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

• Superior document: Historical Materialism Book Series, Volume 120
• VerfasserIn: Tosstorff, Reiner,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, [Netherlands] ;, Boston, [Massachusetts] : : Brill,, 2004.; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Series: Historical materialism book series ; Volume 120.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (936 p.)
• Notes: Translated from the German.

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.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Introduction -- From Trade Union Internationalism to the International Federation of Trade Unions -- In Search of a Revolutionary Trade Union International -- The International Trade Union Council (1920–1) -- The Founding Congress of the Red International of Labour Unions -- From the First to the Second Congress of the RILU -- The United Front That Didn’t Happen in 1923: The Role of the RILU -- The RILU between 1924 and 1927: In Danger of Dissolution for the Sake of International Trade Union Unity -- The RILU in the Context of the ‘Ultra-Left’ Policy of International Communism 1928–34 -- The End of the Road: The RILU from 1934–7 -- Conclusion -- Lozovsky and the Bolsheviks before 1920: A Biographical Sketch -- Biographies of Other Leading Figures -- Bibliography -- Index of Main Figures.