Part of a series on
Left communism
Concepts Anti-Leninism Anti-Stalinist left Class consciousness Class struggle Communism Mass strike Organic centralism Proletarian internationalism Workers' council World revolution
Movements Bordigism In China Communization Council communism Situationist International
People Jan Appel Amadeo Bordiga Arrigo Cervetto Marc Chirik Onorato Damen Herman Gorter Paul Mattick Grandizo Munis Gavril Myasnikov Sylvia Pankhurst Antonie Pannekoek Lorenzo Parodi Otto Rühle Karl Schröder Julien Coupat
Organizations Extant Communist Struggle Communist Workers' Organisation International Communist Current International Communist Party Internationalist Communist Party The Invisible Committee Defunct Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation Communist Bulletin Group Communist League Communist Workers' International Communist Workers' Party of Germany Forward Hunan Provincial Proletarian Revolutionary Great Alliance Committee International Socialists of Germany League for Proletarian Culture Left Communists Marxist Working Group Revolutionary Socialist Party Revolutionary Workers Ferment Socialism or Barbarism Solidarity Workers' Group Workers' Opposition Workers' Socialist Federation Workers' Truth Tiqqun
Related topics Autonomism Classical Marxism Impossibilism Industrial unionism Ultra-leftism Workerism
Communism portal  Socialism portal  Politics portal
v t e

The General Workers' Union of Germany (German: Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands; AAUD) was a factory organisation formed following the German Revolution of 1918–1919 in opposition to the traditional trade unions.

The AAUD was formed by the left communists in the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD) who considered organising based on trades as being an outmoded form of organisation and instead advocated organising workers based on factories, thus forming the AAUD. They were influenced by the industrial unionism of the Industrial Workers of the World.^[1] The council communists organised these factory organisations as the basis for region-wide workers' councils.^[2]

A section of the AAUD led by Otto Rühle split from the AAUD, forming the Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union – Einheitsorganisation.^[3]

See also

• Council communism
• Cuno strikes
• Factory committee
• Left communism
• Works council

References

External links

• Program of the AAUD
• The Communist Left in Germany 1918-1921
• The Origins of the Movement for Workers' Councils in Germany
• Theses on the Role of the Party in the Proletarian Revolution
• Theses On The Fight Of The Working Class Against Capitalism
• Letter on Workers Councils