United States 1945

Synopsis

Inspired by the worker militancy of the previous 10 years or more, by state social reformism and liberal internationalism, as well as by the wartime antifascist alliance, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) committed itself to the founding of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). The American Federation of Labor (AFL), representing the conservative tradition of "business unionism" and "voluntarism" at home, more inclined to the domination of, than cooperation with, unions abroad, resisted this. Rising cold war divisions internationally led to an early split in the WFTU. The CIO joined the European social-democratic unionists in their withdrawal from the organization and then joined the AFL in the creation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in 1949.

Timeline

• 1925: In Tennessee, John T. Scopes is fined for teaching evolution in a public school. There follows a highly...