All-India Trade Union Congress campaigns during the Independence Movement (1920–1947)
Delegates from trade unions across India formed the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in Bombay (now Mumbai) to create a national center for organizing workers and presenting labor demands. The new federation linked workplace issues—wages, hours, and conditions—to the wider anti-colonial political climate of the early 1920s.
At its second national session in Jharia, AITUC adopted a resolution supporting Swaraj (self-rule). This signaled that the federation was not only focused on workplace disputes but also willing to connect workers’ rights to the independence movement’s political goals.
The Trade Unions Act, 1926 provided a legal structure for registering trade unions in India. For AITUC and affiliated unions, this was important because formal recognition could strengthen collective bargaining and protect union operations, even under colonial rule.
A major strike wave among Bombay textile workers in 1928 highlighted growing worker anger over wage cuts and work intensification. The strike also exposed internal tensions in organized labor over strategy and leadership—issues that would soon affect AITUC’s unity.
As debates intensified inside the labor movement—especially over communist influence and tactics—parts of the organized trade union leadership broke away from AITUC. This split produced a rival national federation (often identified as the Indian Trade Union Federation, ITUF), reducing AITUC’s claim to be the single all-India labor voice.
In March 1929, colonial authorities arrested many left-wing labor and political organizers in what became the Meerut Conspiracy Case. The prosecution aimed to weaken militant union activity by portraying strikes and organizing as a criminal “conspiracy,” creating a chilling effect on union work.
After long preliminary proceedings, the Meerut Conspiracy Case moved into a full trial phase. The lengthy court process kept many organizers tied up for years and became a public symbol of colonial pressure on trade unionism and radical politics.
Judgement in the Meerut Conspiracy Case was delivered in January 1933, with multiple defendants receiving heavy sentences. The outcome reinforced that labor organizing could be treated as a political-security issue by the colonial state, shaping union tactics and alliances through the 1930s.
At AITUC’s 18th session in Bombay, the National Trades Union Federation (NTUF)—a successor to earlier splinter groupings—merged into AITUC. This restored a broader single-center structure for coordinated labor action, after years of fragmentation in the national trade union movement.
In October 1945, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was established in Paris to coordinate international trade union work after World War II. AITUC later became affiliated with WFTU, reflecting how Indian labor politics increasingly connected domestic workers’ rights campaigns to global labor networks.
During the February 1946 Royal Indian Navy mutiny, sympathetic strikes and protests in Bombay involved students, civilians, and labor organizations. This episode showed how worker solidarity could rapidly amplify political crises and pressure colonial authority in the final phase of the independence movement.
In May 1947, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) was founded, closely linked to the Indian National Congress. The creation of a major new federation highlighted a lasting divide in strategies and ideology in the labor movement—especially between anti-communist and communist-influenced currents—ending AITUC’s earlier role as the dominant single umbrella for unions.
The Indian Independence Act received Royal Assent on 18 July 1947, legally setting the terms for British India’s partition and the creation of two new dominions. For AITUC-era independence campaigns, this marked the decisive legislative step toward ending colonial rule, shifting the labor movement’s focus toward rights and policy in the coming post-independence state.
On 15 August 1947, British rule ended and the Dominion of India was established, alongside Pakistan, following Partition. The new political reality closed the independence-era chapter for AITUC’s campaigns and opened a new phase: organizing workers’ rights within national governments, amid the social and economic upheavals created by Partition.