NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #20/NN_1992_20.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6382

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Subject: NEWS:How US Govt Put CIA Over Teamsters
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Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

How the gov't put CIA over the Teamsters

By Shelley Ettinger

What's behind the latest government intervention in the Teamsters
union?

In August a federal judge appointed former CIA and FBI director
William Webster to the key seat on a so-called Independent Review
Board--effectively granting the master spy limitless power over
the union's internal affairs. Why?

The Teamsters rank and file had elected Ron Carey president
earlier this year. Judge David Edelstein acknowledges that Carey
and his leadership team are honest, committed trade unionists.

Yet he officially unleashed the secret police apparatus against
the union. The government's long covert war against the
Teamsters--and the entire labor movement--has gone public.

Real goal: destroy union

The Teamsters is the biggest AFL-CIO union. It has always been a
strong, fighting union. That's what first prompted the government
to move in decades ago. "Corruption" was never really the issue.
Workers' power was.

Nor has the government ever cared about democratizing the union.
Some of the worst elements in the old leadership were in fact FBI
operatives, including the late, unlamented President Jackie
Presser.

For well over 40 years the government has used the CIA and FBI to
infiltrate and weaken the Teamsters while publicly decrying
supposed gangsterism. Robert Kennedy, first as a Senate aide and
then as attorney general, roared about mobsters while he
terrorized the union.

The campaign hurt. Precious human and financial resources had to
be diverted from the union's real work--fighting for fair
contracts and organizing workers--toward defending against
endless government harassment.

At the same time, the government's divisive, destructive tactics
obstructed the genuine struggle to reform and revitalize the
Teamsters. And that was the point.

The reactionary anti-labor period of the last 13 years hit its
stride when Ronald Reagan busted the PATCO strike in 1981. But it
had begun earlier, under the Carter administration. The
transportation industry was deregulated in 1978. That resulted in
monopolization and strengthened the position of the trucking
bosses vis-a-vis the union.

All this led to a turning point for the Teamsters. It came on
Jan. 28, 1988, when U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani went into
court to try a new maneuver. He filed suit under the RICO
racketeering statutes, seeking to impose a federal trusteeship.

The move to institute direct government control over the
Teamsters raised the stakes. The labor movement fought back.

A coalition of 70 unions quickly formed to help the Teamsters
resist. Then the Teamsters re-joined the AFL-CIO after many years
outside the federation. That was a big boost for the
working-class struggle.

The ruling class got scared. Even the Wall Street Journal
editorialized against the RICO suit. So the government backed
off, instead signing an agreement with the union to form the
Independent Review Board. But the IRB was to have specific
limited functions, not the vast power Edelstein awarded Webster
last month.

The union's makeup has changed. About one-third of the Teamsters
are women. Many are people of color. Along with truckers, there
are secretaries, cannery workers, brewery workers, flight
attendants and others. The union is aggressively organizing
unorganized workers in several areas.

This is the context for the government's decision to take such an
overtly heavy-handed step to beat back the Teamsters. Judge
Edelstein's decree must reflect deep ruling-class concern. The
bosses seem to feel bold action is needed to hold back the
potential for coming labor struggles.

Worldwide war on labor

Of course, the FBI/CIA war against labor hasn't been confined to
the Teamsters. In the U.S., the Auto Workers, Electrical Workers,
Garment Workers and others have been targeted by both spy
agencies. Since before the days of the 1920s "Palmer" raids by
the attorney general, the Justice Department has spent much time,
money and energy finding ways to divide and confuse unionists,
along the way prosecuting and jailing many of the working class's
best fighters.

Meanwhile, the CIA has conducted clandestine anti-labor
operations in Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, all the
countries of Eastern Europe, Greece, the Philippines and
elsewhere. Tragically, some AFL-CIO officials have betrayed the
workers by cooperating with the CIA effort to destroy real trade
unions and break up genuine workers' struggles. It's been done
through the Institute for Free Labor Development--ostensibly an
arm of the AFL-CIO but actually a government organ.

The latest move against the Teamsters is consistent with what the
U.S. government's been doing: working on behalf of big business
to destroy unions. Teamsters President Ron Carey called it "an
unwarranted imposition of increased government control over the
union" and vowed to fight to overturn the ruling.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "[e-mail]".)

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