AFL-CIO International Affairs Department, Country Files
Collection
0043-LBR-RG18-010
This collection continues the International Affairs Department, Country Files, 1945-1971 (RG18-001) and is comprised of those records, known as "country files," maintained by certain AFL-CIO staff members and filed according to specific countries. The collection consists primarily of reports made by representatives of trade union delegations, unions, and the AFL-CIO on the trade union movement and on the political, social, and economic situation in particular countries. Materials include correspondence concerning invitations, delegations, and requests for assistance; and congratulatory messages.
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.
Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.
Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.
Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.
12.5 Linear Feet (8 Paige boxes, 1 document box with photographs)
This collection continues the International Affairs Department Country Files for the years 1945 to 1971 (RG18-001) and is organized by region as indicated in the series description. The date range for this collection is 1969-1981, with a bulk date range of 1972-1976. The collection consists primarily of reports made by representatives of trade union delegations, unions, and the AFL-CIO on the trade union movement and on the political, social, and economic situation in particular countries. Topics include: drought relief, civil war, repression, refugees, apartheid, disaster relief, human rights, genocide, labor in Turkey, labor in Bangladesh, Basque workers, political unrest, anti-communism, guest worker, Sandinista Revolution, and political dissidents. Material types include: correspondence concerning invitations, delegations, and requests for assistance; congratulatory messages; speeches, proposals, press releases, newspaper clippings, and photographs.
Staff of the IAD during the date span of and featured prominently in this collection include: Michael Boggs, Irving Brown, James Ellenberger, Harry Goldberg, Ernest Lee, Jay Lovestone, Andrew McLellan, and Morris Paladino. Additional departmental history is available in the International Affairs Department history.
This collection is organized into six series:
The records comprising Series 2 of this collection were transferred to the George Meany Memorial Archives from the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department and accessioned in 1983; the records comprising Series 1, 3, 4, and 5 were accessioned in 1982. In 2013, all collections were then transferred to the University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, MD.
This collection has been processed to the folder level. At the series level, the arrangement reflects the regional approach the AFL-CIO took toward international affairs - that is, arranged first by regions and/or continents.
Sarah Springer at the George Meany Memorial Archives initially processed these records in January 2001. The University of Maryland Libraries received the records and the finding aid in 2014. In 2017, Bria Parker migrated the information contained in this finding aid from the George Meany Memorial Archives' Eloquent system. All migrated finding aids have been cleaned using OpenRefine software and ingested into ArchivesSpace using programmatic scripts created in Python. Upon ingest, Jennifer Eidson reviewed and made minor revisions to this finding aid. Revisions include changes to biographical/historical notes, scope and content notes, and the creation of new collection numbers. Jennifer Eidson also enhanced custodial histories and re-wrote collection titles to better conform to archival standards.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives