With Flags Waving

Abstract

Abstract In contrast to the usual story that ICFTU efforts in Africa were moribund by the mid-1960s, its connections to the Liberian CIO were increasing then, due largely to the efforts of Black American, Caribbean, and African trade unionists who worked with or for the ICFTU. When European ICFTU officials hesitated for fear of upsetting the repressive Tubman government, ICFTU members from among the African diaspora expressed more optimism and consistently advocated for connecting directly with Liberian labor. They also made key visits to Liberia, either on their own or on delegations, and often distributed aid and provided training on the ground. Although the ICFTU did not achieve all its goals there, demonstrating the difficulty in organizing labor in the face of government opposition, small gains did occur due primarily to the bottom-up pressure from Black members among the lower ranks of the ICFTU, revealing consistent Black agency in the ICFTU's African activities in the 1960s. This study also shows how ICFTU actions, largely based on the understanding by its Black members that labor was linked closely to society and politics, threatened to undermine the key goal of domestic stability and control that Tubman sought to achieve through his foreign policy efforts in Africa during the 1960s.