FATULS, theFederation of Arab Trade Unions and Labor Societies (Ittihad al-Niqabat wa'l-Jam'iyyat al-'Arabiyya,Arabic:اتحاد النقابات والجمعيات العربية, later merged with theArab Workers' Congress) was an Arab trade union organization formed in 1942 inMandatory Palestine byMarxist activists led byBulus Farah (a former member of thePalestine Communist Party), who split away from thePalestine Arab Workers Society (PAWS) in 1942. By the end of that year it had recruited around 1,500 members, including workers in theHaifa area petroleum sector, Haifa port, and the British military camp.[1]
FATULS concentrated on "shopfloor" issues and argued that onlysocialist revolution would address the workers' needs by liberatingPalestine from the imperialist stranglehold.[2] It was allied to theNational Liberation League. The Federation's newspaperal-Ittihad was distributed widely and read by the overwhelming majority of labor.[3]
In 1945, 11 PAWS branches, including those in Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Gaza, seceded from the organization, citing disagreements with PAWS' conservative political leanings and dissatisfaction with its nondemocratic leadership style. Together, these branches formed a new labor organization, the Arab Workers Congress (AWC), into which FATULS merged.[4]
The organization was banned following Jordan'sannexation of the West Bank in 1950.[5]