Chicago, IL – The Latin American Solidarity Coalition and the Chicago-based Organizing Group to Say No to the NED have called a demonstration at Navy Pier to support efforts within the AFL-CIO convention to pass the “Build Unity and Trust With Workers Worldwide” resolution. The protest will take place at 4 p.m., Sunday, July 24.

The Build Unity and Trust With Workers Worldwide resolution is seen as one step in transforming the AFL-CIO foreign policy program into a force for genuine international labor solidarity. It is expected that top-level foreign policy leaders will try to undercut this effort. The July 24 demonstration has been called to support those who are working to pass the resolution inside the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO has a long history of working with the CIA to destroy and disrupt progressive trade union movements in other countries. In recent years it has worked in tandem with the National Endowment for Democracy, or NED – a creation of the U.S. government that strives to bring more regions of the world under U.S. domination.

The National Endowment for Democracy has been involved in supporting efforts to overthrow the democratically elected president, Hugo Chavez, in Venezuela, and other activities around the world.

The AFL-CIO’s ‘Solidarity Center’ (formerly known as the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, or ACILS) is one of four ‘core’ institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy. In addition, the Solidarity Center gets over 90% of is annual budget from the NED.

The activities of the Solidarity Center actions have never been fully reported to union members (including many members at top levels), and there has been no transparency, no accountability and no honesty about activities that have been carried out in the name of American workers but without our knowledge (i.e., behind our backs).

The National Endowment for Democracy – despite its name and its claim to be ‘independent’ and ‘non-governmental’ – is actually a non-democratic project of the United States government that was initiated and is almost totally funded by the U.S. Congress. In 2003, its budget was approximately $31 million, and Bush wants to double that amount in the 2005-06 budget.

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