Introduction

Today I'm joined by Rob McKenzie, the author of El Golpe: US Labor, the CIA, and the Coup at Ford in Mexico, to discuss the CIA's subversion of the international labor movement. He takes us through a crash course on modern US labor history and focuses on the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), a little-known organization that played an outsized role in geopolitics through its role in labor. Along the way we discuss James Jesus Angleton, George Meany, Jay Lovestone, the Reuther brothers, and meet several very interesting characters. 

We discuss AIFLD's role in Guyana, Brazil, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Chile as setup to discuss the potentially revolutionary context of Mexico in the 1980s. That's when the strikes at Ford Cuautitlán led to a massacre due to the involvement of AIFLD and other actors. It's a great interview for an exceptional book.

Links:

https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345628/el-golpe/

Songs:

UAW-CIO by Pete Seeger

Luz y Sombra by Ry Cooder