World Federation of Trade Unions Archives

Period 1945-1987 (-1989)
Total size   1.8 m.
Consultation Not restricted

History

Founded October 1945 during the International Trade Union Congress in Paris; the delegates, including representatives of the American Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the Soviet trade unions, agreed to set up a new world federation replacing the old International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) and the Red International of Labour Unions (PROFINTERN, 1920-1934), as result of the desire for unity, peace and progress after the Second World War; the development of the cold war and the increasing communist influence in the Executive Committee of the WFTU resulted from 1948 in the departure of the noncommunist organizations, in order to found their own organization in 1949, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU); the state dominated East European trade unions came to control the WFTU, especially since the Soviet trade unions constituted one-half of the membership; other members are from many countries in Asia and Latin America; the French Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) and, until 1978, the Italian Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL) are the only significant West European member unions; had its secretariat in Paris 1945-1951, in Vienna 1951-1956 and since 1956 in Prague; publishes monthly World Trade Union Movement, and weekly Flashes from the Trade Unions.

Content

Collection of documents received from Walter Schevenels, Assistent General Secretary (1945-January 1949), completed with other documents, mainly stencilled and printed material. Correspondence by Walter Schevenels 1946-1948; files of Schevenels on the trade union movement in Germany and other countries 1945-1948, the Pan African Conference 1947 etc., mainly consisting of correspondence, reports, clippings; documents on meetings of governing bodies of the WFTU: agenda, resolutions, proceedings (drafts and original), notes; files on congresses 1945-1982, meetings of the General Council 1947-1960, 1977 and the Executive Committee and Bureau 1945-1958, consisting of proceedings, resolutions, reports; documents on the split of the WFTU 1948-1949, on International Trade Departments of the WFTU 1946-1981 (-1986); circulars 1946-1966; press releases 1949-1963, 1979-1987; reports 1946-1947; press clippings 1944-1978.

NB. The main part of the papers of Walter Schevenels at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA.

Processing information

Preliminary list by L.E.G. Schwidder