Education International (EI) is a global union federation (GUF) of teachers' trade unions consisting of 401 member organizations in 172 countries and territories that represents over 30 million education personnel from pre-school through university. It is one of the world's largest sectoral global union federations. History Prior to the 1950s, teacher and other education unions played little role in international trade union federations. In 1912, the International Committee of National Federations of Teachers in Public Secondary Schools was established in Belgium. Internationally, it was known as FIPESO, an acronym derived from its French name: The Federation Internationale des Professeurs de l'Enseignement Secondaire Officiel. In 1923, the National Education Association (NEA) founded the World Federation of Education Associations (WFEA) in San Francisco. Then in 1926, the International Federation of Teachers' Associations (IFTA) was formed. The same year, the International Trade Secretariat of Teachers (ITST), a grouping of teachers' unions affiliated with the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), was established. But few of these organizations obtained membership of any size, joined the International Labour Organization (ILO), or proved influential. Many were international in name only, with membership usually coming from a few European nations. Except for the WFEA (which was dominated by the NEA), most ceased to function during World War II. A significant reorganization of the international trade union movement occurred in the wake of the second world war. The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was founded in October 1945 to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization. But a number of conservative Western labor federations, notably the American Federation of Labor (AFL), felt that trade unions from Communist countries were government-dominated. Their inclusion, it was feared, would lead to domination of the WFTU by the Soviet Union. In 1949, the AFL and other trade unions formed the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), an international organization which rejected communist or communist-led trade unions. International education trade centers also underwent a reorganization. The WFEA broadened its membership and was renamed the World Organization of the Teaching Profession (WOTP) in 1946. The same year, the ITST affiliated with the WFTU. But the split over communism in the WFTU affected the international education secretariats as well. In 1948, several socialist and communist teachers' unions formed the World Federation of Teachers Unions (known as FISE from its French title, Fédération Internationale Syndicale de l'Enseignement) in Budapest.