Confederación Obrera Pan-Americana

views updated

Confederación Obrera Pan-Americana

Western Hemisphere 1918

Synopsis

In 1918 labor leaders from Mexico and the United States created the Confederación Obrera Pan-Americana (COPA), or Pan-American Federation of Labor (PAFL). The goal of the PAFL was to promote and protect the rights of workers throughout the Western Hemisphere, although it was the Mexican and U.S. delegates that generally dominated the federation. In particular, the PAFL reflected the interests and ideology of Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The PAFL held five congresses between 1918 and 1927. However, the death of Gompers and other founders, along with theGreat Depression, led to a period of inactivity during the 1930s. By the end of the 1930s, Latin American labor leaders had created their own federation known as the Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina (CTAL), which did not include the AFL or any other U.S. groups. The PAFL was never revived, and the AFL had little influence in Latin America until it sponsored the formation of the Confederación Inter-Americade Trabajadores (CIT) in 1948 so as to counter the CTAL.

Timeline

1898: United States defeats Spain in the three-month Spanish-American War. As a result, Cuba gains it independence, and the United States purchases Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.
1903: Russia's Social Democratic Party splits into two factions: the moderate Mensheviks and the hard-line Bolsheviks. Despite their names, which in Russian mean "minority" and "majority," respectively, Mensheviks actually outnumber Bolsheviks.
1910: Revolution breaks out in Mexico and will continue for the next seven years.
1914: On 28 June in the town of Sarajevo, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinates Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and wife Sophie. In the weeks that follow, Austria declares war on Serbia, and Germany on Russia and France, while Great Britain responds by declaring war on Germany. By the beginning of August, the lines are drawn, with the Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan) against the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey).
1916: Battles of Verdun and the Somme are waged on the Western Front. The latter sees the first use of tanks, by the British.
1918: The Bolsheviks execute Czar Nicholas II and his family. Soon civil war breaks out between the communists and their allies, known as the Reds, and their enemies, a collection of anticommunists ranging from democrats to czarists, who are known collectively as the Whites. In March, troops from the United States, Great Britain, and France intervene on the White side.
1918: The Second Battle of the Marne in July and August is the last major conflict on the Western Front. In November, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates, bringing an end to the war.
1918: Upheaval sweeps Germany, which for a few weeks in late 1918 and early 1919 seems poised on the verge of communist revolution—or at least a Russian-style communist coup d'etat. But reactionary forces have regained their strength, and the newly organized Freikorps (composed of unemployed soldiers) suppresses the revolts. Even stronger than reaction or revolution, however, is republican sentiment, which opens the way for the creation of a democratic government based at Weimar.
1918: Influenza, carried to the furthest corners by returning soldiers, spreads throughout the globe. Over the next two years, it will kill nearly 20 million people—more than the war itself.
1921: As the Allied Reparations Commission calls for payments of 132 billion gold marks, inflation in Germany begins to climb.
1925: European leaders attempt to secure the peace at the Locarno Conference, which guarantees the boundaries between France and Germany, and Belgium and Germany.

Event and Its Context

The impetus for the formation of the PAFL came from John Murray, a philanthropist from New York City who had moved to California. A socialist, Murray had often aided poor Mexicans in California. He traveled to Mexico before the 1910 revolution and established a friendship with Ricardo Flores Magón of the Liberal Party. Murray again visited Mexico in 1915 in the midst of the revolution. He made contact with Mexico's Casa del Obrero Mundial, a revolutionary trade union that had been established in 1912.

After returning to the United States, Murray decided that the time had come for an alliance between the labor movements in the United States and Mexico. To this end, Murray met with Santiago Iglesias, a Spanish-born labor leader in Puerto Rico. Iglesias had worked closely with Samuel Gompers and had been involved with the AFL in Puerto Rico since 1901. Murray and Iglesias met shortly after the 1915 Pan-American Financial and Trade Conference, which laid the foundation for cooperation among large businesses in the Western Hemisphere. Iglesias felt that such cooperation among capitalists could only harm the working class. He therefore proposed a Pan-American labor organization that would serve to protect the interests of the workers.

Iglesias then introduced Murray to Gompers, who had already come in contact with Latin American labor issues through a group of Mexican cigar workers in New York. As Gompers grew in prominence in the AFL, Mexican labor leaders often sought him out. Murray was able to convince Gompers that the AFL should ally itself with the labor movement in Mexico and quickly became Gompers's chief advisor on Mexican affairs. They began planning for the creation of a pan-American labor organization.

In November 1915 Iglesias presented a report on Latin America at the AFL annual convention in San Francisco. He warned that business interests in the region were growing stronger, pointing to the 1915 Pan-American Financial and Trade Conference and to the opening of the Panama Canal. Iglesias proposed that the AFL leadership meet with Latin American labor leaders in Washington, D.C. The convention adopted this proposal.

The next move came in May 1916, when Gompers called for a meeting of the AFL, Mexico's Casa del Obrero Mundial, and other Mexican labor organizations. He suggested that the groups meet in El Paso, Texas. After some discussion over dates and location of such a meeting, the groups finally came together in late June and early July 1916 in Washington, D.C. Gompers, Murray, and the AFL executive council met with Mexican labor leaders, headed by Luis Morones, who later would become the leader of the Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM), Mexico's leading labor organization. The result of the meeting was that the representatives agreed to move forward with the formation of a hemispheric labor federation

In November 1916 Gompers continued to call for a pan-American federation of labor at the AFL annual convention. He asked the delegates for the authority to create a Pan-American Federation of Labor Conference Committee, which would then form the new labor organization. The convention delegates granted this authority and appointed a four-man committee that included Gompers, Murray, Iglesias, and Mexican labor leader Carlos Loveira.

This committee issued a manifesto in February 1917. The manifesto, available in both English and Spanish, addressed the workers of the hemisphere, especially those in Latin America. It asked labor organizations throughout the Americas to send representatives to the conference committee. The manifesto outlined the need for a pan-American federation in light of increasing activities by capitalists without regard for the interests of the masses. Such a labor federation would truly represent the "people" according to the manifesto. The aims outlined by the committee in the manifesto included higher wages, better working conditions and housing, the protection of children, freedom of speech and press, and the right to strike.

When the United States entered World War I, the organization of the new federation had to be put on hold. Gompers, who had come to believe that the war effort was in the best interest of workers, was busy serving on the advisory board for the Council of National Defense. Iglesias had returned to Puerto Rico for an agricultural workers' strike there. Murray went to Arizona to aid Mexican mine workers who were on strike. Loveira returned to Mexico.

Efforts to create the federation resumed in earnest in April 1918, when some in the United States became increasingly concerned about Mexico's neutrality in the war and possible German influence there. In May 1918 Gompers sent an AFL commission that included Murray and Iglesias to Mexico as part of an effort to improve relations between the two countries. The official purpose was to discuss the formation of the PAFL, although beneath the surface it was hoped that the commission might help convince Mexico to end it neutrality and join the Allies.

When Murray returned to the United States in June 1918, he brought two Mexican labor leaders with him, including Luis Morones of the CROM. The Mexican representatives met with Gompers and set up an international conference scheduled for November 1918 in Laredo, Texas, in order to formally establish the PAFL. In the meantime, they also established a newspaper in San Antonio called El Obrero Pan-Americano (The Pan-American Labor Press).

The conference opened on 13 November 1918, just two days after the end of World War I. The opening ceremonies took place on the International Bridge that connected Laredo with Nuevo Laredo in Mexico. Seventy-one delegates attended the conference, most from the United States and Mexico, although Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Colombia each sent one representative. The first two days of the conference involved speeches and the selection of committee members. Then delegates moved on to discuss a number of resolutions. There was some tension over the issue of Mexican workers in the United States. The Mexican delegates claimed that Americans discriminated against Mexicans and that border officials treated them poorly. The U.S. delegates responded that Mexicans in the United States did not participate in labor organizations. The two sides decided to set up a committee to further investigate the issue and a permanent headquarters in Washington, D.C. After adopting a constitution and electing officials, the conference concluded on 18 November.

The second PAFL congress took place in New York City in July 1919. Only 26 delegates attended this meeting. They discussed issues such as the peace treaties that ended World War I, the role of U.S. imperialism in the Dominican Republic, a border dispute between Chile and Peru in which Peruvian workers had been expelled from Chile, and the immigration policy of the United States and the AFL. Also, at Gompers's insistence, the delegates resolved that in the future all delegates had to be wage-earning workers. Some of the Latin American representatives were intellectuals; Gompers and the AFL opposed their inclusion. In all, the delegates discussed 30 resolutions, most of which reflected the philosophy of Gompers and the AFL.

The PAFL held several more congresses. The third congress met in Mexico City in January 1921 and the fourth took place in December 1924. Shortly after the fourth congress, however, Gompers died. New AFL president William Green replaced Gompers in the PAFL in 1925. The last PAFL congress was the best attended. This fifth congress took place in Washington, D.C., in July 1927, and 12 countries sent representatives.

PAFL officials scheduled a sixth congress for Havana, Cuba, in January 1930. However, due to the Great Depression, the meeting was postponed a number of times. In August 1931 the AFL announced that it did not have the funds to support a meeting in the immediate future. As the depression continued, no meeting took place.

Then in 1938, Latin American labor leaders formed the Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina (CTAL) in Mexico City. Led by the procommunist Vicente Lombardo Toledano, the group included only Latin American delegates, although the CIO supported the group. In response, the AFL tried to revive the PAFL, fearing its influence in Latin America would decrease. To this end, Iglesias toured a number of Latin American countries. However, Iglesias died in 1939 and the PAFL was never revived.

Key Players

Gompers, Samuel (1850-1924): Born in England, Gompers moved to the United States in 1863. He took up his father's trade as cigar maker. Gompers became involved in the labor movement in the United States, founding the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1886 and serving as its president until his death in 1924. Through the AFL, Gompers sought to influence and aid the labor movement in Latin America. To this end, he sponsored the formation of the Pan-American Federation of Labor in 1918.

Iglesias, Santiago (1872-1939): Iglesias was born in Spain, where he served as an apprentice cabinetmaker. At the age of 15, he moved to Cuba, where he soon became involved in union organizing. The Spanish government of colonial Cuba forced him to leave the island because of his involvement in revolutionary activities. Iglesias then moved to Puerto Rico, where he continued his union organizing and was involved in publishing labor newspapers. After meeting Samuel Gompers, he became the AFL organizer in Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1915 he formed the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. Iglesias was also instrumental in the formation of the PAFL from the beginning. In the 1930s he served as Puerto Rico's resident commissioner to the House of Representatives.

Morones, Luis (1890-1964): An electrical worker, Morones quickly rose to become Mexico's key labor leader by the 1920s. He had been a member of the anarchist Casa del Obrero Mundial. In 1918 he formed the Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM), which became Mexico's leading labor organization. Morones played a significant role in getting Mexican labor to participate in the PAFL. He later served in Mexico's national government, leading to closer ties between labor and the government.

Murray, John: A Quaker and philanthropist from New York City, Murray later moved to California for health reasons. There he aided poor Mexicans who were living in California. Murray became a socialist and worked with a number of radical newspapers. He traveled to Mexico before and again during the Mexican Revolution. He maintained a friendship with the Mexican opposition leader Ricardo Flores Magón and made contact with the Casa del ObreroMundial, a revolutionary trade union organized in 1912. Upon his return to the United States, Murray sought to create links between workers in the United States and Mexico. He was influential in the formation and activities of the PAFL. Murray later committed suicide after contracting tuberculosis.