THE GREAT OCTOBER, SOVIET RUSSIA AND THE AMERICAN TRADE UNIONS, 1917-1922

Abstract

The topic is relevant and is of interest in the light of current trends in international relations, when the United States have unleashed economic aggression and are increasing the scale of political and information-sanctions war against the Russian Federation. Quite naturally there are some historical associations. In 1918, a hundred years ago, the United States began an armed intervention against Soviet Russia and subjected it to an economic blockade. The pro-imperialist anti-Soviet course of the conservative leadership of the national trade union center of the United States - the American Federation of Labor (AFL) did not correspond to the sentiments of the broad trade union masses. Many influential trade unions, affiliated with the AFL, actively sought the normalization of the inter-state relations and the restoration of the economic ties between the two countries. Advanced conscious workers and trade union activists took an active part in the struggle against the intervention, for the reversal of the economic blockade and for the recognition of Soviet Russia. The movement of solidarity under the slogan "Hands off from Soviet Russia!" went down in history as one of the brightest episodes of a broad socio-political movement in the United States for democracy and universal progress.