The TUC Overseas: The Roots of Policy

The TUC Overseas (1986) traces the decisions made by the Trades Union Congress in response to domestic and external influences and events, from its establishment of a joint international committee with the Labour Party in 1917 to the first congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions in 1945. In this crucial period the TUC played a part in the establishment of the International Labour Organization and in the reconstitution of the International Federation of Trade Unions and the Labour and Socialist International after the Great War, in the rivalry with the Communist International and the Red International of Labour Unions, and in the reunification of the international trade union movement in the final years of the Second World War. This international framework and the Labour Partys imperial policy are treated here in relation to the TUCs work first in India and then in the colonies.