Case of US Government involvement....

[RadioRaheem84]

Has there ever been a case where US State Department, Embassy, CIA or US Aid officials were involved in the intimidation of union members in third world countries fighting for better wages in sweatshop factories?

I am writing a blog about it and in response to some of the comments I received on my FB page from conservatives.

Apparently, they asked me to try and connect at least one corporation that has been linked with anti-union violence and to substantiate my accusations of US government involvement to undermine pro-wage hike political causes.

The only case I can think of is the US lobbying against minimum wage hikes in Haiti but other than that I cannot link them to aiding whether directly or indirectly to the anti-union violence from local officials and corporate hired thugs.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Not sure if it's exactly the sort of example you're looking for, but...


There were some notable Saddam-era regulations that Bremer neglected to liberalize, like the prohibition on collective bargaining in the (about to be “privatized”) public sector enterprises, and the freezing of the trade union federation’s assets. Bremer’s occupation regime actually stormed the federation’s headquarters and arrested several of its leaders.

http://original.antiwar.com/kevin-carson/2011/02/04/egypt-let-the-looting-begin/

Also I'm pretty sure that this happened in Panama as well.

[RadioRaheem84]

I guess it doesn't have to be direct. For instance the US supporting a campaign to stop the vote in haiti favoring a wage hike, or US AID helping set up economic free trade zones.

[Raúl Duke]

I think I heard something about US involvement in attacking unions in Colombia but not sure...

[Luís Henrique]

Has there ever been a case where US State Department, Embassy, CIA or US Aid officials were involved in the intimidation of union members in third world countries fighting for better wages in sweatshop factories?

I am writing a blog about it and in response to some of the comments I received on my FB page from conservatives.

Apparently, they asked me to try and connect at least one corporation that has been linked with anti-union violence and to substantiate my accusations of US government involvement to undermine pro-wage hike political causes.

The only case I can think of is the US lobbying against minimum wage hikes in Haiti but other than that I cannot link them to aiding whether directly or indirectly to the anti-union violence from local officials and corporate hired thugs.

I don't think they need to directly intimidate union members in other countries. They can usually rely on the local government to do it - and when they can't, they target the government, not the union members directly.

I don't think there is any doubt that they have expressely trained union leaders from abroad in order to make them useful tools for fighting against the left within unions. And perhaps bribed them to that end.

Coca-Cola was certainly involved in heavy and illegal anti-union activities in Colombia at the height of the power of the paramilitaries there - apparently colliding with AUC to kill "problematic" unionists. I don't know to what extent the State apparatus in the US was aware of such activity, supported it, or whitewashed it, if at all.

Luís Henrique