AITUC Trade Union

Full name All India Trade Union Congress

Founded 1920

Members 2,677,979 (2002)

Country India

Affiliation WFTU

Key people Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary

Office location Delhi, India






AITUC History

Although the organization was originally formed to give Indian representation at the League of Nations' International Labor Organization (ILO), it also met an increasing need for such a body for the rapidly expanding labor movement in India. There had been an increasing number of protests and organized lobbying in the late 1800s. This was during British rule and was a reaction against many of the conditions imposed at that time. In the wake of the upheaval caused by World War One, working people all over the world becan to view their situations with new eyes. There was a huge amount of activity and protest involving working class people during these early years of the twentieth century.

It was during these years that the AITUC was formed, and this represented the birth of the trade union movement as we now recognise it. Through the 1920s there was an increasing involvement in the AITUC by British communists and this continued through the 1930s up to the Second World War. At this point the British Communist members exercised a controlling influence over the organization.



Partial List Of Affiliates

Andhra Pradesh Auto Rickshaw Drivers and Workers Federation

A.P. Mica Mine Workers Union

Calcutta Hawkers' Men Union

Federation of Chatkal Mazdoor Unions

Nikhila Orissa Beedi Shramika Federation

Patiala Aviation Club Workers Union

Pondicherry Textile Labour Union

Powerloom Workers Union