Possible in Ours: Workers, Crossing the Iron Curtain and Labour Internationalisms on the ICFTU’s Path to an Entertainment International, 1956–1965

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) failed several times between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s to create a new anti-communist international trade secretariat for entertainment workers. It faced both opposition from existing internationals who continued pursuing cross-bloc cooperation, particularly the International Federation of Musicians, as well as self-interest or hesitancy from otherwise anti-communist entertainment trade unions. Exploring the concerns of entertainment workers over changing international economic conditions, analysing how producers of culture diverged over the importance of the Iron Curtain and tracing the labour internationalisms found in the shifting and varied alignments among ICFTU allies reveals how transnational economic trends and intra-Western trade union competition played more significant roles than the Cold War environment in shaping the ICFTU’s journey to a new entertainment international.