The ICFTU 1960–77

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the involvement of the ICFTU (International Confederation ‘of Free Trade Unions) in the process of establishing free trade unions in Spain during the period 1960–77, including the actions taken by the ICFTU against Franco’s governments. The importance of the ICFTU for the overall argument of this book is twofold. First, evidence gathered through interviews and personal communications with leading figures of the PSOE, UGT and the TUC, and from other primary sources, suggest that the relations between UGT and the ICFTU, and between the ICFTU and its member organisations especially the British TUC and the German DGB, were important for the consolidation of the UGT in Spain. Secondly, like the Socialist International, which is an umbrella organisation for political parties, the ICFTU embraces the most important European and non-European free trade unions. It is therefore important to understand the way in which the ICFTU worked and how affiliated organisations worked within international scenarios such as that in Spain between 1960 and 1977.