International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

<!--SUMMARY: The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is the largest international trade union confederation in the world. It claims 157 million members in 225 affiliated organisations in 148 countries and territories.

The ICFTU was created 7 December 1949 following an ideological split within the World Federation of Trade Unions. A large number of non-communist national trade union federations (including the U.S. AFL-CIO, the British TUC, the French CFDT, the Italian CISL and the Spanish UGT) seceded and created the rival ICFTU at a conference in London attended by representatives of nearly 48 million members in 53 countries.

The ICFTU has three regional organisations, APRO for Asia and the Pacific, AFRO for Africa, and ORIT for the Americas and Caribbean. The ICFTU also maintains close links with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) (which includes all ICFTU European affiliates) and Global Union Federations, which link together national unions from a particular trade or industry at international level.

Every year the ICFTU publishes an annual report which documents violations by governments, industries, and military and police forces against both workers and related trade unions.-->

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when it merged with the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) to form the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Prior to being dissolved, the ICFTU had a membership of 157 million members in 225 affiliated organisations in 148 countries and territories.

History

thumb|left|upright=1.2|[[American Federation of Labor delegates to the ICFTU's founding conference in London, 1949.<br /><small>(L-R): George McGregor Harrison, Jay Lovestone, George Meany, William C. Doherty, Matthew Woll, William Green, Henry Rutz, David Dubinsky, George P. Delaney, James A. Brownlow, Irving Brown and Taylor Buchanan.</small>]]

In 1949, early in the Cold War, alleging Communist domination of the WFTU's central institutions, a large number of non-communist national trade union federations (including the U.S. Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), the British TUC, the French FO, the Italian CISL and the Spanish UGT) seceded and created the rival ICFTU at a conference in London attended by representatives of nearly 48 million members in 53 countries.

Throughout its existence, the ICFTU had internal disputes over what approach to hold to communism.

From the 1950s the ICFTU actively recruited new members from the developing regions of first Asia and subsequently Africa. Following the collapse of Communist party government in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, the Federation's membership has risen steeply from 87 million in 1988 and 100 million in 1992, as trade union federations from former Soviet bloc countries joined the ICFTU.

In 1975 former CIA agent Philip Agee claimed in his book "Inside the Company: CIA Diary" that the ICFTU was a "Labor center set up and controlled by the CIA to oppose the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)."

The ICFTU was formally dissolved on 31 October 2006 when it merged with the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) to form the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Organisation

The ICFTU had four regional organisations. APRO covered Asia and the Pacific, AFRO in Africa, and ORIT for the Americas. Until 1969, the ERO covered Europe, but it became increasingly marginal and was dissolved. The ICFTU later maintained close links with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which included all ICFTU European affiliates). It also worked closely with many Global Union Federations, which link together national unions from a particular trade or industry at international level.

Central to the ICFTU's work was the struggle to defend workers' rights. The ICFTU lobbied for the ratification of the so-called "core labour standards"—eight key conventions of the International Labour Organization concerning freedom of association, the abolition of child labour and forced labour and the elimination of discrimination in the workplace.

The ICFTU has staff which are devoted entirely to the monitoring and defence of workers rights, and they issue—almost on a daily basis—alerts and calls to action. The ICFTU published its "Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights" every June, the publication of which was usually accompanied by extensive press coverage of the violations of trade union rights around the world. The report often focused on the numbers of people killed for being members of unions.

In its constitution, the organisation pledged itself to "champion the cause of human freedom, promote equality of opportunity for all people, seek to eliminate everywhere in the world any form of discrimination or subjugation based on race, religion, sex or origin, oppose and combat totalitarianism and aggression in any form".

That constitution listed no fewer than seventeen aims of the organisation and it has been argued that the ICFTU from its very beginning set itself goals that would be impossible to achieve—particularly with a small staff and budget. For example, the organisation's constitution required it "to carry out a programme of trade union and workers' education" as well as to give "assistance to those suffering from the consequences of natural and industrial disasters".

In 2004 Australian union leader Sharan Burrow was elected as the first female president of the ICFTU.

Annual survey of violations of trade union rights

ICFTU published an annual report which documents violations by governments, industries, and military and police forces against both workers and related trade unions.

2006 report

Released on 7 June 2006 the report reprised the year 2005. The press release from ICFTU OnLine reports,

"115 trade unionists were murdered for defending workers' rights in 2005, while more than 1,600 were subjected to violent assaults and some 9,000 arrested ... Nearly 10,000 workers were sacked for their trade union involvement, and almost 1,700 detained."

The report is divided into five regional sections, with detailed reports by country.