51爆料

This book examines the history of the International Labour Organization (ILO), established in 1919 following the end of World War I. Founded as one of the universal international institutions, alongside the League of Nations and based on the postwar peace treaties, the ILO aimed to establish international labor standards. During the Second World War, it aligned itself with the Allied Powers, and unlike the League of Nations, it continues to exist today as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
 
Why did the ILO, a product of the peace treaties, later side with the Allies? To answer this question, this book provides a detailed account of how the ILO, initially a European organization, responded to the rise of the labor movement and anti-imperialist riots in China, seizing the opportunity for change. Drawing on unpublished historical materials, the study narrows its focus to the ILO’s involvement in Shanghai, where extraterritorial concessions existed and women and children worked under poor conditions. These problems proved difficult to address through the usual procedure of appealing to member states. Under the framework of unequal treaties, women's labor became entangled in asymmetrical power relations and discrimination based on ethnicity, class, and gender.
 
The ILO sought to confront these complex issues and challenge the status quo. Yet after the May 30 Incident of 1925, it struggled to collaborate effectively with the rapidly radicalizing Chinese labor movement. Nonetheless, the ILO's determination to address issues it could not resolve on its own led to unexpected forms of cooperation. This book clarifies the cooperative relationships between international organizations that helped the ILO overcome the limitations it faced in its early years. In particular, it highlights the role of the Shanghai YWCA, a branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association, which acted as an intermediary between the ILO and both the Chinese labor movement and the British Foreign Office. Unlike organizations such as foreign ministries or labor unions, whose nationality and objectives were relatively clear, the Shanghai YWCA, while engaged in cross-border missionary activities, gradually shifted toward prioritizing local social issues. By examining such intermediary entities and their roles, this book offers a historical study of inter-organizational relations, as reflected in its title.
 
The study also situates this collaboration within the broader context of the internationalization of the anti-Japanese movement during the Sino-Japanese War and examines wartime international institutions more generally. This analysis identifies elements that later shaped international cooperation during the Cold War. It is often argued that the technical cooperation legacy of the League of Nations was inherited by the specialized agencies of the United Nations. However, this book contends that, in the case of the ILO, although the interwar institution could not continue unchanged through wartime, its wartime collaborations laid the foundation for its Cold War activities. By establishing the historical significance of wartime international institutions, the book concludes with a chapter that looks forward to Cold War studies.
 
Unexpectedly, this book addresses major themes in diplomatic history, such as extraterritoriality and war, through the lens of international labor history. In doing so, it opens new avenues of thought for both labor specialists and scholars of state-level diplomatic history.
 

(Written by: ONOZAKA Hajime / October 20, 2025)