‘A first class medium’: the cautious anti-communism of the ICFTU’s International Labour Film Institute, 1953-1972

ABSTRACT

Between 1953 and 1972 the International Labor Film Institute (ILFI), affiliated with yet organizationally separate from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), spread knowledge about, and encouraged the use of, films among Western trade unionists. Holding five formal film festivals, the ILFI also engaged in the collection and distribution of information about films and filmstrips on trade union topics, themes, and successes. Yet compared to other ICFTU forums, ICFTU and ILFI officials were relatively muted on Cold War issues when it came to film activities. When they did discuss such topics, they evidenced a level of uncertainty and confusion regarding how intensely to engage anti-communist messaging in the area of labor films, indicating a concern over how to strike the correct balance between showcasing topics solely focused on labor and engaging Cold War themes. Studying the ILFI and Western labor’s relationship to the medium of film thus reveals both an anxiety among Western labor leaders during the early and middle years of the Cold War over how best to weigh their desire to help workers with their goal of appearing sufficiently anti-communist as well as another way the vagueness of the ICFTU’s slogan of ‘free trade unionism’ impacted the ICFTU’s activities.

KEYWORDS:

• International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
• International Labour Film Institute
• ILFI
• ICFTU
• anti-communism
• free trade unionism
• J.H. Oldenbroek

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by research travel grants from Regent University.

Notes on contributors

Kevin E. Grimm

Dr. Kevin E. Grimm is an associate professor of history at Regent University in Virginia Beach. His work has appeared in Labor History, the Journal of Contemporary History, the Journal of West African History, and Cold War History. His first book, America Enters the Cold War: The Road to Global Commitment, 1945-1950 (2018), is part of Routledge’s Critical Moments in American History series and he is currently working on a book on the ICFTU and Ghana.