11 Facts About Irving Brown

Irving Brown was an American trade unionist and leader in the American Federation of Labor and subsequently the AFL-CIO.

Irving Brown studied at New York University and at the Columbia University.

In 1940 Irving Brown began to organize for the American Federation of Labor on a national level, and by 1942 Irving Brown had become a labor representative to the War Production Board.

Irving Brown arrived in Paris in November 1945 and organized anticommunist unions.

Irving Brown supported in particular the creation of the French Force ouvriere union, which he subsidized by Andre Bergeron and Leon Jouhaux in 1947, and the Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions, created in 1950.

Until 1986, Irving Brown was present at every annual congresses in FO.

On June 26,1950, Irving Brown was part of the American delegation at the founding meeting of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in Berlin.

Irving Brown gave financial support to anticommunist movements that broke the 1947 strikes in Italy and France.

Irving Brown helped organize the anticommunist coalition of free trade unions in Greece and the Mediterranean Port Committee, which wrested control of French, Italian, and Greek ports from the communists.

Irving Brown participated in Chile in the CIA's efforts to destabilize the country during Salvador Allende's presidency.

Irving Brown was decorated by US President Ronald Reagan in 1988 of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and he died the following year.