The Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) 1920-1937 / by Reiner Tosstorff ; translated by Ben Fowkes.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Translated from the German.

Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on September 15, 2016).

‎Contents; ‎Acknowledgements; ‎Abbreviations; ‎Introduction; ‎Author's Note; ‎Chapter 1. From Trade Union Internationalism to the International Federation of Trade Unions; ‎Chapter 2. In Search of a Revolutionary Trade Union International; ‎1. The International Politics of the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions 1917-20; ‎2. The Communist International and the Trade-Union Question; ‎3. The Impact of the October Revolution on the Revolutionary Syndicalists; ‎4. The First Trade-Union Contacts: The Question of the International Trade Secretariats and Shliapnikov's Mission

‎Chapter 3. The International Trade Union Council (1920-1)‎1. Its Foundation; ‎2. A Sequel: The Second Comintern Congress and the Trade-Union Question; ‎3. The Organisation of the International Trade Union Council; ‎4. The Foreign Delegations of the VTsSPS in Autumn 1920: Making Propaganda for the International Trade Union Council; ‎5. 'Amsterdam' or 'Moscow': The Course of the Argument within the IFTU after the Foundation of the International Trade Union Council; ‎6. The Syndicalists En Route for Moscow; ‎6.1. The Levi Zentrale of the KPD and Syndicalism: Out of Tune with the Comintern

‎7. The International Trade Union Council, 1920-1: Its Programme, Activities and Organisation‎8. Towards the Founding Congress: Discussions between the ITUC and the Delegates; ‎9. The Russian Trade Unions and the International Trade Secretariats, 1920-1; ‎Chapter 4. The Founding Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions; ‎1. The Course of the Congress and the Establishment of the RILU (Profintern); ‎2. Relations between the Comintern and the RILU; ‎3. The Tactics, Organisation and Statutes of the RILU; ‎4. The First RILU Congress Draws to a Conclusion

‎5. The Syndicalist Opposition and the Question of the Anarchist Prisoners‎6. Excursus: The Trade-Union Discussion at the Third Comintern Congress; ‎7. The Formation of the RILU Leadership: The First Session of the Central Council; ‎8. The Establishment of the International Propaganda Committees; ‎Chapter 5. From the First to the Second Congress of the RILU; ‎1. Should the RILU be Disbanded? Resignations and Demands for Liquidation; ‎2. The Syndicalists between Moscow and Berlin; ‎3. The Development of the RILU as an Organisation and a Political Entity: From the First to the Second Congress

‎4. The International Trade Secretariats and the International Propaganda Committees, 1921-2‎5. The Second Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions; ‎6. Excursus: Closer Organisational Connections with the Comintern: The RILU as Its International Trade-Union Apparatus; ‎Chapter 6. The United Front That Didn't Happen in 1923: The Role of the RILU; ‎1. From the Hague Congress to the Ruhr Crisis: Fimmen Breaks Ranks; ‎2. The Attempt to Achieve the United Front through the International Trade Secretariats; ‎3. The Third Session of the Central Council

The 'Red International of Labour Unions' (RILU, Russian abbreviation Profintern) was a central instrument for the spreading of international communism during the inter-war period. This comprehensive and scholarly history of the organisation, based on extensive research in the former communist archives in Moscow and East Berlin, sheds significant light on the international trade union movement of the period. Tosstorff shows how the RILU began as a revolutionary alliance of syndicalists and communists in defiance of the social democratic International Federation of Trade Unions. His text presents a full account of the organisation's main stages: the decline of the revolutionary wave after World War One, after which many syndicalists left, and others were integrated into the communist parties; the continuation of the RILU as an international communist apparatus; and its dissolution in 1936-7 as part of communism's popular front policy. First published in German as Profintern: Die Rote Gewerkschaftsinternationale 1920-1937 by Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn, in 2004.

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