No More AFL-CIO Support For Coups On The 50th Anniversary Of The 1973 Chile Coup

No More AFL-CIO Support For Coups On The 50th Anniversary Of The 1973 Chile Coup

LEPAIO Action In Washington DC On 50th Anniversary Of US & AFL-CIO Supported Chile Coup

Sept 10th, 2023- Educational conference at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 9th and “G” Streets NW, Washington DC. Conference room 401. 1:30-4:30 pm.

Sept 11th, 2023- Rally at the AFL-CIO headquarters, 16th and “H” Streets NW, Washington D.C. at 12 NOON.

September 11, 2023, is the 50th anniversary of the US supported coup in Chile that overthrew the
Allende government and brought in a 17-year Pinochet military dictatorship. The results of that
dictatorship remain today with privatization of public pensions, public services and continued repression with attacks on journalists and the people of Chile.

This coup was also actively supported by the American Institute of Free Labor Development, AIFLD, an AFL-CIO organization. (In 1997, the AIFLD was replaced by the “Solidarity Center”.)
In Chile, the AFL-CIO used US government funds to support anti-government strikes and to help
organize and support a coup against democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
Today, the AFL-CIO leadership is silent about this coup and continues to cover up and censor its role.
The leadership refuses to open their books and to apologize and be held accountable for the thousands of trade unionists and their families who were jailed, tortured, and murdered by this coup. The Pinochet government also was involved in assassinations in the United States, like the 1976 car bombing of Orlando Letelier, former Foreign Relations minister of Allende, and Ronnie Moffit, a US researcher, in Washington DC. These crimes have not been forgotten by the people and workers in Chile and the United States.

Today, the AFL-CIO leadership continues to collaborate with US foreign policy and receives 94% of its funding from the US government through the National Endowment for Democracy, NED, for the operation of the “Solidarity Center” in 62 countries. In the last US Congress appropriation, the
Solidarity Center received $75 million dollars.

We believe that the working people and trade unionists in the United States and in Chile must hold the AFL-CIO leadership accountable for what its involvement in the coup 50 years ago and the ongoing effects on the Chilean working class.
US-imposed economic policies of Milton Friedman were implemented by the dictatorship in Chile which includes privatization of industries and pensions, deregulation, de-unionization, and these policies have been and continue to be imposed on the US working class.

We demand:
Open The Books & Report To All US Workers and Unionists on AFL-CIO operations in Chile and around the world.
Apologize to Chilean workers and people and compensate the families for the jailing and the murder of their family members.
End all funding of the “Solidarity Center” by the US government, and build real direct solidarity with
workers in Chile and around the world.
In order to further these demands we will be having an educational conference in Washington DC on September 10 and have a rally at the AFL-CIO headquarters on September 11th to make these demands.
To Endorse and Register for the conference contact:
LEPAIO, Labor Education Project On The AFL-CIO International Operations
http://aflcio-int.education
info [at] aflcio-int.education
or call Thomas- 202-365-7297.