Trump and Musk’s DOGE has shut down the National Endowment for Democracy NED which is the largest funder of the AFL-CIO “Solidarity Center”. The Center is run by AFL-CIO president Liz Schuler and other leaders of the AFL-CIO who are on the board of trustees and it receives 96% of it’s income from USAID and the US State Department. It also operates in 62 countries around the world. The center last year had a budget of $73 million and over 400 workers some of whom are members in OPEIU Local 2 in Washington DC. The staff of this center is perhaps even larger than that the of AFL-CIO itself. Despite this operation being a major part of the AFL-CIO, president Liz Schuler and the Executive Board of the AFL-CIO have been strangely silent about the closure of the center. They have refused to report to AFL-CIO affiliate unions as well as the rank and file about what they plan to do with their international operation now that they have been shut down and also what they are doing for the employees who worked at the Solidarity Center. For decades, trade unionists in the United States have demanded that the AFL-CIO open its books on their international operations including its role in working with the CIA to overthrow the Chilean Allende government which resulted in the death of over 10,000 workers. It has also been involved in supporting US coups in Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and many countries around the world.

Professor Kim Scipes, professor Emeritus at Perdue University NW and a member of Labor Education Project on AFL-CIO Operations and Frank Hammer, retired president of the UAW Local 909 talk about the significance of this closure and what the labor movement must do to hold these officials accountable tor their international work which has been unreported to US unionists and workers

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