Wikipedia:WikiProject Organized Labour/Internationalisation

In most countries they were quickly made illegal, as factory owners had far more political power than workers. The laws making striking illegal were overturned in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in most western countries.

Strikes are sometimes used to put pressure on governments to change policies. Occasionally, strikes destabilise the rule of a particular political party. A notable example is the Gdańsk shipyard strike led by Lech Wałęsa. This strike contributed to the fall of communist party rule in Poland.

Today, strike action is often subject to legislation by governments. For example some governments ban strikes which are not called democratically. Other governments outlaw strike action entirely.

Often trade unions are the workers' representative when negotiating wages or working conditions with employers and/or governments.

• In some countries trade unions enjoy considerable freedom, from the right to Freedom of Association, to public demonstrations and active protest against political opponents.

• In other countries trade unions are actively suppressed by political or military regimes, with little or no freedoms, and the prospect of violence or even death.

Trade unions are unavoidably political, and often attract both passionate support, and heated disagreement.

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The International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialised agency of the United Nations, was founded in 1919 under the auspices of the League of Nations. It is based on a tripartite structure which allows for representation from workers and employers organisations as well as Governments, making it unique amongst UN agencies.

The ILO “seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights” through Conventions and Recommendations agreed at its annual International Labour Conference.

The Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, adopted by the ILO in 1968, commits Member States to respect and promote principles and rights in four categories:

• freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
• the elimination of forced or compulsory labour
• the abolition of child labour, and
• the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

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A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region or country. It may be based on political and/or economic goals, and tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants. It is also characterized by participation of workers in a multitude of workplaces, who have no direct stake in the outcome of the strike, and tends to involve entire communities.

The general strike has waxed and waned in popularity since the mid-19th century, and has characterized many historically important strikes.

• 1820 Rising in Scotland
• Russian Revolution of 1905
• 1912 Brisbane General Strike
• Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
• French general strike of May 1968
• Venezuelan general strike of 2002-2003

The biggest general strike in recent European history – and the largest general wildcat strike ever – was May 1968 in France.

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The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is the largest international trade union confederation in the world. It claims 157 million members in 225 affiliated organizations in 148 countries and territiories.

The ICFTU was created December 7, 1949 following an ideological split within the World Federation of Trade Unions. A large number of non-communist national trade union federations (including the U.S. AFL-CIO, the British TUC, the French CFDT, the Italian CISL and the Spanish UGT) seceded and created the rival ICFTU at a conference in London attended by representatives of nearly 48 million members in 53 countries.

The ICFTU has three regional organizations, APRO for Asia and the Pacific, AFRO for Africa, and ORIT for the Americas and Caribbean. The ICFTU also maintains close links with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) (which includes all ICFTU European affiliates) and Global Union Federations, which link together national unions from a particular trade or industry at international level.

Every year the ICFTU publishes an annual report which documents violations by governments, industries, and military and police forces against both workers and related trade unions.

It was the product of the New Unionism of the 1890's which rejected the conservatism of the craft unions and was seen by the Trades Union Congress as a way of achieving a practical accommodation with the leaders of those affiliated unions who saw the trade union movement as an instrument for sweeping away capitalism by direct action.

The GFTU still operates a central Dispute Fund but has evolved into an organisation which provides centralised services, such as education and research, to its affiliates who are often smaller specialist unions or specialist sections of larger unions.