Foreign Policy and Organized Labor during the Cold War: New History of a Pivotal Era

Amid rising interest in the relationship between labor unions and U.S. foreign policy led by historians like Tim Barker and Tej Nagaraja, this panel convenes junior scholars whose research offers new perspectives on the various ways that international politics and the labor movement shaped one another in the late 20th Century. The panelists will speak to the Autoworkers' and Machinists’ relationship with defense contractors, their role in the Space Race, organized labor’s reaction to Japanese-made goods in the context of 1980s foreign policy, and global organized labor's place in the struggle over South African Apartheid. By melding the findings from military, technology, and foreign relations, and social movements, this panel aims to situate labor and work in the defining themes of Cold War history.