On a global scale, there are more workers and more unionists than ever before. In newly industrialised countries such as Brazil, Korea and Indonesia, unionism has taken root. There has been a huge growth in the working class and in the number of unionists. These new unions often have a militant outlook.
In contrast, in Australia and other advanced capitalist countries union membership has been in decline for decades.
The ALP-ACTU Accord played a central role in this decline. Under Hawke and Keating, unions gave up on rank-and-file organising, looking entirely to deals at the top to advance wage, conditions and the “social wage”.
The results were disastrous—wages and conditions declined, social provision improved only marginally, the agenda of wholesale privatisation was set, the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) and the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) were smashed.
Even worse was the demobilisation of the unions. Official rank-and-file structures decayed. Delegates committees became entrenched in constant negotiations over implementation of national agreements, which always included productivity improvement. Mass meetings were few and far between, industrial action even rarer.
That legacy of hollowed-out unions continues to be a dead weight today. However, there are the beginnings of a revival, especially in Victoria. The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and other construction unions have made gains on hours and conditions. Workers First emerged as a potent force in the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), supported by the membership on a platform of standing up for members and being prepared to take on the boss.
Some of the densest concentrations of unionism can now be found in female dominated industries such as health and education which have immense potential.
The Textile, Clothing and Footware Union of Australia (TCFUA) in Victoria has shown what good leadership can achieve. A union whose leadership was racist, sexist and in the bosses’ pocket has been completely turned around.
Workers have the chance today to rebuild militant democratic unions. What our class needs is political perspective and organisation. Active, organised and militant trade unions are important in giving workers a sense of their own power when they are organised collectively.
Historically, union organising has usually involved a conscious intervention by the left. Two examples of this are the Militant Minority Movement, led by the Communist Party in the 1930s and the 1970s shop committees and workers’ control movements, led by the Communist Party left and other socialists.
In Australia today, there are hundreds of militant unionists scattered through a wide range of unions and workplaces. If these union militants were organised, they could have a big impact transforming more unions into more militant organisations. Socialist Alliance, as a united left organisation, could play a key role here, especially in countering the politics of the ALP leadership.
It is only through struggle that the working majority in society wins any gains from the capitalists in our conditions of life. It follows that the better our organization and capacity to struggle, the more we can win and defend. A class without unions is atomised exploitation fodder for the owners of the workplaces.
The working class is also the bearer of the “the other world that is possible”. Only the workers have the social power to challenge the rule of the capitalists—only the workers have the motivation to establish a society based on solidarity. Hence, trade unions are indispensable arenas of struggle for all-round working class, i.e. socialist, politics.
These ideas direct our action in the unions, which Socialist Alliance will strive to implement by showing leadership in practice. That leadership is not a one-way street—socialists have to learn as well as teach. We can draw out lessons from the whole history of the working class movement, but we have always to listen to developments amongst the union ranks.
Our goal is to restore the unions to the membership so that they truly become instruments with which a politically conscious membership decides on its own interests and action.
Often, however, unions produce leaderships that prefer an easy life of negotiations with the boss to the hard yakka of workplace organising and industrial action. Sometimes a sell-out official has started as a militant, but succumbed to the pressures of office. Sometimes they have been in the bosses’ pocket from the start.
Sometimes they have genuine motives but have succumbed to the idea that workers can only safeguard their jobs if they help increase their employers’ profits.
There are many such tame-cat union leaderships—the Shop Distributive and Allied (SDA) union leaders are an example of the worst sort. They constantly do sweetheart deals over the heads of the membership and use their base to pursue a right-wing Christian moralist agenda.
At all times we seek to organise the ranks, to increase the numbers, morale and fighting strength of the union membership.
When union leaderships act to forward those goals, we support them. If they do not, we work with other militants to pressure the leaders. If that is not effective, we work with others to organise rank-and-file action independently and develop an alternative leadership. In the early twentieth century words of J. T. Murphy in The Miners’ Next Step: “If the leaders won’t lead, the rank and file must”.
Unions cannot abstain from politics. Solidarity is not only among unionists, but also for all those whom capitalism does over.
That means unions need to encourage debate on broad political issues amongst the ranks and build a base of support for action around those issues.
Come election time, unions have a responsibility to their members to work for a government of the workers.
In Australia, most unions have seen the Australian Labor Party (ALP) as their party—either through formal affiliation or through informal ties (e.g. the teachers’ unions have rarely been affiliated, but their officials have generally been in the ALP and they have worked hard to return ALP governments in elections).
Socialist Alliance works towards a break by militant unions to build a mass class-struggle workers’ party.
As steps along this road:
Socialist Alliance offers big possibilities for a trade union practice that goes beyond that of any individual affiliate. In many unions, Socialist Alliance has a substantial number of members. If we organise them and develop well-grounded perspectives, we can have a big impact.
Already Socialist Alliance is beginning to be seen as an organising force among militant workers.
Our work this far has been limited, but promising. We have built successful meetings in solidarity with the Skilled Six and Workers First and have made a start on organising networks in particular unions.
The Trade Union Solidarity Committee in Melbourne is a useful initiative—holding regular forums and producing a trade union bulletin.
Socialist Alliance needs to prepare for long-term consistent work—this is a perspective over years, not days or months.
To have an impact in the unions, Socialist Alliance needs to:
To be able seriously to take up these goals, Socialist Alliance will undertake the following:
This perspective outlines a significant amount of work. Implementing these decisions and further developing our political orientation and practice in the unions needs a serious commitment from all levels of the Alliance. Branches, regional, state and national bodies will need to organise regular discussions to ensure that priority and focus are maintained.
National Conference believes that trade union organization is a crucial issue for Socialist Alliance. As such National Conference directs the National Executive to do the following: a sub-committee be setup to construct a trade unionists’ education program. This to be properly resourced and deal with: history of struggles, debates in the union movement, and organizing methods as well as strategy, tactics and critical analysis skills. Further that these courses should be delivered locally, regionally, statewide and nationally and be open to non-Socialist Alliance members.
If resources allow, the working group, in conjunction with the National Executive, is to produce a pamphlet which runs over the history of the trade union movement, current debates and industrial issues, and the Socialist Alliance trade union policy. Such a pamphlet would include the Liberals’ anti-union agenda, the Workplace Relations Act, as well as tactical issue such as pattern bargaining. As part of the education program and the Alliance’s activity the working group, in liaison with relevant state and national organizations to investigate the possibility of hosting broad meetings/seminars on the attacks on the unions and resistance to these attacks, and the fight to build militant, democratic unions.