S. imperialism and militarism
These leaders bought into the logic of US imperialism, which meant expansion into Latin America, Asia, and the Global South was necessary, and this focus became their motivation. Schuhrke offers insights into figures like Samuel Gompers, founder of the AFL, and why he moved away from socialism towards capitalism. Gompers became convinced that in order for America to survive it had to be a superpower. It must accumulate more wealth and gain access to global markets. He supported imperialist interests in former colonies and saw it as in the interest of American workers. AFL- CIO leaders became more and more committed to US supremacy and rubbing shoulders with the corporate class. So, it became necessary for them to fight the U.S. Cold War, and help with America’s global containment of the Soviet Union, beginning in Western Europe and then moving into former colonies. So they happily took money from the CIA and US state department and funnelled money through propped up projects, agencies and fake unions. They supported foreign policy of war and intervention under the guise of “human right, freedom, and “democracy” and helped spread the red scare through the world.
Over the years, the AFL-CIO leaders were able to expand their reach abroad through the very generous support of the US Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy. Their aggressive ambitions began in Latin America, a direct response to the Cuban revolution and with the intent to destroy any revolutionary tendencies sweeping across Latin America. With the support of President John F. Kennedy, and under the banner of “international development and peace”, the Alliance for Progress provided about 20 billion dollars to countries in the region. Similarly, The American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), as a result of this funding, was an extremely successful front in Latin America, training labour rank and file in business unionism. Courses at the AIFLD solidarity centres included role play for workers on how to combat so-called “Castroism”, Soviet and China infiltration in the unions. Ultimately, these efforts were successful in helping the US empire secure labour subjugation and resources in places like Brazil, Uruguay, Honduras and Mexico to name a few. The goal was to eradicate socialist possibilities such as increased worker control, nationalized industries, and the possibility of revolutionary movements, all to secure power in the global economy
When these Federation leaders were not using their propaganda schools to spread the red scare, they actively meddled in the affairs of a long list of countries in Asia, Latin America, and later Africa. Not only sowing division, but active espionage and manipulation. Schuhrke’s accounts expose a long history of the Federation actively supporting dictators and coup d’etat in the name of liberal democracy. In some instances, graduates from the AFL-CIO solidarity centers were given positions to opposition parties and these labor officials knew about the torture, imprisonment and even killing of trade unionists.
The AFL-CIO leaders supported the government in propping up murderous dictators like Marcos in the Philippines to ensure US trade and expansionist interests. Countless examples are laid out in Schuhrke’s inquiry, which helps us understand how countries in the Global South became client states, subservient and dangerous for trade unionists.
Blue Collar Empire neatly weaves together how the countries in the Global South were rightfully suspicious of civil society organizations from the United States operating under benevolent banners of spreading “democracy and freedom.” Historical events around Vietnam expose how invested labor leaders from the AFL were often in a hawkish position that was sometimes the opposite of their members, undermining international solidarity. These labour officials spent decades propping up and deterring any potential for peace. For example, in 1950 French dock workers refused to load cargo ships with militarized equipment destined to murder the people in Vietnam. But AFL-CIO agent Irving Brown used CIA money to push for military support and training of reactionary union leaders like Tran Quoc Buu of the anti-communist trade union Vietnamese Confederation of Christian Workers. Brown worked with anti Communist French labour to break the anti war strikes and ultimately undermine rank and file dock workers anti war resistance. This is one of the countless examples where AFL leaders took it upon themselves to intervene in regions in the Global South, undermining social movements and democracy
Resistance
But these leaders did not go unchallenged, their positions drove a wedge between the members, pushing them to flip flop over their aggressive tactics and strategy out of fear of being delegitimized. We can see how leaders like Walter Reuther waffled, as pressure mounted from students, locals over the ongoing war in Vietnam. Walter Reuther wanted to maintain power and legitimacy not only to become the President of the AFL CIO.
Union presidents took opposition to the AFL-CIO’s calculated war mongering positions, the decades of war making and interventions was not unnoticed. The Civil Rights movement, Black Panther Party era led to a shift in the political context, the impact was more militant rank and file in places like Detroit, and with that a challenge to the federation’s assistance to state repression and militarism at home and abroad. In 1968, United Auto Workers executive pulled it’s union’s per capita dues to the AFL-CIO. They saw how workers’ demands were being overlooked and undermined, and growth was stagnant if not in decline, by the AFL’s obsessive anti-communist campaigns.
Another example, was Leon Davis, then the President of Local 1199 the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union—representing diverse groups of workers including Jewish, Black, and Puerto Rican workers—took issue with the war mongering. Davis, a member of the Communist Party of USA, sent letters to New York senators urging an end to the war. The challenges from left wing, pacifist and anti war resistance to almost 10 years of the U.S. war on Vietnam led to the AFL-CIO losing legitimacy in the eyes of rank and file at home and abroad.
However, the AFL CIO worked in nefarious ways, to plot, manipulate and manufacture consent and patriotism to the U.S. government. The scenes described from the “Hard Hat Riot” illustrate how far these leaders would go to orchestrate chaos, division, and internal rife amongst workers. In the 1970’s in New York City, students protesting the Vietnam war were met with violence by about 200 construction workers chanting “USA all the way” and the national anthem. Police watched with no interventions, as construction workers were given paid leave. “Hippies vs. Hard Hats” a manufactured spectacle, “astro turf” for the public to see, making national headlines, about the division between American workers and “elitist” anti war resisters. Peter Brennan, the President of the Building and Construction Trade Council of Greater New York, an AFL CIO affiliate, was one of the main planners of the event, used momentum to mobilize a march of 100 000 workers, holding signs that read “ We Love Our Police, Flag and Country.”
The decades of the Cold War and the AFL CIO’s active role in it has led to severe distrust in the institution at home and abroad. Over time, in order to maintain legitimacy amongst the dissent of large locals and rank and file , the hawkish foreign policy came to be repackaged as “labor liberalism”. This could be seen specifically in the decolonial movement and anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. AFL-CIO assumed more nuanced and moderate stances, as a result of many union locals and unions being opposed to the Reagan administration and the Cold war policies in the 1980s. Leadership came to reconcile with needs to appease members and not appear fully as operatives for the corporate state.
Conclusion
Blue Collar Empire is a testament of the power of union internationalism. It shows us that U.S imperialism and with that militaristic industries are not just tertiary issues for workers. Workers throughout history and across borders have longed for peace, solidarity and with that the resistance to war is central to unionism.
Blue Collar Empire contemplates the present moment and provides the political framework to understand the ongoing repression we are facing at the hands of the state. So called “progressives” in unions are in a continuum once again echoing conservative foreign policies by the state, calling for larger police and military budgets to crack down on dissent. The pandemic, increasing inequality, food scarcity, housing insecurity, medical apartheid and monopolies have pushed people to a point of agitation, unrest and visions for socialist alternatives. Workers are reinvigorated and interested in joining unions: Starbucks Workers United organized thousands of baristas, and UAW wins in Alabama organized workers in a ‘right to work’ state, and calls for coordinated general strikes. This organizing work is important in industries traditionally left behind by business unionists. This new energy into the labour movement has created a commitment to organizing. Young trade unionists and organizers are more studious, disciplined and international in their outlook. They have joined the call of millions of workers around the world for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and supporting the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction movement to end Israeli apartheid.
On the opposite side the reactionary right is fighting this socialist led resistance, and international trade unionism in general. While traditional business unionists coalesce behind the veils of a new McCarthyite witch hunt against labour activists. Anti war resistance being delegitimized, policied, surveilled, incarcerated, and expunged for their calls to support Palestinian people fighting for their lives against Israeli apartheid. Many are falsely labelled as anti semitic, and being linked to Communist or Chinese conspiracies. We can see their attempts to crush alternative views that are not aligned with the corporate state agenda and bourgeoisie electoralism as not entirely successful.
Schuhrke’s book couldn’t come at a more opportune time, as we are living in a moment where it’s ‘back to the future’ in terms of socialism, strikes and internationalism for the working class and the poor. This is one of my favourite labour reads, along with Detroit I do Mind Dying, The Man who Hated work and loved labor: The Life and Times of Tony Mazzocchi, Teamsters Rebellion, and No Shortcuts. All of these books, including Schuhrke’s, reinforce that the best organizers in history were the ones committed to socialist alternatives, whole worker organizing and internationalist in their outlook. With that the most democratic unions were Communist leaning, and unconditionally anti-war.
There is no doubt, this book will have you contemplating the present moment we are in, and sets the stage on how we got here. We can see that the labour movement has always been rooted in the anti-war movement, seeing it intrinsically entwined to worker’s struggles in the workplace. As the empire becomes untenable, and a new generation of trade unionists move amongst us, internationalist and vehemently anti-war, old leaders will be outed and new leaders can come to fruition.
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