The Missing Link? Western Communists as Mediators Between the East German FDGB, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and African Trade Unions in the Late 1950s and Early 1960s

In the interstices of Cold War rivalries and anti-colonial agitation in late 1950s Africa,
African workers came into the focus of African nationalist politicians, Western leftists,
colonial regimes and state socialist states alike. They were a small, but influential group,
increasingly organized in trade unions and capable of bringing whole economies to a
halt. European communists on both sides of the Iron Curtain saw these workers not
only as part of an inceptive working class but also debated their role as a potential key
force in global anti-capitalist revolution – if they had the right concepts. But how could
trade union representatives, particularly those ones from Eastern Europe, actually get in
touch with their African counterparts? Based on archival materials of the East German
Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB), this article discusses East-West-South connections
in labor education with a special emphasis on the role of Western trade union
officials working for or affiliated to the communist-dominated World Federation of
Trade Unions (WFTU). Drawing on their international experience, personal networks
and linguistic skills, French and British communists established and intensified links
between African trade unions and WFTU affiliates like the FDGB in the 1950s and
early 1960s. Their influence facilitated and shaped these East-South connections. First,
through their networks in West Africa, Western communists enabled the WFTU and
the FDGB to internationalize their concepts of trade union education and integrate it
into African political structures. Secondly, we examine the African Workers’ University
in Conakry, an East-West-South joint venture between the West African Union
Générale des Travailleurs d’Afrique Noire (UGTAN) and the WFTU, where trade unionists
from the entire African continent attended courses between 1960 and 1965 and where
European communists broadened their horizons while often holding on to rigid views.
Thirdly, the article examines how European trade union functionaries talked about African course participants behind closed doors—building on the transcripts from a 1963
WFTU gathering on education for African trade unionists. Emphasizing their insider
knowledge, French communists with experience in African trade union education called
for innovative pedagogical concepts including a more practice-related education which
acknowledged the heterogeneous conditions in different countries. However, they also
promoted Eurocentric stage theories and saw a need to “discipline” Africans. The article
concludes that the cooperation between actors from East, West and South rested on some
shared assumptions, but encounters also led to reconceptualizations and realizations of
ideological and practical constraints in international labor education.