Divided by war, united by welfare: the International Labour Organization promoting war invalids’ internationalism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Veterans’ and war invalids’ organizations were – nationally and internationally – among the biggest social movements of the interwar period. While at first organised on a national level, many of them discovered international platforms to promote their interests. This article explores the relationship between the veterans’ and war invalids’ movement and the International Labour Organization (ILO). By undertaking a thorough analysis of the files of the Central European archives as well as archives of the League of Nations and the ILO, it traces how veterans’ and war invalids’ issues became a matter of labour politics. In this process, the article argues, war invalids – instead of veterans – became the core target group of the ILO’s engagement in the field. This went hand in hand with an increasing fixation on labour and welfare. Focusing on the war invalids’ political positioning between pacifism and revisionism, it follows back the preconditions of the founding of Conférence Internationale des Associations des Mutilés et Anciens Combattants (CIAMAC) in 1925, hinting specifically at the importance of East Central and South Eastern European organizations and activists, who are often neglected in the shadow of the more outspoken French and German communities.