Global Ambitions, Structural Constraints and Marginality as a Choice: The International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers

2017 ◽  
pp. 318-362 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Union Committee

scholarly journals Framing Black Communist Labour Union Activism in the Atlantic World: James W. Ford and the Establishment of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers, 1928–1931

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Weiss
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Early Phase ◽  
Atlantic World ◽  
Black Atlantic ◽  
Black Workers ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Union Committee ◽  
Union Activism

AbstractThe International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW) was a radical trans-Atlantic network for the propagation of black proletarian internationalism, established by the Red International of Labour Unions in 1928. Its key mastermind was James W. Ford, an African American communist labour union activist who was in charge of the organization and its operations until the autumn of 1931. This article critically highlights Ford's ambitions as well as the early phase of the organization. Both in terms of its agenda and objective as well as in its outreach among black workers in the Black Atlantic, the ITUCNW and its main propagators stressed the “class-before-race” argument of the Comintern rather than the pan-Africanist “race-before-class” approach. This is not surprising as the ITUCNW was one of the organizations that had been established when the Comintern and the RILU had started to apply the “class-against-class” doctrine, which left no room for cooperation between communists and radical pan-Africanists.

The Road to Moscow: On Archival Sources Concerning the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers in the Comintern Archive

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 361-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Weiss
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
The Road ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Union Committee ◽  
African Atlantic

Abstract:This article is a critical assessment of the documentary sources of the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers (ITUCNW) available at the Comintern Archives in Moscow. The organization was the key platform within the Comintern Apparatus to establish an African-Atlantic network of radical activists and organizations in Africa and the Caribbean during the first half of the 1930s. The article addresses the current status of available archival sources for assessing and analysing the objectives, intensity, extent and impact of the organization and its key activists, namely James W. Ford, George Padmore and Otto Huiswoud. It reflects on past and present presentations and evaluations of the ITUCNW's activities and provides a short outline of the chronological order of the organization. In addition, the transfer of its records from Hamburg to Moscow is discussed. The main emphasis is laid on the presentation of the various documentary sources available in Moscow, including reports, resolutions and correspondence.

Labour Union Leadership and Gender Equality Challenges: Evidence from Kenya’s Electrical Traders and Allied Workers Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evans Okumu ◽  
Ernest N. Nadome ◽  
Mike K. Chepkong’a
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Leadership ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Using Data

The research investigates the challenges female union members encounter while seeking or assuming labour union leadership positions. Using evidence from Kenya’s Electrical Traders and Allied Workers Union, this article aims at identifying sociocultural barriers, role conflict, and structural constraints on women in relation to gender inequality. The article is based on exploratory research using data comprising both qualitative and quantitative data obtained from interviewing 63 female respondents who were identified using a non-probability sampling procedure referred to as snowballing. The research revealed a significant proportion of the respondents observed that patriarchal union structures favour men, but hinder women from accessing leadership positions. Most viewed the trade union leadership roles as demanding and burdensome and therefore incompatible with their culturally designated family roles. Institutionalised sexism in the trade union discouraged women from assuming leadership positions, since they are unlikely to penetrate the male-dominated informal leadership lobbies and networks in the trade union. The study concludes that the union, and by extension the umbrella trade union movement, should adopt and implement affirmative actions that are focused to maintain women in union leadership structures.

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