Why Did the AFL-CIO Self-Destruct? The 96th Convention of the American Federation of Musicians — a unit of the AFL-CIO — gathered in Las Vegas July 17-20. I wasn’t there; but I have seen the write-up of the public meetings described in International Musician, the flagship periodical of the AFM. I wanted to “file a report” on these proceedings. So in the interest of full disclosure, I need to give some background here. My husband has been a member of the AFM since he was 16 years old; but then he’s a fulltime working musician, and having a union card...