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Revolutionary Labor in Latin America: The CLASC*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Michael J. Francis
Michael J. Francis*
Affiliation:
Department of Government and International Studies, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
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Extract

The greatest change in the Latin American labor picture during the 1960s has been the emergence and growth of the Latin American Confederation of Christian Trade Unionists (Confederación Latino Americana de Sindicatos Cristianos—CLASC). The outcome of the struggle between the Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT), the older, AFL-CIO influenced movement in Latin America, and the CLASC for the leadership of the non-Communist sector of Latin American labor remains in question, but the result, even if a situation of peaceful coexistence develops, will have a significant impact on the political, social, and economic evolution of Latin America. This study attempts to sketch the unique ideological base on which the CLASC is founded, to outline its method of operation, and to explain the nature of its competition with the ORIT.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 1968 , pp. 597 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1968

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Footnotes

*

Although only written sources are footnoted, much information for this study was drawn from interviews conducted in South America during the summer of 1966, particularly discussions with CLASC officials and Department of State representatives.

References

1 The best general outlines of the ideology of the CLASC are Emilio Máspero, América Latina: Hora cero (Buenos Aires: Editorial Nuevas Estructuras, 1962); Máspero, “Los trabajadores y el estado,” Cuadernos (Santiago, Chile: CLASC, 1966); and “IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Trabajadores,” Resolutions (Santiago: CLASC, 1962), hereinafter cited as 1962 Resolutions.

2 “Política sobre seguridad social y previsión,” 1962 Resolutions, p. 21.

3 The CLASC has been critical of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. See “Moción CFDT sobre Vietnam,” Servicio de Prensa Obrero Campesino Internacional (SOCI), 1:13 (July 1, 1966), 8. SOCI is a semi-official organ of the CLASC. It is published 22 times a year and started a new series on September 1, 1965 in a changed format. Unless otherwise cited, all issues of SOCI are from the new series.

4 “Nuevas estructuras políticas y democráticas,” 1962 Resolutions, pp. 38-39.

5 “Saludo del Lo mayo,” SOCI, 1:10 (May 1, 1966), 2.

6 “Los trabajadores y la reform agraria,” 1962 Resolutions, pp. 3-5.

7 “Reply to Team Effort of Priest and U.S. Officials” (Santiago: CLASC, 1965), p. 7.

8 José Goldsack Donoso, “El sindicalismo internacional” (Santiago: CLASC, November, 1965), p. 1.

9 This problem became most clear in connection with a paper by Adolfo Bonilla, “Trade Union Movements,” and the discussion that followed at the 4th annual conference of the Catholic Inter-American Cooperation Program held in Boston, Massachusetts, in January, 1967. The paper was later published in Integration of Man and Society in Latin America, edited by Samuel Shapiro (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1967), pp. 86-100.

10 “Los trabajadores y el estado,” p. 7.

11 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers” (Santiago: CLASC, March, 1966), p. 6.

12 “Reply to Team Effort of Priest and U.S. Officials,” pp. 4-5.

13 “Los trabajadores, fermento y vanguardia de la revolución” (Santiago: CLASC, December 1964), p. 3; “La desintegración sindical,” Ercilla (June 22. 1966), pp. 46-47; “The Unity of Latín American Workers to Build the Latin American Community” (Santiago: CLASC, December 1965); and “Los trabajadores y el estado,” p. 23.

14 For story and picture, see “Amordazados y encadenados,” SOCI, 1:5 (June 20,1966), 9-10.

15 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers,” pp. 5-6.

16 “Los cambios en América Latina no serán pacíficos,” SOCI, (Old series) 111:42,9-10.

17 Joseph J. Palisi, “Conflicting Approaches in the Efforts of Rival Labor Groups to Influence and Organize Rural Workers in Colombia and Peru” (paper submitted to American University, May 2, 1966 and reproduced by the Press Department of the CLASC the same month), pp. 10,16.

18 Probably the best statement of the CLASC's view of the Alliance, although not written by the CLASC itself, is by the Centro para el Desarrollo Económico y Social de América Latina, Alianza para el progreso: un estudio crítico (Santiago: 1963). The pamphlet, which is distributed by the CLASC, consists primarily of the conclusions of a 1,200 page study done by DESAL at the request of the CLASC, and included the collaboration of many individuals. For an official statement, see “La Alianza para el Progreso,” 1962 Resolutions, pp. 51-53.

19 “The Dominican Crisis as seen by the Latin American Federation of Christion Trade Unionists” (Santiago: CLASC, n.d); and “Formidable cantidad de sangre y dinero costara doctrina Johnson,” SOCI, 1:5 (November 22, 1965), p. 10-11.

20 Fray Juan Bautista Pereira dos Santos, “Cartas abiertas a los Brasileros y al Señor Castelo Branco” (Santiago: CLASC, September 1965); Monseñor Jorge Marcos, “Carta abierta de un Obispo a Castelo Branco” (Santiago: CLASC, October 1965); “Brasil bajo el absolutismo,” SOCI, 1:12 (June 20, 1966), p. 3-5.

21 Goldsack, “La situación actual de América Latina” (Santiago: CLASC, November 1965), p. 5.

22 “Los trabajadores y el estado,” pp. 21-22.

23 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers,” p. 2; América Latina: Hora cero, p. 93.

24 CLASC literature emphasizes the deplorable economic situation in Latin America. For good statements of the union's view of current Latin American society see “La situación actual de América Latina“; “Los trabajadores y el estado”; América Latina: Hora cero; Aníbal Luis Barreto and Carlos Giménez Lascano, “Estructura social de América Latina—Coyuntura actual” (Santiago: CLASC and DELAT, May, 1966); Javier Pazos and Barreto, “Estructura económica de América Latina—Coyuntura actual” (Santiago: CLASC and DELAT, May, 1966).

25 For a very critical account of the reorganization see “Chile se libra de Emilio Máspero,” P.E.C. (Santiago), December 9, 1966, p. 17.

26 CLASC, Primer seminario latino americano de asuntos campesinos, December 3-5, 1961. This is a set of papers from one of the schools.

27 Gladys Delmas, “Latin Labor's Alarming Christians,” The Reporter (February 25, 1965), pp. 27-30.

28 This figure was given by Maspero at a conference at the University of Notre Dame in 1964. See Máspero, , “Latin America's Labor Movement of Christian Democratic Orientation as an Instrument of Social Change,” Religion, Revolution, and Reform, edited by D'Antonio, William and Pike, Frederick (New York: Praeger, 1964), p. 280 Google Scholar. Professor Robert Alexander took exception to a number of Máspero's remarks at the conference, including the five million figure, and a very interesting exchange followed. See ibid., pp. 227-33.

29 “APRA: ¿Anticapitalismo, anticomunismo o yanquismo?,” SOCI, 1:6 (December 1, 1965), 6. SOCI covers the Argentine labor situation in some detail. See SOCI, 1:5 (November 2, 1965), 5; 1:6 (December 1, 1965), 15; 1:14 (July 15, 1966), 1-2.

30 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers,” p. 3.

31 Religion, Revolution and Reform, p. 162.

32 América Latina: Hora cero, p. 80.

33 The difficulties which the union caused the Church in Colombia are chronicled in Joseph J. Palisi, “Conflicting Approaches…,” pp. 13-18.

34 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers,” p. 4.

35 For a brief history of the international aspects of the hemispheric labor movement see Alba, Víctor, Historia del movimiento obrero en América Latina (Mexico, D.F.: Libreros Mexicanos Unidos, 1964), pp. 457-80Google Scholar; Alexander, Robert, Organized Labor in Latin America (New York: The Free Press, 1965), pp. 242-61Google Scholar; or Moisés Poblete Troncoso and Burnett, Ben G., The Rise of the Latin American Labor Movement (New York: Bookman Associates, 1960), pp. 129-46Google Scholar. Alba mistakenly infers that the CLASC is an organization of individuals rather than of unions (p. 458).

36 “The Latin American Confederation of Christian Trade Unions: A Preliminary Study,” October, 1965. The AIFLD is financed 95 per cent by the U.S. government, with the remainder coming from the AFL-CIO and some corporations, it is staffed primarily from the AFL-CIO with George Meany as president and Peter Grace, head of W. R. Grace & Company, as chairman of the board.

37 The competition by the CLASC has caused the ORIT to begin emphasizing he large number of Catholics in positions of authority in the ORIT. Doherty, when speaking of the CLASC, emphasizes his own Catholicism. See his “Christians and Workers’ Movements,” Social Reform in the New Latin America: A Catholic Appraisal, edited by John J. Considine, M.M. (Notre Dame, Ind.: Fides Publishers, inc., 1965), pp. 123-32.

38 pp. ii-iii.

39 Quoted in Palisi, “A Brief Analysis of the Evolving Ideology of the Latin American Confederation of Christian Trade Unions” (unpublished paper submitted lo American University, July 14,1966), p. 13.

40 Quoted in ibid., p. 15.

41 For example, see “Problema cubano,” 1962 Resolutions, pp. 54-55; “El destino de América Latina se debe jugar fuera del esquema de la guerra fria,” SOCI, 1:8 (March 22, 1966), pp. 1-2; “La CLASC y la conferencia tricontinental,” ibid., pp. 5-6.

42 “La Internacional de la fuerza,” SOCI, 1:4 (October 15, 1965), pp. 4-5; “Formidable cantidad de sangre y dinero costará doctrina Johnson.”

43 “El Ministerio de Trabajo Brasileño elige los dirigentes sindicales,” SOCl, 1:2 (September 15,1965), 4.

44 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers,” pp. 11-12; see also “Juicios dispares de CIOSL y ORIT sobre Paraguay,” SOCI, 1:1 (September 1, 1965), 11-12.

45 “The Real CLASC and the False Image Makers,” p. 8.

46 “American Labor Abroad—Lovestone Diplomacy,” 201:1, p. 10-16, 27-28.

47 “Lovestone's Cold War: The AFL-CIO Has Its Own CIA” (June 25, 1966), pp. 17-22.

48 Organized Labor in Latin America, p. 254.

49 Alliance Without Allies: The Mythology of Progress in Latin America (New York: Praeger, 1965), p. 105. This is a translation by John Pearson of Alba's Parásitos, mitos y sordomudos (Mexico, D.F.: Centro de Estudios y Documentación Sociales, 1964).

50 “The Labor Elite: Is It Revolutionary?” in Elites in Latin America, edited by Seymour Martin Lipset and Aldo Solari (New York: Oxford University Press, 1957), pp. 256-300.

51 Ibid., pp. 295-6.