American Center for International Labor Solidarity

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ACILS

Full name	American Center for International Labor Solidarity
Native name	Solidarity Center
Founded	1997
Country	United States
Head union	Nancy Mills, Interim Executive Director
Affiliation	AFL-CIO
Key people	John J. Sweeney, Board of Trustees Chair
Office location	888 16th Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20006; global field offices
Website	solidaritycenter.org

The American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), better known as the Solidarity Center, is a non-profit organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO labor federation that serves as a conduit for US foreign aid.

Its stated mission is to help build a global labor movement by strengthening the economic and political power of workers around the world through effective, independent, and democratic unions.

History

The AFL-CIO established ACILS in 1997. The Solidarity Center was created through the consolidation of four labor institutes: the American Institute for Free Labor Development, the Asian-American Free Labor Institute, the African-American Labor Center, and the Free Trade Union Institute. The pre-existing institutes were merged by John Sweeney when he was President of the AFL–CIO.

The AFL-CIO had worked internationally for many decades. With some funding from the OSS and CIA, it had worked to stop Communist movements in Western Europe after World War II.^[1][2] In Guyana, labor unions and the CIA supported a general strike that stopped the PPP government from creating another PPP/state-controlled labor union.^[3][4]

Role Played in American Foreign Policy

Programs

The Solidarity Center classifies its funding into the following program types:^[5]

• Worker & Human Rights
• Organizing & Bargaining

The Solidarity Center assisted in Haiti's FTZ (Free Trade Zone). When textile manufacturer Grupo M, the Dominican Republic’s largest employer, applied to the International Finance Corporation (the World Bank’s private sector lending arm) for a $20 million loan to open a factory on the Haiti-Dominican border, the Solidarity Center, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the Dominican Federation of Free Trade Zone Workers (FEDOTRAZONAS) worked together to condition the loan on respect for worker rights.

• Global Economy
• Gender & Equality
• Safety & Health
• Migration & Human Trafficking

Funding

Over 96% of its funding comes from the United States federal government, mostly through the National Endowment for Democracy.^{[original research?]}

This article may contain improper references to self-published sources. Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources, where they are used inappropriately. (July 2011)

^[6] The NED distributes grants to four institutes, two associated with economic interests and two with political interests. The Solidary Center is associated with labor and the Center for International Private Enterprise is associated with the Chamber of Commerce. There are two institutes associated with the major U.S. political parties, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.^{[original research?][7][8]} The open allocation of funding to these institutes has been intended to provide greater transparency to U.S. citizens, as appropriate for a democracy, than did the pre-1980s practice of providing covert funding through the CIA.^[9]

The Solidarity Center receives funding from labor unions and solicits individual donations on its website.^[10]

Field Offices

In addition to the international headquarters, the Solidarity Center maintains the following field offices:^[11]

• Africa
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • South Africa
  • Zimbabwe

• Americas
  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Dominican Republic and Haiti
  • Ecuador
  • Guatemala
  • Mexico

• Asia
  • Bangladesh
  • Cambodia
  • Indonesia
  • Pakistan
  • Sri Lanka
  • Thailand

• Europe and Central Asia
  • Georgia
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Ukraine

• Middle East and North Africa
  • Algeria
  • Jordan
  • Kuwait
  • Morocco
  • Palestine
  • Qatar

References

Further reading

• Bollen, Kenneth; Paxton, Pamela; Morishima, Rumi (June 2005). "Assessing international evaluations: An example from USAID’s Democracy and Governance Programs" (pdf). American Journal of Evaluation 26 (2): 189–203. doi:10.1177/1098214005275640. Evaluation performed on behalf of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), at the request of and with funding from the Strategic and Operational Research Agenda (SORA) of USAID (Office of Democracy and Governance in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance), according to the National Research Council (2008, p. 28). http://www.irss.unc.edu/odum/content/pdf/Bollen_Paxton_Morishima2005AJE.pdf. 
• National Research Council, Committee on Evaluation of USAID Democracy Assistance Programs (2008). Goldstone, Jack A. ed (html). Improving democracy assistance: Building knowledge through evaluations and research. pp. xvi+336. ISBN 0-309-11736-4, ISBN 978-0-309-11736-4. Individuals can download the complete report (pdf format) for private use.. http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12164.html. 

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