Does Solidarity Center Exaggerate Its Role
In the Global Struggle for Worker Rights?

In 1997, the AFL-CIO created the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, with the laudable purpose of “helping workers everywhere stand up for their rights and improve their living and working standards.” Its mission was to “advance and strengthen the rights of workers around the world to foster the development of free, independent unions.”

The Solidarity Center aroused criticism when it was learned that it gets as much as 80 percent or more of its operating budget from the U.S. State Department and other federal agencies, and less than 10 percent from AFL-CIO unions. There was legitimate concern about how much influence the State Department exercised over the Solidarity Center‹a concern that received no response from the Center.

Moreover, Solidarity Center continued to maintain a staff and field offices in at least 26 countries — virtually the same ones that former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland had ruled over with the help of his appointed regional departments. Critics wanted to know what, precisely, was the Center doing in countries like Croatia, Paraguay, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and how were they promoting international solidarity? But they received no convincing answers.

Solidarity Center is not bashful about claiming credit for its leadership role, despite its relatively few operatives. It says that it “serves as a worldwide advocate for union activists, defending worker rights, administering training programs for organizing, sharing information with unionists, and providing support for struggling unions. We provide assistance for organizing campaigns that bring the benefits of union representation to hundreds of thousands of workers.”

Solidarity Center offers no information about the number of staff members in each foreign country (it can¹t be many) for which it claims such remarkable achievements. Nor does it give details how its staff functions, especially in repressive countries. For example:

“In China, the Solidarity Center is shining a light on imprisoned worker rights and human rights activists.” (In defiance of the Chinese government?)

“In Burma, the Solidarity Center has enabled unions to expose the government’s criminal and systematic worker rights violations.”

“In the Middle East and North Africa, the Solidarity Center is helping workers defend their basic rights and build strong, democratic, independent and inclusive trade unions to meet the challenges of globalization and economic restructuring.” In country after country, Solidarity Center asserts its effectiveness in terms that sound largely exaggerated to trade union skeptics hardened by reality.

If They Are That Good, How About Helping American Workers?

On the positive side, Solidarity Center has a competent staff, committed to its mission to help improve workers’ lives, under a relatively new director, Ellie Larson, who maintains an informative web site and newsletter, and encourages U.S. unionists to participate in international labor events. The Center has published full-length studies on Mexico and China and several tracts on worker rights, including a major 2003 document, “A Guide to Worker Rights in the Global Economy.”

The “Guide,” it said, "gives workers, worker and human rights activists, educators, attorneys, and more the information they need to fight the onslaughts of globalization.” Printed in English, it is doubtful whether it has been widely read by workers in Africa, Asia and Latin America or if they even heard of the document. If Solidarity Center is such a powerful force throughout the world, why doesn’t it use its ability to help American workers win the right to organize? Why is it that only a minor fraction of the AFL-CIO knows about the Center and even fewer are inspired to acts of international solidarity?

We need a Solidarity Center, to protect workers and advance their interests in an era of globalization, but one that is not dependent on the federal government for its financial needs, requiring a quid pro quo arrangement with the White House over foreign policy.

Solidarity Center has been in existence for 10 years. It is time for the creation of an independent committee to investigate, in full detail, what the Center is actually doing in our name, and to recommend whatever policy changes are necessary to promote international labor’s struggles in an era of globalization.

Our weekly column, “The World of Labor,” reports the struggles and victories of unions in countries around the globe. Check our web site: www.LaborEducator.org.