Charles Lindley (1865–1957), born Carl Gustaf Lindgren, was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used b ...

Social Democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...

and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

activist. Today, there is a small statue of Charles Lindley in Gothenburg.

Life

Born into a wealthy family, in 1881 Lindley became a merchant seaman working on English seagoing vessels. He became very active in the British

workers' movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

, working closely with

Havelock Wilson Joseph Havelock Wilson (16 August 1859 – 16 April 1929), commonly known as Havelock Wilson or J. Havelock Wilson, was a British trade union leader, Liberal Party politician, and campaigner for the rights of merchant seamen. Early life He w ...

. It was from his British comrades that he received his English-sounding nickname "Charles" (or "Charlie"), which he kept upon his return to Sweden. Lindley returned to Sweden in 1895, founded the Swedish Transport Workers' Union in 1897 and co-founded the

International Transport Workers' Federation The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership o ...

. He continued to work closely with Wilson, but unlike his mentor, he increasingly identified as a socialist. In 1900, Lindley married the Swedish feminist Elin Jonsson, who was a close friend of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

Alexandra Kollontay Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai (russian: Алекса́ндра Миха́йловна Коллонта́й, née Domontovich, Домонто́вич; – 9 March 1952) was a Russian revolutionary, politician, diplomat and Marxist the ...

. In 1933, Lindley was elected as President of the

, and served in that position until 1946.General Secretaries and Presidents of the ITF 1896-2010
,

References

1865 births 1957 deaths Swedish Social Democratic Party Swedish sailors Swedish memoirists Swedish trade unionists Members of the Första kammaren {{shipping-bio-stub