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Irving Brown (November 20, 1911 – February 10, 1989(in French) 10 février 1989, décès d’irving brown. Irving Brown. Syndicalisme, dollars et CIA au temps de la guerre froide) was an American and leader in the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and subsequently the AFL-CIO. Brown played a prominent role in Western Europe and Africa during the Cold War in splintering communist-led labor movements. Along with expelled former Communist Party of the USA member Jay Lovestone, he founded the American Institute for Free Labor Development in 1962.
As a lieutenant of the US Army, he helped the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) plan the Operation Husky and the landing in the south in Provence.
In 1949, alongside Jay Lovestone, he supported the split in the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) to create the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). The ICFTU included the AFL-CIO, the British Trades Union Congress, the FO, the Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions, and the Spanish Unión General de Trabajadores. Thereafter, the WFTU represented the Eastern Bloc, and the ICFTU represented the so-called "free world". As a friend of W. Averell Harriman, who was in charge of the Marshall Plan, Brown easily diverted funds from the Marshall Plan to support anticommunist organizations.Kelber, Harry (Nov. 22, 2004). "AFL-CIO's Dark Past (No. 3): U.S. Labor Secretly Intervened in Europe, Funded to Fight Pro-Communist Unions." laboreducator.org.
By 1952, his activities were already well known, and he was the subject of an article by Time magazine, "The Most Dangerous Man." According to Time, he was charged of the mission by the AFL Free Trade Union Committee. Brown gave financial support to anticommunist movements that broke the 1947 strikes in Italy and France. He also helped organize the anticommunist coalition of free trade unions in Greece and the Mediterranean Port Committee, which wrested control of French, Italian, and Greek ports from the communists. In Marseille, he gave his support to Pierre Ferri-Pisani, a former municipal counsellor.
Established in France, he headed the international relations of the AFL-CIO from his offices at 10, rue de la Paix, in Paris. From 1951 to 1954, the CIA division, headed by Thomas Braden, provided $1 million a year to Brown and Lovestone ($1,600,000 in 1954). He was a member of the anti-Castro organization, Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba.
In 1952, he was in Helsinki to support the trade unionists who had decided to vote to quit the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) of mainly-communist unions.
In the 1980s, the election of the Socialist Party candidate François Mitterrand to the presidency in 1981 made the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) foundation subsidize, alongside the AFL-CIO, the right-wing National Inter-University Union (UNI). Brown believed, "France... is threatened by the Communist apparatus.... It is a clear and present danger if the present is thought of as 10 years from now."Barbara Conry, Loose Cannon: The National Endowment for Democracy. November 18, 1993. Cato Institute.
Later life
Brown started suffering from serious health problems in 1986. He was decorated by US President Ronald Reagan in 1988 of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he died the following year.
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Categories: 1920 Births, 1989 Deaths, American Trade Unionists, Cia Activities In Russia And Europe, American Federation Of Labor People, Afl-cio People, Presidential Medal Of Freedom Recipients, American Trade Union Leaders, Activists From The Bronx, Trade Unionists From New York, New York University Alumni, Columbia University Alumni
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