Brown, Irving, 1911-1989

Irving Joseph Brown was born in New York City on November 20, 1911, to a family long active in trade unions in the United States. His father was a leader in New York City's Teamsters' union local. After attending New York City public schools, Brown put himself through New York University, completing in 1932 a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in economics. He participated in the initial efforts to form an automobile industry union, becoming a national organizer for the Automobile Workers Union of the American Federation of Labor in 1936. In 1939, he was elected to the Automobile Workers Union Executive Council. He also served as its regional director in the East. In 1940, Brown became a national organizer for the American Federation of Labor. In 1942, AFL President William Green named Brown as one of labor's representatives to the War Production Board (WPB). Brown became the WPB's deputy vice-chairman for labor in 1944. Through an agreement between the AFL and CIO, Brown received an appointment as the director of the labor and manpower division of the United States Foreign Economic Administration, the group that implemented labor policy in occupied areas. He served in that capacity for less than a year, resigning in September 1945 over a disagreement regarding official American policy towards the reactivation of the German trade union movement. In October 1945, Brown accepted a position that would keep him in Europe for almost two decades. As the AFL's European representative, Brown played a major role in the formulation of the federation's international labor policy, establishing the organization's influence and staunch anticommunist position throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. He kept in close contact with Jay Lovestone, first as executive secretary of the Free Trade Union Committee and later as director of the International Affairs Department while carrying out this work. In July 1949, he joined with labor leaders from around the world to create the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), a global labor organization designed as an alternative to the World Federation of Trade Unions, which Brown and others perceived as communist-dominated. Brown returned to New York in 1962 to become the director of the ICFTU's office to the United Nations. Three years later he left that office to serve as the first executive director of the African-American Labor Center. This organization, which he persuaded the AFL-CIO leadership to create, supported the growth of free trade unions in Africa. In 1973, Brown returned to Europe to serve as the AFL-CIO's international representative. He remained there until AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland appointed him director of the International Affairs Department in 1982. In 1986, Brown became a senior adviser to Kirkland. He died in 1989.