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Citrine and the IFTU

Section six

The IFTU had developed out of the International Secretariat of Trade Union Centres, in 1913. In the mid '20s the General Council of the TUC used its influence to try and arrange for the smooth enrolment of the Russian trade union Movement into the IFTU. But the other continental unions were suspicious of Russian motives. The Russians themselves did little to abate those suspicions. And the project lapsed.

In 1931, the offices of the IFTU were moved from their original location in Amsterdam to Berlin. Two years later, the Nazis came to power, and proceeded to suppress the German trade union Movement. In the same year the General Council of the TUC drafted a report on "Dictatorship and the Trade Union Movement", underlining the lessons of the German Movement's experience since the Treaty of Versailles. This report was overwhelmingly approved by the Brighton Congress of 1933.

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