Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While the AFL-CIO has been receiving increasing criticism for its reactionary foreign policy, the author asks if its failure to address the changes in the global economic system and how they are affecting US workers might be an even greater failure? The neo-liberal policies that have been implemented over the past 25 years and their impact are examined in this paper. To understand these impacts and the AFL-CIO's response, focus is placed on several interrelated issues: (1) the current economic situation for working people; (2) put in the perspective of US social and economic developments in the post-World War II period; (3) along with the related US Government economic policies implemented under both Republican and Democratic administrations; and (4) the AFL-CIO's efforts to address these problems. It is argued that reliance on the Democratic Party to solve these problems has basically ensured that these problems will not be addressed.