“Free Labor versus Slave Labor”: Free Trade Unionism and the Challenge of War-Torn Asia

Abstract

The general worldview that guided mainstream US labor’s foreign policy from the 1930s to the end of the Cold War remained remarkably consistent. Among the key leaders and policymakers navigating labor’s international relations, all shared a general devotion to an ideology they characterized as “free trade unionism,” an outlook that emphasized steadfast commitment to internationalism, trade union autonomy, and anticommunism. American labor strove to cultivate anti-Communist, independent trade unions throughout the world and to quarantine so-called fake unions emanating from behind the Iron Curtain. Not all US trade unionists shared this outlook. Some sought flexibility while accepting the basic tenets of free trade unionism; a few rejected it entirely, calling instead for reconciliation between East and West and closer labor-state relations under a Socialist system. These voices, however, remained always a distinct minority. Labor leaders and their membership overwhelmingly supported the free trade union agenda. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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