Auguste Cool

Auguste Cool   (labour leader, deep state operative?)
Born	Petrus Augustinus Cool 28 August 1903 Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
Died	7 January 1983 (Age 79) Beigem, Belgium
Nationality	Belgian
Children	Bavo Cool
Belgian anti-communist labour leader and suspected deep state operative.  Confederation of Christian Trade Unions/Chair In office 1946 - 1968

Petrus Augustinus (August) Cool was a Belgian labour leader and suspected deep state operative.

Background

August Cool was born the youngest child in a working-class family with twelve children. He studied at the vocational school Sint-Antonius in Sint-Niklaas and then went to work as a technical draftsman in a local metal construction company (Nobels). In 1921, on the recommendation of his brother Jozef Cool, a friar, he went to Limburg and went to work in the Sint-Barbara mine workshop in Eisden, where he joined the fledgling Christian Miners' centre.

Thanks to Pieter-Jan Broekx, priest and senator for Limburg, Cool was able to study at the social School of Heverlee and received his diploma there in 1924. Already a year later he started working as a propagandist for a mining union and in 1928 he became its secretary until 1932. In the meantime, the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV) had established branch in Limburg. Cool became its first chairman in 1929.

In 1932, Cool moved away from Limburg and became general secretary of the ACV in Brussels. He turned out to be an ardent propagandist and a good organizer and mediator. Together with Henri Pauwels, Maurits Ketels and Canon Jozef Cardijn, he fled to France during the German invasion, but returned to Belgium after the Belgian capitulation. He joined the Union of manual and mental workers (UHGA) and went to work for this -unified by force - union founded by the occupier on November 13, 1940. A year later he was dismissed. Shortly after the liberation, on October 17, 1944, he was arrested by the state security for interrogation, but released again a day later. Despite this black page, he was able to maintain himself during the purge within the ACV. On 15 October 1946 he was even elected president of the ACV, a position he would hold until his retirement in 1968.

World Confederation of Labour and the CIA

In the context of the World Confederation of Labour (WCL), the former ACV chairman August Cool conducted an anti-communist crusade in Africa, Asia and Latin America after the Second World War. On that basis, the WCL built up a relatively important influence in the Third World countries, in particularly in Latin America (through the regional trade union organization CLAT) and some African countries (such as Zaire). The paths of European Christian democracy (and its money flows) are remarkably similar to those of the American AFL-CIO and the CIA.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
1948 Hague Congress	7 May 1948	11 May 1948	Netherlands The Hague	Landmark conference which had a profound influence on the shape of the European Movement. Many of the groups organizing the conference received covert funding from the CIA.
Bilderberg/1956	11 May 1956	13 May 1956	Denmark Fredensborg	The 4th Bilderberg meeting, with 147 guests, in contrast to the generally smaller meetings of the 1950s. Has two Bilderberg meetings in the years before and after
Bilderberg/1966	25 March 1966	27 March 1966	Germany Wiesbaden Hotel Nassauer Hof	Top of the agenda of the 15th Bilderberg in Wiesbaden, Germany, was the restructuring of NATO. Since this discussion was held, all permanent holders of the position of NATO Secretary General have attended at least one Bilderberg conference prior to their appointment.

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