ABSTRACT
Maintaining the peace and declaring 'war on the war' were two of the main missions of the new international trade union movement just after the First World War. In 1919, when the reconstitution was still being prepared, the future International Federation of Trade Union (iftu) Bureau in Amsterdam had regular and good contacts with the Hungarian labour movement. The iftu's response to the political breakthrough of Italian fascism was in marked contrast with its rallying against Hungary. The Italian labour movement eventually lost its last lifeblood and finally surrendered to fascism by dissolving itself in 1927. There was great disagreement about who was entitled to speak on behalf of the 'free' German labour movement; how the illicit movement was supposed to be organised - centralised or decentralised; and to what extent illegal unionism and illegal political actions were to be separated.
