Regional Organizations of International Labor

In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Band 310, Heft 1, S. 12-20

Abstract

Since World War II, the focus of power in the international labor movement is no longer in Europe. Events, in which American labor has played a significant role, have favored a definite trend toward decentralization and the strengthening of regional organization. This has been secured in part by the establishment of regional (Asian, European, Latin American) offices by inter national federations of unions in specific trades or industries, and in part by the creation of regional organizations in Europe, the Americas, and Asia by the In ternational Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The author discusses some of the problems involved in these trends, the specific difficulties which face the ex tension of the movement to Africa, and the rivalry between the leading world confederations of labor, the ICFTU and the Communist World Federation of Trade Unions.—Ed.