Drawing on an extensive corpus of sources from trade union and party archives in six countries, this study of global labor history is dedicated to the extraordinary upsurge of international trade union activity from the late 1950s to the late 1960s in the context of African decolonization and global system competition during the Cold War. In particular, the central importance of trade union education is emphasized. The extremely broad scope of investigation, ranging from Uganda to Guinea, from East Germany to Ghana, from Nigeria to Angola and Congo-Léopoldville, makes visible the high hopes of personal actors from various individual unions, national union headquarters, and international union federations, as well as the aspirations of politicians, union officials, and refugees on a global scale.

A former Prae-Doc of the Research Platform Mobile Cultures and Societies, the thesis was supervised by Institute Head Prof. Kirsten Rüther. Earlier versions of the dissertation were presented at the Africa Colloquium of the Institute of African Studies and benefited from feedback. The author would like to sincerely thank all faculty and students at the Institute, especially those who provided valuable feedback and support - asanteni sana!

The Department of African Studies congratulates!

Link Immanuel Harisch: https://transformations.univie.ac.at/en/members/immanuel-harisch/
Link Walter Markov Preis: https://research.uni-leipzig.de/~eniugh/walter-markov-prize/