View source for World Federation of Trade Unions

The [[World Federation of Trade Unions]] (WFTU) is an international labour federation founded in 1945. 

==Founding conference==
The first conference took place in Paris from 5 September to 8 October 1945. 56 countries were represented at the meeting which founded a Prague-based federation. [[Walter Citrine]] of the British [[TUC]] was elected as President and [[Louis Saillant]] of the French Communist [[CGT]] was elected as Secretary-General. [[John Brophy]] of the American [[Congress of Industrial Organizations|CIO]] defied his federation's President [[Phil Murray]], by refusing to take a position as WFTU vice-president because of  Communist influence. The rival [[American Federation of Labor]] boycotted the conference and the WFTU.<ref>Ben Rathbun, ''The Point Man, Irving Brown and the Deadly Post-1945 Struggle for Europe and Africa'', Minerva Press, 1996, pp.125-127.</ref>

==ICFTU walkout==
Cold war rivalries let to a walkout in 1949 by a number of western-oriented unions to form the rival [[International Confederation of Free Trade Unions]].<ref>[http://www.wftucentral.org/?page_id=79&language=en Foundation], World Federation of Trade Unions, 23 March 2012.</ref>

==External Resources==
*Peter Waterman, [http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/peter-waterman-the-second-coming-of-the-wftu-updated The Second Coming of the WFTU (Updated)], UnionBook, 13 March 2012.

==Notes==
<references/>

[[Category:Trade and Labour Unions]]