[lbo-talk] Russian Dockworkers Union leader brutally stabbed, beaten

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 6/16/07, Steven L. Robinson <srobin21 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Russian Dockworkers Union Leader Brutally Stabbed, Beaten
>
> by James Parks,
>  AFL-CIO Weblog
> Jun 14, 2007
>
> Mikhail Chesalin, chairman of the Russian dockworkers union, was stabbed and
> beaten unconscious last week outside his office in Kaliningrad. Chesalin,
> considered one of the brightest lights in Russia's independent labor
> movement, has regained consciousness but remains in intensive care with
> possible brain trauma.
>
> The dockworkers union, known as RPD, has been involved in an unprecedented
> organizing drive since April. Organizers have visited more than 40 percent
> of Kaliningrad dockworkers in their homes. This is the first time a Russian
> union has used the house-calling technique, which is widely used in the
> United States.
>
> In an effort to stop the workers from joining the union, Kaliningrad dock
> managers have fired several workers, warned workers not to talk to union
> organizers and denied some benefits to union supporters, according to the
> AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center.

Who funds the Solidarity Center?  The AFL-CIO?  No, the US State
Department and other government agencies.

"The Solidarity Center is more than 90 per cent funded by the federal
government.  Most of its funding is from the State Department (via the
NED and USAID) and the Department of Labor" (Worker to Worker
Solidarity Committee, "Sign-On Letter to the AFL-CIO,"
<http://workertoworker.net/worker_to_worker_afl_cio_letter.html>).

"A well-kept secret about Solidarity Center is that it received 90%
(nearly $30 million) of its annual revenue from the U.S. State
Department and other government agencies of the Bush administration,
but it got less than 2% ($600,000) from the AFL-CIO. These figures are
from Solidarity Center's 2003-2004 Annual Report" (Harry Kelber, "How
Sweeney Won Three Sham Re-elections; His Role in ULLICO Scandal and
Elsewhere
<http://www.laboreducator.org/sweeneyres3.pdf>).

Most likely workers of the world would fare better without the
Solidarity Center than with it.
-- 
Yoshie