[Video] The Comintern and the Trade Unions

Tom Trottier, editor of Socialist Revolution, discusses the work of the Communist International in the trade unions at our 2019 National School, which took place in Pittsburgh on May 25–26.

Trade unions are extremely important working-class organizations, the front line of defense against the bosses. To intervene and connect with the working-class movement, the Comintern created the Red International of Labor Unions, or Profintern, an organization with looser membership rules than the Communist Parties. This allowed communists to work more closely with trade unionists, also giving them the opportunity to bring socialist theory and ideas to a broader layer of workers around the world.