Decolonizing Labour Internationalism: Shripad Amrit Dange and the World Federation of Trade Unions, 1945–1957
Journal: International Review of Social History
Year: 2026

Abstract This article examines how the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) functioned as a contested arena where divergent projects of labour internationalism and decolonization intersected in the mid-twentieth century, with a focus on the Indian communist trade union leader Shripad Amrit Dange (1899–1991). Drawing on the concept of subaltern internationalism, it analyses how Dange, as WFTU vice-president and executive committee member, sought to appropriate the federation as a vehicle for a