Personal and International relations in trade unionism. The American Federation of Labor and the attempts to consolidate of Free Trade Unionism in Argentina in the Cold war

ANDRÉS STAGNARO

Bath

Congreso; Latin America in times of political mistrust and global pandemic; 2022

Society of Latin American Studies

The expansion of 'free trade unionism' after World War II was one of the ways in whichthe cold war was fought in Latin America. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) commitment with the State Department's foreign policy included a much more active and centered struggle against Communism at the time. The AFL founded the new foreign policy unit, the Free Trade Union Committee (FTUC) that cultivate an international network of local political and trade unions leaders' informants, most of them former communists or socialists. The main objective was to spread the American model of labor relations in what it was also called the "productivity gospel", that's the values of non-political trade unionism, labour-management cooperation, and modern working practices. In this context, American trade unions leaders took several trips to Latin America, predominantly Serafino Romualdi whom became a prominent figure of Free trade unionism. Opposing them there was the most organized and important Federation of Trade Unions in Latin America, the Argentinian CGT along with the Mexican CTM, although due to different ideological reason both had strong nexus with their national states. The confrontation led to the AFL to challenge Argentinian trade unions capacities in the international sphere, through the support of alternative free trade unions leaders as alternative in major trade unions, and also of labor leaders displaced by the Peronism in the international arena. By tracking down Romualdi activities in the region through the analysis of his correspondence, this paper aims to reconstruct the free trade unionism network in Argentine during the Peronism.