Western Hemisphere 1951

Synopsis

In the years after World War II, labor organizations in the United States began to take a renewed interest in Latin America. In particular, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) hoped to establish a hemispheric labor body that it could control so as to counter the role of the left-leaning Confederación de Trabajadores de América Latina (CTAL). To this end, in 1947 the AFL hired Serafino Romualdi as its "labor ambassador" to Latin America, a post that he held until 1965. After touring Latin America in 1946-1947 to gain support for a regional labor confederation, Romualdi helped to establish the Confederación Inter-Americana de Trabajadores (CIT) in 1948. In 1951 this organization became the Organización Regional Inter-Americana de Trabajadores (ORIT).

In general, ORIT ideology was similar to that of the AFL. In the context...