Throughout much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the U.S. state has worked to undermine and destroy leftwing and anti-imperialist labor unions around the world. And much of those efforts were assisted by an entity ostensibly committed to the interests of American workers: the trade union federation the AFL-CIO. Historian Jeff Schuhrke argues that by doing so the AFL-CIO fueled the demise of the U.S. labor movement, as U.S. corporations could more easily move factories to other countries where militant labor opposition had been repressed.

Resources:

Jeff Schuhrke, Blue-Collar Empire:The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade Verso, 2024

Photo credit: Mattpopovich

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