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Rethinking the Labour Movement

Labour Committee of the Socialist Project

The Labour Committee of the Socialist Project is launching a process to involve workplace activists in the rethinking and rebuilding of the labour movement. The urgency of this undertaking lies in what we see as a historic crisis in the labour movement (a crisis that exists in labour movements virtually everywhere, not just Canada).

Over the past quarter century, capitalism has dramatically changed; unions have not. In spite of sporadic and impressive struggles, there is little evidence that the trade union movement has any overall orientation or effective strategy for coping with the changes. Moreover, given its defensive mode, the labour movement has been reluctant to even acknowledge how serious this internal crisis is. We do not pretend to have a set of ready-made answers. What we can, however, contribute is organizing a process and some structures for activists to come together and begin the kind of discussions that might develop promising answers.

What’s the proposal?

The Labour Committee will be establishing networks of activism based in workplaces and communities, with each network focusing on the issues in either a particular sector (e.g. auto, telecommunications, the municipal sector) or on a set of issues that cross sectors (e.g. the inter-relationship of speed-up, health and safety, and workers’ comp struggles; democratizing social services; living wage campaign). In the late fall, we plan to organize a conference that will a) discuss the overall crisis within the movement; b) get reports from representatives of these networks and engage in general discussions about their reports; and c) establish new networks where there is interest in doing so. (We will also invite other workplace and community activists who have already been involved in such networking – e.g. in the health care sector – to share their experiences and lessons).

Why focus on such ‘networks’?

We think such an approach addresses two crucial problems: labour’s fragmentation into competing unions and the limits of struggles centered on traditional bargaining. The networks structure opens the door to coming together across unions and also involving workers that are not in unions. It also supports raising the struggle to a more effective, more ‘politicized’ level by bringing in the larger issues of property rights and class capacities. Some examples might clarify what we mean by ‘politicization’.

i) The recent bargaining in Air Canada suffered from unions fighting separately over how much they should give up, with no guarantee in the end that the corporation will not come back for more or that their jobs will remain. ‘Politicizing’ that struggle would have meant focusing on changing the conditions under which bargaining takes place and away from the false solution of concessions – that is, getting all the unions involved to launch a public campaign to restore Air Canada to public ownership and regulate the industry so as to get rid of the waste and turmoil of excess competition.

ii) Unions are structured to deal with the price and conditions of their labour but not with creating and protecting the jobs themselves against outsourcing, closures and privatization. That weakness affects all dimensions of our ability to defend workers including the restructuring of the work that remains. ‘Politicizing’ our struggle means broadening it so it can address the larger issue of economic restructuring

iii) Public sector workers facing cutbacks understandably tend to defend ‘bigger government’. But this has proven to be an ineffective way to mobilize against cutbacks; too many people are alienated from government services that are bureaucratized, hierarchical, and which see their clients as problems to be managed. Perhaps the way to improve each of job security, the quality of the jobs involved, and the satisfaction in the services provided requires a radical challenge to the existing business model of government work – advancing one in which government workers have more input into the nature of the service being provided, and in which government workers actively mobilize their constituency to improve the service and resources provided.

iv) As long as we think of organizing as competition between unions to bring in members that can protect their own financial base, organizing will be limited. But if we view it as part of building the capacities of the working class and a collective responsibility of the labour movement, then   it becomes possible to imagine organizing getting the kind of priority, commitment of resources, and above all cooperation across unions, that can finally make key breakthroughs.

Is this a Toronto project or a national project?

We would clearly like to see this become a national project. We’re presently discussing it with contacts in Winnipeg and Vancouver as well as Ontario (Toronto, Windsor, London, and Ottawa). For now, however, the focus will be Ontario - and even here, practical realities imply starting in various communities and then building to provincial networks,

Do you have to join the Socialist Project to participate in this?

Of course not. Anyone concerned with the labour movement’s revival and seeing potential in this project is welcome. The Socialist Project will help to get the networks going and will organize the late fall conference to review and expand the networks. As the work proceeds and particular networks are ready to draft pamphlets that can be used to bring more people into the process, we’ll help with the writing, lay-out and production of the material. Once underway, we hope to organize regular monthly meetings of representatives from the networks to discuss their work and other local issues. And we hope to use our new newsletter as a communication tool within and across the networks.

Since we believe that one of the reasons for the weakness of the labour movement has been our own weakness as socialists, we’re committed to building a socialist left with a base in the union movement. We therefore hope that over time some of the network activists will also choose to join the Socialist Project.

How does someone get involved in the networks?

If you’re interested, drop a note to info@socialistproject.ca. The note should include what you currently do and what kind of network you might be interested in. We will quickly get back to you. •

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