Throughout the Cold War, the American labor movement was a steadfast supporter of democracy. Recognizing the evil of the Soviet system, which, ironically for a self-proclaimed workers’ paradise banned free labor unions, American labor worked with other American and global civic institutions in bringing down communism.

The AFL-CIO purged communist infiltrators from its ranks and under the visionary leadership of President Lane Kirkland, funneled millions of dollars to the Solidarity movement in Poland. Indeed, Fred Siegel once declared Kirkland “an architect of America’s victory in the Cold War.”