Western Europe (including Canada and Turkey), 1945-1970

This series contains correspondence, speeches, minutes, reports, clippings, biographical information, conference materials, maps, printed material, and photographs. The records date from 1945 to 1970, but most fall within the period 1955-1970. The records of George Delaney, AFL-CIO International Affairs Representative and worker delegate on the governing board of the International Labor Organization (ILO), cover his post-war work in those organizations from 1948 to 1954 and are located at the beginning of the files for each of the relevant countries.

The records document the relations among U.S., Western European, Canadian and Turkish trade union and government officials as they worked to build a free trade union movement in Europe from 1945 through 1970. Specific subjects of interest in the series include: international educational and cultural exchange visits; refugee and relief policy in post-war Europe; work of the International Conference of Free Trade Unions and the International Labor Organization; European common market; policy regarding workers at U.S. Army bases in Europe; relations with the Soviet Union, and efforts to limit the influence of communism in the European trade union movement; policy of European countries regarding the Vietnam War and peace negotiations (particularly in France and England); West German/Soviet Bloc-East German relationship in the late 1960s; influence of the Vatican on labor; work of the French Trade Union Organization (Force Ouvriere) in French North African colonies; Socialist influence on labor in various European countries; exploration of human rights violations in Spain, Ireland and post-War Italy; and general American-European political affairs.

Major correspondents include: Irving Brown, George Delaney, Harry Goldberg, Ernest Lee, Jay Lovestone, George Meany, Harry Pollak, Victor Reuther, Walter Reuther, Michael Ross, and Henry Rutz of the AFL-CIO; Konrad Adenauer (Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany), Hermann Bremer (Labor Secretary, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany), Andre Bergeron (Secretary General, Force Ouvriere), Willi Brandt (Mayor of Berlin,), Victor Feather (General Secretary, British Trades Union Congress), George Leber (President, Construction Trades Union of Germany), Edward Lonergan (Deputy Director, Trade Union Exchange Programs Division, United States Department of Labor), Fotis Makris (Secretary General, Confederation of Greek Labour), Ludwig Rosenberg (President, German Trade Union Federation, DGB), Sargent Shriver (U.S. Ambassador to France), Bruno Storti (General Secretary, Italian Confederation of Trade Union Workers, CISL), Pascal Tomas (General Secretary, General Union of Spanish Workers in Exile), Guilio Pastore (General Secretary, Italian Conferederation of Labor Unions), and Harold Wilson (Prime Minister of Britain).