Non-Governmental Organizations in International Politics: The American Federation of Labor, The International Labor Movement, and French Politics 1945-1952

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1972
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en_US
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The purposes of the dissertation are first to demonstrate that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can be significant actors in world politics and second, to describe, explain and evaluate the role that one non-governmental actor, the American Federation of Labor, played in the international labor movement in French politics from 1945-1952. First, the characteristics of NGOs are discussed and the ways in which trade unions can play a role in world politics are outlined. Second, the AFL's foreign policy-making process from 1945-1952 is analysed. The analysis reveals that Mathew Woll, a senior AFL Vice-President, David Dubinsky, President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and AFL President, William Green and Secretary-Treasurer, George Meany, assisted by a few members of their staff (particulary, Jay Lovestone, Irving Brown) constituted the policy-making elite. These men, it appears, acted independently of both the U.S. government and industry, particularly in the early post-war period. The values, expectations and specific post-war perceptions of the AFL policy makers are then described. These perspectives explain the AFL leaders' decision to reject on one hand, isolationism, and on the other hand, to reject working with the World Federation of Trade Unions and its communist and non-communist affiliates. In light of their perspectives, the AFL leaders believed they had to support those non-communist trade unionists who were struggling to build international and French labor bodies completely free from communist domination. The AFL's efforts to provide moral, organizational and material support to these forces are described. In its statements and actions the AFL attempted to provide non-communists in many countries and particularly in France with encouragement and the satisfaction of knowing that they were not alone in what these American and European trade unionists regarded as a struggle to prevent communist dictatorship, or war between the Soviet Union and the Western powers. The AFL also attempted to act as an organizational catalyst for these trade union forces, facilitating on the international level the Marshall Flan trade Unions and the International Transport Workers' Mediterranean Committee, and in France the creation of Force Cuvriere. Material assistance in the form of food, equipment and money was also provided to support these efforts. Finally, the dissertation assesses the impact of the AFL's policy on the international and French labor movements and on French politics. By demonstrating that the AFL, apparently acting independently of the U.S. government (particularly in the early post-war period), was able to influence development abroad, the thesis demonstrates how one type of NGO was able to play a role in world politics.
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