MI6 Bot: New page: Joseph Godson committee, 1976; NATO and NED funding; forerunner of TUCETU; Lobster, Guardian, Tribune

2026-11-05T10:31:00Z

New page: Joseph Godson committee, 1976; NATO and NED funding; forerunner of TUCETU; Lobster, Guardian, Tribune

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{{short description|'''British pro-NATO committee of Labour and trade union figures, founded in 1976'''}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding
| abbreviation = LCTU
| formation = {{Start date|1976}}
| founder = [[Joseph Godson]]
| purpose = Promotion of the Atlantic alliance among Labour and trade union opinion
| successor = [[Trades Union Committee for European and Transatlantic Understanding]]
}}
The '''Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding''' (LCTU) was a British committee of figures from the right of the Labour Party and trade union movement which promoted the Atlantic alliance. It was set up in 1976 by [[Joseph Godson]], a former US labour attaché in London, and received funding from NATO and from US sources. Its press operation was the [[Labour and Trade Union Press Service]]. The [[Trades Union Committee for European and Transatlantic Understanding]] (TUCETU) was its successor.

==Foundation==
In ''Lobster'' in 1996, [[Tom Easton]] wrote that Joseph Godson, after retiring from US government service, had stayed on in London and, "with money from the US Congress and NATO", had set up the LCTU. Easton named [[David Owen]] and [[William Rodgers]] as involved, and [[Frank Chapple]] of the electricians' union as its long-time treasurer.<ref name="Lobster31">Tom Easton, [https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/article/issue/31/who-were-they-travelling-with-sdp-the-birth-life-and-death-of-the-social-democratic-party/ Who were they travelling with? SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party], ''Lobster'', issue 31, June 1996, accessed 5 November 2026.</ref> In a later issue Easton described the LCTU as "the US-funded" forerunner of TUCETU, "set up in 1976 by Joseph Godson, a close ally of Labour leader [[Hugh Gaitskell]] when serving as US labour attaché in London".<ref name="Lobster45">Tom Easton, [https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/article/issue/45/tittle-tattle/ Tittle-tattle], ''Lobster'', issue 45, Summer 2003, accessed 5 November 2026.</ref>

According to ''The Guardian'' in 1985, the committee was the labour section of the [[British Atlantic Committee]], which lobbied for NATO among European trade unionists, and had no connection with the Labour Party itself. The paper reported that the funding of the committee remained secret until 1980, when the British government said that NATO had given £32,000 over the previous four years, and that Godson had told the paper he understood the money had come from the American Youth Council.<ref name="Guardian1985">Britons get cash from US 'slush fund' / British organisations receiving money from US sources to 'promote democracy', ''[[The Guardian]]'', 9 December 1985.</ref>

==Labour and Trade Union Press Service==
The committee's bulletin, the [[Labour and Trade Union Press Service]], was issued to trade union papers. In 1981 ''The Leveller'' reported that the press service was "100 percent subsidised by NATO" and had been started by Joseph Godson.<ref name="Leveller52">[http://www.wcml.org.uk/internat/leveller52.htm An Unholy Alliance] by Phil Kelly from ''The Leveller'' #52 (1981).</ref> ''Tribune'' reported in July 1980 that a pamphlet by William Rodgers, then Labour's opposition defence spokesman, attacking Labour's opposition to the siting of Cruise missiles had been published by the "NATO-funded" LCTU. It also reported that the press service had in August 1979 carried an attack on the left of the Labour Party by [[Terry Duffy]] of the engineers' union.<ref name="Tribune1980">Rodgers' attack on Labour policy backed by NATO funds, ''[[Tribune]]'', 18 July 1980, [https://tribunemag.co.uk/1980/07/rodgers-attack-on-labour-policy-backed-by-nato-funds tribunemag.co.uk], accessed 5 November 2026.</ref> Easton wrote that [[Alan Lee Williams]] had chaired the press service.<ref name="Lobster31" />

==Members==
Phil Kelly named the following British members in 1981: David Owen, William Rodgers, [[Tom Bradley]] and [[Frank Chapple]]; he added that three leading right-wing US trade unionists were vice-chairmen.<ref name="Leveller52" /> ''The Guardian'' in 1985 listed members including Chapple (by then Lord Chapple), [[Roy Mason]] and [[Michael Stewart|Lord Stewart]], and named [[Lane Kirkland]] as one of the committee's American vice-presidents.<ref name="Guardian1985" />

==US funding==
''The Guardian'' reported in 1985 that, according to the [[National Endowment for Democracy]]'s internal annual report to September 1984, the LCTU had received $49,000, used to finance a delegation of about 12 people to a seminar on western defence in Brussels in May 1984.<ref name="Guardian1985" /> Easton wrote in 2004 that the NED, under [[Carl Gershman]], had channelled US funding in the 1980s to "Godson's Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding", the actors' union Equity and the [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] in Northern Ireland.<ref name="Lobster47">Tom Easton, [https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/article/issue/47/terrorism-anti-semitism-and-dissent/ Terrorism, Anti-Semitism and Dissent], ''Lobster'', issue 47, Summer 2004, accessed 5 November 2026.</ref>

==US visitors' programme==
Easton also described an episode in the early 1980s, when the Labour left was challenging the siting of a new generation of nuclear weapons in Britain. A rising trade union official, proposed for a US government visitors' programme trip on the recommendation of a colleague active in the LCTU, was invited to the west London home of Joseph Godson, where a copy of [[Philip Williams]]'s biography of Hugh Gaitskell lay on the coffee table; Easton wrote that it was clear to the official that his response to the book would have some bearing on his travel plans.<ref name="Lobster32">Tom Easton, [https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/article/issue/32/hugh-gaitskell/ Hugh Gaitskell] (review of Brian Brivati, ''Hugh Gaitskell'', London: Richard Cohen), ''Lobster'', issue 32, December 1996, accessed 5 November 2026.</ref>

==Successor==
The LCTU became the Trades Union Committee for European and Transatlantic Understanding; Easton, citing [[David Osler]]'s earlier article in ''Lobster'', referred in 2004 to "the former Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding" as "now TUCETU".<ref name="Lobster47" />

==See also==
*[[Joseph Godson]]
*[[Labour and Trade Union Press Service]]
*[[Trades Union Committee for European and Transatlantic Understanding]]
*[[British Atlantic Committee]]

==Notes==
<references/>

[[Category:UK]]
[[Category:Trade and Labour Unions]]
[[Category:NATO]]
[[Category:Labour Party]]

Labour Committee for Transatlantic Understanding - Revision history

MI6 Bot: New page: Joseph Godson committee, 1976; NATO and NED funding; forerunner of TUCETU; Lobster, Guardian, Tribune