All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was founded in 1920 with Lala Lajpat Rai as its first president. Upto 1945 Congressmen, Socialists, Communists worked in the AITUC which was the central trade union organisation of workers of India. Subsequently the trade union movement got split on political lines.The membership of the AITUC is 3.6 million. The unions affiliated to AITUC are from textile, engineering, coal, steel, road transport, electricity board and of unorganised sector such as beedi, construction and head-load workers, anganwadi, local bodies and handloom. Recently a number of agriculture workers’ unions have affiliated themselves to AITUC.

The first session of the AITUC was held under the presidentship of Lala Lajpat Rai. In his presidential address, he exhorted the workers:
“Indian labour should lose no time to organize itself on a national scale. Capital is organized on a world-wide basis. It is backed up by financial and political strength, beyond conception. In order to meet the danger, Indian labour will have to join hands with labour outside India also, but its first duty is to organize itself at home”.

“At present, our greatest need is to organize, agitate and educate. We must organize our workers, make them class-conscious and educate them in the ways and interests of common weal.”

The General Secretary of the AITUC is Gurudas Dasgupta, a prominent policitical leader and leader of the Communist Party of Indiaand presently Member of Pariament (Lok Sabha). The AITUC is a member of the World Federation of Trade Unions.(WFTU) which has large membership world over About WFTU there will be separate page under International Trade Union Organisations.

• To establish a socialist state in India.
• To socialize and nationalize the means of production, distribution and exchange as far as possible.
• To ameliorate the economic and social conditions of the working class.
• To watch, promote, safeguard and further the interests, rights and privileges of the workers in all matters relating to their employment.
• To secure and maintain for the workers : The freedom of speech, The freedom of press, The freedom of association, The freedom of assembly, The right of strike ; and The right to work or maintenance
• To co-ordinate the activities of the trade unions affiliated to the AITUC;
• To abolish political or economic advantage based on caste, creed, community, race or religion; to fight against all forms of social oppression and injustice;
• To fight against all forms of atrocities against women and harassment at place of work.
• The AITUC shall endeavor to further the aforesaid objects by all legitimate, peaceful and democratic methods such as legislation and, in the last resort, by strikes and similar other methods, as the AITUC may, from time to time, decide.

• A statutory enactment providing for a six-hour working day.
• Minimum living wage.
• Right to work as a fundamental right.
• Equal wages for equal work, without racial or sex discrimination.
• One month's leave full pay, or an equivalent amount as compensation when leave is not granted.
• Unemployment, sickness, oldage, accident and maternity, insurance, comprehensive social sequrity scheme to be introduced.
• Pension for widowed mothers, unmarried mothers and dependent children.
• Proper housing.
• Formation, through trade unions, of workers' committees in factories, workshops, business houses and all other places where collective work is performed, with a view to control conditions of work inside these places.
• Abolition of the employment of children under 15 years of age.
• Payment of wages to women workers six weeks before and six weeks after child - birth.
• Abolition of other systems of recruiting labor such as through contractors, middlemen etc.
• Abolition of fines and debts.
• Effective control of the subscribers over the provident funds.
• Worker's participation in Management.
• Protection of environment.

MANIFESTO CONSTITUTION