In 2019, the we launched the GLI History Project – a new programme on the history of the international trade union movement, including a book accompanied by education projects to be undertaken with national and international unions.
The book was originally inspired by a 2005 essay, The Labour Movement, written by Dan Gallin, the founding Chair of the Global Labour Institute in Geneva and former General Secretary of the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF). Those interested to learn more are encouraged to read Solidarity, Dan Gallin’s collection of nineteen essays on the international labour movement.
Supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), the project explores the influence of different radical political ideas, the struggles for liberation and independence, the growth of unions in the global south, the impact of war and revolution, and the challenges of globalization, financialization, precariousness and environmental destruction.
It is designed to introduce activists who are new to the international movement, and those active in local and national trade unions, to current important issues and debates within the international labour movement, and their long histories.
2022
In 2022, we ran two workshops with the International Workers Transport Federation (ITF). In June, at the ITF Young Transport Workers’ Committee held in Tunisia, GLI ran a pilot education event, and the report can be read here. As part of the ITF Youth Summer School in July, we facilitated a workshop about the history of trade unions and informal workers. The report about the session can be read here.
2024
As part of the GLI History Project, this year, we facilitated sessions at the Building & Woodworkers International (BWI) Global Youth Festival. Our aim was to acknowledge the major existing challenges facing the international trade union movement, whilst also bringing to focus the huge number of examples from throughout history that can be drawn on to inspire further action and organisation today. To read an article about our participation in the event, click here. And for more information from BWI on the festival, click here.
BOOK: The Story of our International Labour Movement
GLI’s book ‘The Story of our International Labour Movement’ is now available to read. The text was written because GLI believes that the international labour movement can play an important role in changing the world. It is hoped that this book can provide trade unionists and activists with a guide to some of the different important organisations, campaigns, and ideas within the international labour movement and show how these have developed over time. By looking at the history of the working class movement across the globe, labour activists can be better equipped to discuss, debate, strategise, collaborate, and ultimately transform the world to create a system that works for all of us. This book was made possible through the financial support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Click here to read and download the book in full.
Each chapter of the book is also available to read and download separately:
Chapter 1: Where Did We Come From? The Origins and Ideals of the Workers Movement
Chapter 2: A Baptism of Fire-Wars, Revolutions, and International Labour
Chapter 3: Partner or Predator? Unions and the State (1945-1989)
Chapter 4: Globalisation and Labour
Chapter 5: What can we learn from the past? What is the future?
GLI is organising with Global Union Federations, national, regional, and local trade union bodies, and labour NGO’s to organise a series of discussions, workshops, and educational programmes.
If you are interested in taking part in this process, please contact gli-uk@global-labour.net