MIA: International Working-Class Organizations: Comintern Archive: Red International of Labor Unions

 

Red International of Labor Unions
(Profintern)
1921 – 1937

 

“The word ‘Profintern’ is a contraction of the Russian term ‘Professionalye Soyuz Internationalnye’ or, literally, ‘Occupational Union International.’”—The World’s Trade Union Movement, Lecture 5.

 

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Encyclopedia of Marxism entry

Congresses

  First World Congress, July 1921

• Constitution

Fraternal Greetings:

• Greetings to the First International Congress Of Revolutionary Trade And Industrial Unions, Lenin

• Georgian Workers and the R.T.U.I.

First-Hand Accounts:

• The “Reds” in Congress: Preliminary Report of the First World Congress of the Red International of Trade and Industrial Unions, J. T. Murphy

• Report Red Trade Union Congress, J. T. Murphy

• The Red Trade Union International: The First World Congress of Revolutionary Unions, Earl Browder

• The Red Trade Union Congress, Ellen Wilkinson

• The First International Congress of the Revolutionary Trade Unions, A. Lozovsky

• Brief Report on the 1st World Congress of RILU, Evan E. Young, US Commissioner, Riga, Latvia

  Second World Congress, November 1922

• Constitution
• Resolutions & Decisions

  Third World Congress, July 1924

• Resolutions & Decisions

Statements

1922: Joint Appeal of the Comintern and Profintern on the United Front

1923: To the Workers of the World - Joint Appeal of the Comintern and Profintern

 

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R.I.L.U. Figures

• William Z. Foster
• Fritz Heckert
• Solomon Abramovich (Alexandr) Lozovsky
• Tom Mann
• J. T. Murphy
• Andrés Nin
• Harry Pollitt
• Alfred Rosmer
• Mikhail Tomsky

 

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Pamphlets

1921: Program of Action of the Red International of Labour Unions, A. Lozovsky

1925: The Movement for World Trade Union Unity, Tom Bell

1927: What is the Red International of Labour Unions?, A. Lozovsky

1929: The Problems of Strike Strategy: Decisions of the International Conference on Strike Strategy

 

Periodicals

The Negro Worker (1928-1937)

 

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Profintern Affiliates

Britain:
National Minority Movement (1924-1933)

United States:
Trade Union Education League (1920-1928)

Rules [Constitution] for the Trade Union Educational League, 1922

Labor Herald Library No. 1 (1921): The Railroaders’ Next Step, Wm Z. Foster
Labor Herald Library No. 4 (1922): Bankruptcy of the American Labor Movement , Wm Z. Foster
Labor Herald Library No. 10 (1924): The World’s Trade Union Movement, A. Lozovsky
Labor Herald Library No. 11 (1924): Russia in 1924, Wm Z. Foster
Labor Herald Library No. 13 (1924): Lenin: The Great Strategist of Class War, A. Lozovsky
Labor Herald Library No. 14 (1924): Lenin and the Trade Union Movement, A. Lozovsky
Labor Herald Library No. 18 (1926): Strike Strategy, Wm Z. Foster

Trade Union Unity League (1929-1935)

• Appeal to American Workers, 1921

 

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Marxism and Workers’ Organisation | Comintern Archive
The International Workers’ Movement

Last updated on 23 January 2025