Dear Editor,
I refer to L A Camacho’s letter captioned “Critchlow Labour College was part of a broader plan in which the American Labour Movement was involved to provide education for workers” (08.02.26) wherein he talks of the educational help received by the local Trade Union movement from certain American unions. The two major targets of such help were the Critchlow Labour College and the GITC. Mr Camacho does not know the full story which is as follows:
The USA was fighting its Cold War with Communism and Guyana was seen as part of that battlefield. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mobilized certain American unions to assist in their Cold War campaign and among the most known was the AFL/CIO. The American unions infiltrated the local union movement and in a short time the local unions had become pro-capitalist, anti-socialist and anti-PPP. To consolidate their position in the labour movement in Guyana the US unions (within CIA policy) allocated some funds towards local trade union educational institutions in addition to keeping a number of unionists on their pay-roll.
Has Mr Camacho ever asked himself why after LFS Burnham declared himself a socialist and got control over the Trade Union Movement, no further American assistance came? And why don’t the US trade unions now offer the same kinds of assistance which they did in the 1950s and 1960s, now the Cold War has ended. Indeed, why doesn’t the American Labour Movement now offer financial support to the local unions?
Yours faithfully,
B Walker
