The 1921 founding congress in Moscow of the Red International of Labour Unions was a historic event. That gathering set out to create an international revolutionary trade-union organisation embracing millions of workers, and it brought together a wide variety of forces within the world labour movement. Lively and at times acrimonious debates occurred at the congress with syndicalist and other currents over the purpose and tasks of trade unions, the nature of class-struggle unionism, and union strategy and tactics.
The congress proceedings, published here in a richly annotated edition, are part of a multi-volume series on the Communist International in Leninâs time.
Mike Taber is editor of The Communist Movement at a Crossroads (Brill, 2018), Fighting Fascism (Haymarket Books, 2017), and Under the Socialist Banner (Haymarket Books, 2021). He has also edited and prepared collections by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, James P. Cannon, and Maurice Bishop.
Introduction
About This Edition
List of Abbreviations
Proceedings of the RILU First Congress
Session 1. 3July 1921, Evening Opening Session; Greetings Session 2. 4July 1921, Evening Congress Organisation; Work of International Council Session 3. 6July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Manifesto; Debate on International Council Report Session 4. 8July 1921, MorningâAfternoon World Economic Crisis; Trade Union Tasks and Tactics Session 5. 9July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Credentials; RILU-Comintern Relations Session 6. 9July 1921, Evening RILU-Comintern Relations (continued) Session 7. 10July 1921, MorningâAfternoon RILU-Comintern Relations (continued) Session 8. 11July 1921, MorningâAfternoon RILU-Comintern Relations (continued) Session 9. 11July 1921, Evening RILU-Comintern Relations; Workersâ Control Session 10. 13July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Factory Committees; Italian Question Session 11. 13July 1921, Evening Italian Question (continued) Session 12. 14July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Debate on Tactics Session 13. 14July 1921, Evening Debate on Tactics (continued) Session 14. 15July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Debate on Tactics (continued) Session 15. 15July 1921, Evening Organisation Report; Women in Unions Session 16. 18July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Commission Reports; War Victims Session 17. 19July 1921, MorningâAfternoon Trade Unions in East; Commission Reports; Russian Anarchists; Congress Closing Statements Handed in to Presidium and Attached to Minutes
Congress Commissions and Central Council Session
Organisation Commission
Commission on Tactics
Commission on Workersâ Control
Central Council Session
Resolutions
Manifesto to the Workers of the World
Resolution on the Activity of the Provisional Council of Red Trade and Industrial Unions over the Past Year
Resolution on Relations between the Red Labour Union International and the Communist International
Resolution on the Italian Question
Resolution on the Tasks and Tactics of Trade Unions
Resolution on Workersâ Control
Resolution on Factory Committees
Resolution on the Organisation Question
Statutes of the Red International of Labour Unions
Resolution on the Womenâs Question
Resolution on the Unemployment Question
Resolution on the Question of War Victims
Resolution on the Labour Movement in the Near and Far Eastern Countries and the Colonies
Appeal against the White Terror
To the Workers of the United Kingdom
To the Spanish Proletariat
Greetings to the Russian People
Appendix1: Amiens Charter Appendix2: June 1920 Conference of Unionists from Britain, Italy, and Russia Appendix3: KAPD Resolution on the Trade-Union Question Appendix4: Women in the French Metallurgy Industry
âLouise Heuchel Chronology Glossary Bibliography Index
The book is especially relevant for academic libraries, institutes, and historians including (post)graduate students specializing in the history of communism, socialism, labor, and trade unionism during the interwar period.