The International Centre of Free Trade Unionists in Exile

At the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of non-German workers, mostly from the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, were stranded in Germany, while many thousands more were fleeing from areas overrun by Soviet forces. Most of these workers were anti-communist, anti-Soviet and anti-Russian; some had voluntarily collaborated with the Nazis, and many more had joined the German armed forces and the Waffen SS. They refused to return to their countries of origin: most, at least for some years, languished in refugee camps in the American and British zones of Germany. Others found refuge, and employment, in Britain, Belgium, France and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, among the hundreds of thousands of displaced Eastern European workers, there were a few dedicated, largely anti-communist, pro-social democratic trade unionists and former trade union leaders. In those countries of Eastern Europe where trade unions had existed, procommunist ‘unions’ were re-formed or created; and non-communist members and leaders were ruthlessly crushed, or neutralised. A few of the non-communist leaders agreed to co-operate with the Soviet-dominated regimes, at least for a while; and others fled westwards and joined their comrades in exile. It was these few, together with a number of mostly young, displaced East European workers who ultimately formed, or joined, a ‘free’ trade union centre in exile.

The Centre International des Syndicalistes Libre en Exil was formed in Paris in October 1948.(1) In Britain, and in its English-language publications, it was known as the International Centre of Free Trade Unionists in Exile (ICFTUE); and, except when referring to its Paris-based official reports, I shall refer to it as the ICFTUE.

The first Constitutional Congress of the ICFTUE was held in the headquarters of the Confédération Général du Travail Force Ouvrière (CGT/FO).(2) It claimed to unite trade unionists from Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia. The ‘supreme authority’ of the ICFTUE was its Congress which elected a council of 27 representatives living in exile from the above-named countries which, in turn, elected a Praesidium and executive committee of six members, including a president and a general secretary.

The aims of the ICFTUE were:
(a) to maintain contact, by every available means, with workers in communist-dominated countries; to keep them informed of the life of trade unions and of workers in the ‘free world’, and to give them moral support;
(b) to represent workers beyond the Iron Curtain within the international free trade union movement at meetings, assemblies and congresses, both national and international.(3)

The ten national groups represented by the ICFTUE each had its own elected committee, president and secretary, the latter maintaining liaison with exiled workers scattered in various mainly Western European countries. This liaison was largely effected by means of regular bulletins, published in the various national languages.(4)

The most important function of these publications was, as far as is possible, their distribution in their respective countries.

‘To that effect, a number of different means are used, which cannot be revealed. They contain information on Trade Union life in the Free World. The groups receive by round-about ways from their correspondents inside the said countries, various news items about living and working conditions there…. Anybody sending such information runs the risk of being accused of treachery. That explains why the leaders of the national groups treat this problem with the greatest discretion.'(5)

Indeed, the New York Times reported that the ‘Free Trade Unions (sic) in Exile… worked with underground anti-communist forces in Eastern Europe.'(6) The ICFTUE also had access to a number of radio stations, including the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which accepted and broadcast special bulletins drafted by ICFTUE groups in their mother tongues. Close collaboration was maintained, for many years, with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions’ (ICFTU) radio departments.

The ICFTU

A few brief comments on the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). Between 25 September and 8 October 1945, various trade union centres worldwide, including the Soviet All-Union Central Committee for Trade Unions, came together to found the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in Paris. It was an unholy alliance, and by the beginning of 1948 had all but collapsed. The Soviet unions were adjuncts of the Soviet state; and besides attempting to dominate the WFTU, the Soviets opposed the Marshall Plan, which most of the trade union leaders in Western Europe and the United States supported. With considerable assistance from various American government agencies, including financial help, backed up by numbers of US trade unionists working as labour attachés in American embassies in Europe, the British TUC, the French FO, the Swedish LO, the American CIO (but not the AFL), and a number of other Western trade union organizations, broke away from the WFTU and, in December 1949, formed the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). The ICFTU received considerable financial assistance from the CIA; and, often through the Trade Secretariats associated with it, was also heavily infiltrated and thereby controlled by the Agency. Although not generally known at the time, this is now fairly common knowledge.(7)

Since its formation, the ICFTUE published a monthly journal in French and English. The French version was Le Syndicaliste Exilé and the English, Labour In Exile. The following was printed on the front cover of Labour in Exile: ‘The news in “Labour in Exile” comes directly to you from the Eastern European countries. It is not only intended to keep you informed, but is one of the ways in which men of independent spirit in those countries can resist by spreading abroad the truth on what is happening at home.'(8)

The ICFTUE published numerous pamphlets for distribution, mainly to trade union leaders and headquarters of West European countries. It held many seminars, some of which, during the 1960s are discussed below. One of its functions was to ‘…inform public opinion, as well as the Free Trade Union Movement, on labour conditions prevailing in dictatorship countries.'(9) Many of these seminars and courses were held in collaboration with officials of various Western European trade union centres (such as Force Ouvrière and the British Trades Union Congress), as well as with the staff of the ICFTU based in Brussels, Belgium.

Helping refugees

Another important aspect of the ICFTUE’s activities was assisting Eastern European refugees in obtaining permission to settle in Western European countries and, in many instances, move on to Canada and the United States.(10) In this they were often assisted, not just by the officials of the Foreign Office in Britain, for example, but also by sympathetic organizations and Members of Parliament.(11)

Most of the national groups of the ICFTUE had their head-quarters in Paris, although the Estonian and Latvian groups were based in Stockholm in Sweden and the Lithuanians remained in Germany. Their mission was to recruit and organise East European exiles into unions affiliated to the ICFTU. In 1963 the ICFTUE set up two regional liaison offices, one in Brussels and one in London. The secretary of the Brussels office was M. Kotanyi, and the secretary in London was a Polish exile, T. Pro-kopowicz, a member of the Polish Socialist Party in exile.(12)

‘Bellman’

I first became aware of the ICFTUE in 1963. I was employed by the Post Office and was a member of the then Union of Post Office Workers (UPW), now the Communication Workers Union (CWU). Towards the end of 1962, the head of the research department of the UPW, Edgar Hardcastle, suggested that I write for The Post, the official fortnightly journal of the Union of Post Office Workers. Hardcastle was well aware of my views on political and trade union matters. Shortly after, I was invited for an interview, at UPW House, the headquarters of the union, by Norman Stagg, the editor of The Post. He suggested that, as well as writing articles under my own name, I might be interested in writing a regular fortnightly column, a ‘candid commentary’, under the nom-de-plume of Bellman. ‘Bellman’s Roundabout’, as it was called, had to be of interest to 100,000 readers, most of whom were not politically active or even particularly interested in politics or trade union matters. Much of the column, therefore, dealt with, or commented, on current affairs, often from a humourous angle; and controversial pieces on politics. As I was anti-communist, naturally anti-communist pieces found their way into the column every so often.

Writing a regular column is far from easy. Interesting material which has not come from the national press is difficult to come by. Fortunately, the UPW’s editorial office and research department supplied me with numbers of trade union and other publications. Among them were journals, newspapers and reports from various British unions but, more importantly, Hardcastle and Stagg provided me with publications from the ICFTU in Brussels, the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO) in Washington, Free Trade Union News, edited by Jay Lovestone, of the AFL-CIO’s international department in New York; even WFTU publications from Prague – and IRIS News and other publications from IRIS.

IRIS makes contact

‘Bellman’s Roundabout’ was widely read, not just among postal workers or members of the Union of Post Office Workers. It was soon noticed by the secretary of the anti-communist union group, IRIS, Andy McKeown.(13) A few months after beginning my column I received an invitation from McKeown to visit IRIS’s office, where I met McKeown and Tom Sharratt, who ran the IRIS office with McKeown at that period. I do not remember much of our discussions, but it was of a general nature. No doubt they were sounding me out.

In October 1963 I was invited by a Mr Prokopowicz, secretary of the London office of ICFTUE to a week-long ‘school’ or seminar in Margate. The ICFTUE would pay me the week’s wages, and also my hotel bill, food and travel expenses. I was more than surprised as I had never heard of the ICFTUE; and nor had any of my colleagues at the Post Office. I contacted Norman Stagg, who advised me to accept, and I was granted a week’s leave. I do not know – or, at least, I no longer remember – who suggested to the ICFTUE that I be invited to the seminar. It was probably Andy McKeown of IRIS.(14)

There were 27 other participants at the conference, 16 of whom were East European exiles from Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and Yugoslavia.(15) The conference was addressed by Hermann Patteet, head of the Administrative Department of the ICFTU in Brussels, who spoke on the tasks and responsibilities of ‘the free trade union movement in modern society’; Edith Chipchase(16) of the TUC spoke about the British trade union movement; Sharratt of IRIS read a paper on behalf of Sid Ford, the then President of the National Union of Mineworkers; Albert Carthy, General Secretary of the Socialist International talked about the International Labour Movement; E. L. Mallalieu, General Secretary of the World Association of Federalists discussed the constitution of a world government; M. Gamarnikov, a Polish member of the ICFTUE, spoke on the situation in central and eastern Europe; Andy McKeown of IRIS led a discussion on the integration of exiled workers into the trade union movement; and Mr Prokopowicz concluded the seminar on the history and targets of the ICFTUE.

Although the ICFTUE seminar in Margate must have cost a considerable amount of money, it was only one of a very large number of activities organised or participated in, by them over many years. I have information on only a few, held during the earlier part of the 1960s.

ICFTUE activities in the 1960s

The president of the ICFTUE, F. Bialas, together with A. Skorodzki, a member of the executive committee, attended the 8th congress of Force Ouvrière in October 1963, in Paris.(17) And at the ICFTUE executive meeting in Paris in January 1964, it was agreed to ask Roger Louet, the Secretary of Force Ouvrière, to accept the management of the journal Syndicaliste Exilè in French, and Labour in Exile, in English.(18)

On 18 and 19 January 1964 the London Regional Secretary of ICFTUE, Prokopowicz, assisted at a congress of the Polish Craftsmen and Workers’ Union, a section of the British National Union of General and Municipal Workers (NUGMW), in Birmingham. Furthermore, Jack Cooper, the General Secretary of the NUGMW, agreed to write an article for Labour in Exile. Prokopowicz also attended an international seminar in Luxembourg in February, organised by the country’s trade union centre; and he visited the conference of the British Labour Party’s Youth Section in Brighton in March.(19)

In February the ICFTUE participated in the 4th national congress of L’Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL) in Montecatini, at which they assisted in a number of seminars. Much importance was attached, by both ICFTUE and UIL, to the need for co-operation of workers to combat ‘dictatorial regimes, Communist or Fascist’.(20) Perhaps more importantly, the ICFTUE, with the assistance of Hermann Patteet of the ICFTU, participated in ‘a large conference organised to discuss the economic and cultural situation of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe’ by the European Movement in January, in Brussels.(21)

Also early in 1964, F. Bialas, the President of the ICFTUE, and T. Philippovich, the Secretary, met Irving Brown for a discussion of the activities of ICFTUE and examination of various aspects of the struggle of the ‘free’ trade union movement against ‘the Communist dictators’.(22) Irving Brown was the American Federation of Labor (AFL) representative in Europe for many years following the Second World War, and was, in the words of Philip Agee, ‘principal CIA agent for control of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions’.(23) They met the leaders of Force Ouvrière, again in February, to discuss mutual problems, including the production of Labour in Exile. In May, the executive committee of the ICFTUE met in Paris with Hermann Patteet of the ICFTU, and R. Bernaut, representing M. Delgado, the Director for Europe of the Free Europe Committee.(24) In June, Bialas, ICFTUE President, with Del-gado of the Free Europe Committee, visited the leaders of UIL and the Confederazione Italiana dei Sindacati Lavoratori (CISL), in Italy.(25) Prokopowicz, in London, met John Thompson, international affairs spokesman of the Labour Party, to discuss the situation in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the activities of the International Centre of Free Trade Unionists in Exile.(26)

Seminars in Austria, Germany and Switzerland were organised by the ICFTUE during the first six months of 1964, all of them much the same as that held in Margate in December 1963. They generally included 15 to 20 East European exiles, together with a representative of local trade union centres and a representative (usually Hermann Patteet) of the ICFTU.(27) Another seminar was held in October.

In the third quarter of the year, Bialas and Philipovich, President and Secretary of the ICFTUE, had a series of meetings with Patteet of the ICFTU, Bergeron and Louet of the FO, Coppo of CISL, Bernasconi of l’Union Syndical Suisse, Albert Carthy of the Socialist International and Victor Feather of the British TUC.(28) In November, Mucio Delgado and John Richardson, both of the Free Europe Committee, met Bialas and Philippovich of the ICFTUE, and Andrè Bergeron, General Secretary of Force Ouvrière, in Paris.(29) And, towards the end of the year, Arturo Jauregui, Secretary-General of the Inter-American Regional Labor Organization (ORIT) met Bialas to discuss the contribution the ICFTUE might make in Latin American countries.(30)

The last seminar, or conference as it was called, organised by the ICFTUE, of which I have documentation, was held in Mariakerke, near Ostend, in Belgium, from 27 March to 2 April. It was attended by ICFTUE representatives from all the countries of Eastern Europe, together with individuals from Austria, Belgium, France, Western and Eastern Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden. The programme included lectures from Professor R. Loewenthal of the Free University of West Berlin, M. Gamarnikov, A. Stroer MP from Austria, and a symposium which included Bothereau, former General Secretary of Force Ouvrière and, yet again, Hermann Patteet, head of the Administrative Department of the ICFTU. All the lectures and discussions dealt with the so-called Communist countries and the Communist-controlled World Federation of Trade Unions.(31)

The ICFTUE no longer exists.(32)

Postscript

On January 9 1995, I wrote to John H. Wright, Information and Privacy Co-ordinator of the CIA, asking, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), if the Agency could supply me with copies of any records and/or documentation which it held relating to the ICFTUE. On July 6, 1995 he wrote, informing me that ‘No records responsive to your request were located’. This was his only and – ‘final’ – response, he stated.

This is not necessarily surprising. Mr Wright did not say there are no documents pertaining to the ICFTUE, but that they had not located any. The CIA may well have documents relating to the ICFTUE, as well as former members, such as Sacha Volman.

John Loftus, the former trial attorney for the Justice Department Office of Special Investigations, spent years attempting to locate documents and files relating to alleged Nazi war criminals in the United States, from both the FBI and CIA. In many instances, these and other government agencies did everything possible to stop him, and others, from obtaining relevant information. Loftus commented:

‘Intelligence agencies change their record-keeping procedures with astonishing rapidity. Only the file clerks who suffer through each of these reorganizations can track down and locate the cold files. The Pentagon could not even find the name of the office within Military Intelligence that coordinated its old Sensitive Document files. As the World War II era clerks retired from government service during the late 1960s and 1970s, they took with them the institutional memory of Top Secret operations which had been conducted only twenty years previously. With some chagrin, a CIA official has confided that the institutional memory of one section of the Agency went back only eighteen months due to a wave of recent retirements. In fact, the CIA has misplaced the entire Gehlen collection and does not know where to find it. It was not able even to begin its search until another agency furnished the exact cryptonyms that had originally been used by the CIA twenty years before. As a result, each American intelligence agency carefully maintains acres and acres of cavernous vaults under heavy guard without the remotist idea of their contents.'(33)

Not only that, but the problem with organizations such as the ICFTUE, and many other groups and individuals is that more often than not their members were never actually on the CIA payroll. Such organizations were, literally, merely CIA ‘fronts’ or ‘fronts’ of ‘fronts’, or conduits for ‘fronts’, acting as deniable ‘agents of influence’, such as Brian Crozier’s Forum World Features, or the Institute for the Study of Conflict. Some groups may get listed in the files; others may not.

The New York Times of 3 September 1964 well demonstrates the point. Under the heading, ‘Kaplan fund, Cited as CIA “Conduit”, Lists Unexplained $395,000 Grant’, Foster Hailey charged that the J. M. Kaplan Fund acted as a ‘secret conduit’ for transferring funds abroad, for the CIA, to various groups and organizations, including the Institute for International Research Inc.. ‘Its Secretary’, wrote Hailey, ‘is Sacha Volman, a naturalised refugee from Rumania. For years in Paris he headed a group called Free Trade Unions in Exile (sic) that worked with underground anti-Communist forces in Eastern Europe.’ The group was, in fact, the ICFTUE. Of Sacha Volman, Philip Agee says that he ‘set up the Institute of Political Education in Costa Rica (cryptonym Zraeger) where he sent young liberal hopefuls for training.'(34) Volman was, according to Agee, the CIA contract operations officer in San José.(35) In January 1952, delegates to a conference in London of the Central and Eastern European Commission of the European Movement, included J. Mikhelson (Estonia) and Gherman and Volman (Rumania) as delegates from ICFTUE.

Books cited

  • AGEE, Philip, CIA Diary, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1975
  • AGEE, Philip and WOOLF Louis (eds.) Dirty Work: the CIA in Western Europe, Zed Press, London, 1978
  • BLACKBURN, Robin and COCKBURN, Alexander (eds.) The Incompatibles: Trade Union Militancy and the Consensus, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1967
  • BLUM, William, The CIA: a forgotten history, Zed Press, London 1986
  • CAREW, Anthony Labour Under the Marshall Plan, Manchester University Press, 1977
  • FERRIS, Paul The New Militants; Crisis in the Trade Union, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1972
  • HIRSCH Fred and FLETCHER, Richard The CIA and the Labour Movement, Spokesman, Nottingham, 1977
  • LOFTUS, John The Belarus Secret, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1983
  • MACSHANE, Denis International Labour and the Origins of the Cold War, Clarendon, Oxford, 1992
  • PISANI, Sallie The CIA and the Marshall Plan, University of Edinburgh Press, 1992
  • PRADOS, John The Presidents’ Secret Wars, Quil, New York, 1986
  • RANELAGH, John The Agency; the Rise and Fall of the CIA, Sceptre, London 1988
  • RICHTER, Irving Political Purpose in Trade Unions, George Allen and Unwin, London 1973
  • ROBERTS, Ernie Strike Back, privately published, Orpington, (UK) 1994
  • SIMPSON, Christopher Blowback: America’s Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York, 1988

Notes

  1. The European Trade Union Movement Within the ICFTU (Know Your Facts 4), p. 108, published by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. See also Report of the Seventh World Congress (1962), p. 25, and Report of the Eighth World Congress (1965) pp. 12-13, both of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Brussels.
  2. The Confédération General du Travail Force Ouvrière, or just Force Ouvrière (FO), which, for a number of years was a faction within the Communist-dominated Confederation General du Travail (CGT), was formed in December 1947. It initially comprised anti-communist social democrats, trotskyists and some anarcho-syndicalists, and was heavily supported and, in varying degrees, financed by the American Federation of Labour (AFL), a number of American corporations and the United States and French governments. Many of its premises and offices, including its headquarters in Paris, used by the newly-formed ICFTUE, were given to the FO by the French government from properties formerly belonging to the wartime, pro-Vichy, Labour Front. Shortly after, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) regularly provided FO with funds; and much later the US National Endowment for Democracy, through the AFL-CIO, also regularly and secretly provided FO with funds. (See the Guardian, 28 November 1985.) For more detailed accounts of the formation and subsequent funding of Force Ouvrière, see MacShane, especially chapters 13 and 14, and Carew. (Sources cited in these footnotes are listed at the end of the essay.) During the 1960s, FO was also infiltrated by Moral Re-armament. See Time and Tide 2-8 September, 1965, p. vi.
  3. The European Trade Union Movement Within the ICFTU, p. 110, ICFTU, Brussels.
  4. They were (phonetically):
    Bulgaria: Svodboden Sindicalist; Czechoslovakia: Obdorove Rozhledy Estonia: Side; Hungary: Szabad Magyar Munkas; Latvia: Darbiniku; Lithuania: Arodnieks; Poland: Robotniczy Prseglad Gospodarcy; Rumania: Romania Muncitoare; Ukraine: Vienij Ukrainiski Robitnik; Yugoslavia: Sindikalist.
  5. Op. cit. 4
  6. ‘Kaplan Fund cited as CIA “Conduit”‘, in New York Times, 3 September 1964.
  7. See, for example, Carew, Agee and Woolf, Ranelagh pp. 246-9 and, in particular, Agee’s CIA Diary
  8. See, for example, December 1964.
  9. Report of the Seventh World Congress (1962) of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, p. 26. In a letter to me (8 July 1994), Michael Walsh, Secretary of the International Department of the TUC, wrote: ‘The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) did maintain contacts with groups of exiled Trade Unionists from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Spain and Portugal, and it may be that the TUC was involved in some of the contacts.’ In a letter to me (7 February 1995), A. Dewil, Head of the Finance and Administration Department of the ICFTU wrote of the ICFTUE: ‘We have had close relations with the organization in the past.’
  10. ‘It is the duty of the national groups [of the ICFTUE] to assist refugees. The authorities have been approached with the view to giving them official permits to stay in the country. The refugees are then sent to places of work where their countrymen are employed.’ The European Trade Union Movement Within the ICFTU, p.112, ICFTU, Brussels
  11. In June 1961 a meeting was organized by Industrial Research and Information Services Ltd. (IRIS) at the House of Commons, at the invitation of the Trade Union Group of MPs, for ’65 comrades from the captive nations of Europe – Poles, Yugoslavs, Albanians, Hungarians, Germans and ex-Soviet citizens – all people who chose freedom and who were all trade unionists’, according to Charles Pannell MP. George Brown MP addressed the assembled exiles. A further meeting was suggested but there is no account of it taking place. Richter p.161. On IRIS see below, note 13.
  12. Participants du Centre ‘a la Conférence d’Études de Genval (30.1 – 2.11 1964) CISLE, Paris.
  13. McKeown is a Catholic (see Ferris p. 85) and was Secretary of IRIS until its demise in 1992. On IRIS see Blackburn and Cockburn (eds.) pp. 178-9; Ferris pp. 84-5; Richter pp. 144-5,151, 158, and 160-61; Roberts pp. 123-125, 135-57; ‘In a Common Cause’ in Lobster 19, and ‘Anti-red and alive’ by David Osler in New Statesman and Society, 10 February 1995 (though this last contains one or two errors, notably the claim that the recently deceased Lord Walter Marshall was on its board. Wrong Walter Marshall.). In 1990 the Observer (16 December 1990) revealed that IRIS had received nearly £500,000 from a number of well-known companies since 1985; and that, moreover, it had been printing a far-right, secret newsletter, British Briefing, edited by a former head of MI5’s F Branch, Charles Elwell. In 1995 it was revealed that in 1963 IRIS had received £40,000 from the (Conservative) government via its ‘secret vote’, unaccountable funds, and a further £35,000 from a number of large companies, including Ford and Shell. See The Times, Guardian and Independent of 2 January 1995.
  14. In a letter to me in 1990, McKeown wrote: ‘I certainly remember your visit [to the IRIS office] and also the ‘Bellman’; column, but I had forgotten the Free Trade Unionists in Exile until you reminded me.’ (19 January 1990)
  15. There is an account of the seminar in Centre Internationale des Syndicalistes Libres en Exil, M.B/52/64, Rapport d’Activities, Novembre et Decembre 1963 pp. 2-3 and Programme du 23ème Seminaire Educatif, Organise par Le CISLE à Margate (Grande Bretagne) du 9 au 15.12.63, Paris.
  16. Miss Chipchase was largely unknown in the British trade union movement; yet she held an important position in the Organisation Department at Transport House. On one occasion, when I was being pestered by a man calling himself Frank Abbott, to contribute articles for an assumed trade union paper which he edited, I asked Miss Chipchase just whom she thought he and his paper represented. She said they were Moral Re-armers. They were very persistent but they never got an article from me. In a letter to me (8 July 1994), Michael Walsh of the International Department of the TUC informed me that Edith Chipchase had died some years ago.
  17. CISLE MB 5/2/64. Rapport d’Activities Novembre et Decembre, 1963, p. 4, Paris.
  18. CISLE MB 15/4/64 Rapport d’Activities 1er Trimestre, 1964, p. 1, Paris. Surprisingly, in the French-language report, they spell labour as labor, as in the United States, although this was not the spelling on the cover of the journal. Perhaps Irving Brown was in the office at the time! See note 23 below.
  19. CISLE MB. 15/4/64 Rapport d’Activities 1er Trimestre, 1964, pp. 4-5, Paris.
  20. Ibid. pp. 5-6
  21. Ibid. pp. 6-7. For a brief account of the European Movement see Hirsch and Fletcher, particularly pp. 68-71, regarding the covert funding of the organisation by the CIA and various ‘voluntary’ organisations and corporations, as well as the US State Department. The European Movement is now subsidised directly by the European Union, from Brussels (information from an employee).
  22. CISLE 1er Trimestre, 1964, p. 8, Paris.
  23. Agee p. 603. According to Paul Jacobs in ‘How the CIA makes liars out of union leaders’ (Ramparts, April 1967), Irving Brown seemed to have unlimited funds at his disposal, which enabled him to put his people into office ‘or depose those European union leaders who were either pro-Communist, or at least not vehemently anti-Communist enough to satisfy the political demands of Brown.’ (p. 27) See also Carew note 71, p. 257, and Ranelagh pp. 247-249. Brown was still funding Force Ouvrière as well as ‘small exiled anti-communist movements’ in 1985. (Liberation, Paris 27 November 1985 and the Guardian, 28 November 1985.)
  24. CISLE S.S. 15/7/64 Rapport d’Activites Deuxieme Trimestre 1964, p. 1, Paris. For the Free Europe Committee see Hirsch and Fletcher pp. 68-71, Blum pp. 113-116, Ranelagh pp. 215 and 250, Simpson pp. 219, 220, Lofus p. 111 and p. 210 note 5, and Prados p. 48.
  25. CISLE ibid. Following the Second World War, the Communist Party of Italy was the largest, and most influential, Communist Party in Western Europe, and controlled the main trade union centre, the Confederazione Generale Italiana de Lavoro (CGIL). In 1948 the Americans put pressure on leading Republicans, Social Democrats and Catholics within the CGIL to form a new, anti-Communist union centre. In 1949, with considerable assistance from the AFL and large donations of dollars, the Confederazione Italiana Sindiacti dei Lavoratori (CISL) was founded. Although some of the Social Democrats and Republican leaders, together with some Catholic workers, joined the CISL, the majority of their followers remained outside. The CISL remained largely under CIA control; whilst in 1950, a third trade union centre, the Unione Italiana de Lavore (UIL), was formed, mainly by Republicans and Social Democrats. The UIL also received American funding and, by the 1960s, collaborated with the CISL. For brief account see Carew pp.102-5. For a general overview of US involvement in Italy during this period see Pisani pp.106-120.
  26. CISLE S.S. 15/7/64 Rapport d’Activities Deuzième Trimestre 1964, p. 3, Paris.
  27. Ibid. pp. 1-3
  28. Ibid. p. 4 Victor Feather, according to Eric Silver, ‘was prepared to use the informal channels of Common Cause and Industrial Research and Information Services to reach into union branches. Feather was in touch with them, but was not active within them… Their main use to him was as distributing agencies.’ Cited in Lobster 19, p. 19.
  29. CISLE Rapport d’Activities – 3ème Trimestre 1964, p. 4, Paris.
  30. CISLE Rapport d’Activities Quatrieme Trimestre 1964,p. 3, Paris. Philip Agee in his Inside the Company, writes, ‘Recently, according to Bill Brown who is one of the labour officials, the Secretary-General of ORIT, Arturo Jauregi, was fully recruited so that he can be guided more effectively.’ (p. 302) That was in 1963, a little over a year before he met Bialas of the ICFTUE.
  31. Dialogue or Contradiction: Facts and Opinions, ICFTU, Brussels, no date but 1966. See also From Communist Dictatorship to Democracy: a Free Trade Union Programme for Central and Eastern European Countries, ICFTUE, no date but circa 1965.
  32. Letter to me (8 July 1994) from Michael Walsh, secretary of the International Department of the TUC.
  33. Loftus pp. 142-3
  34. Agee p. 419
  35. Ibid. p. 263

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