European Forum on US History: Frédéric Heurtebize

Frédéric Heurtebize is Professor of American studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle University. His research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and transatlantic relations during the Cold War. He is the author of Le péril rouge: Washington face à l’eurocommunisme (Paris, 2014) and co-editor of Alliances and Power Politics in the Trump Era: America in Retreat? (New York, 2020). His work has appeared in Diplomatic History, Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Relations Internationales and Vingtième Siècle. He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in 2008 and at American University’s School of International Service in 2023. He is currently writing a book on US policy toward democratic transitions in Southern Europe in the 1970s.

While scholars have highlighted the role of European social-democratic parties, trade unions, and transnational networks in Portugal’s democratic transition (1974–75), the involvement of American labor organizations has received little attention. Drawing on AFL-CIO, UAW, and ICFTU archives, this paper examines how American labor leaders interpreted the Carnation Revolution and sought to influence the emerging labor movement. It argues that their responses differed significantly. The AFL-CIO, skeptical of détente and increasingly isolated from European unions, largely disengaged, while the UAW remained active through international labor networks. These contrasting approaches reflected deeper divisions within American labor internationalism over anti-communism and cooperation with European unions. Despite their shared commitment to free and pluralistic unionism, both organizations exercised limited influence, revealing the constraints of US labor’s internationalism during the Cold War.

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