Rebel Worker, Vol.21 No.1 (175) Feb.-Mar. 2002, Globalisation & The Labour Movement From Jura Books Date Thu, 11 Jul 2002 05:06:19 -0400 (EDT) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ ________________________________________________ "Globalisation & The Labour Movement" from Rebel Worker Paper of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network Vol.21 No.1 (175) Feb.-Mar. 2002 . Subs.$12 a year in Australia Airmail Overseas $25 a year Postal Address PO Box 92 Broadway 2007 NSW Australia Two Faces of Globalism In this article I want to focus upon two concepts and processes of Globalisation the Capitalist/Corporate and the anarcho-syndicalist . The former involves the international capitalist economy's closer coordination and regulation and the increased role of multinational companies and such global corporate oriented economic institutions as the IMF (International Monetary Fund), World Bank and WTO (World Trade Organisation) and on the military and political scales the intervention of the U.N., NATO, the US Govt. and the CIA, etc, in various countries affairs. The latter concept of global labour organising involves the building of a mass international labour movement based on ultra democratic and direct action principles to combat Capitalist globalisation associated strategies and tactics, and to achieve the collective seizure/self management of the means of production by the direct producers. In discussing this concept I will provide a critique of main stream bureaucratic union and anarcho-syndicalist international organising and the anti-globalisation movement associated with the series of protests at meetings/conferences of global capitalist institutions in recent years. Toward the end of WWII saw a major burst in the globalisation process, in which the US Govt. has played a critical role with the establishment of the World Bank and the IMF.(The President of the World Bank is always an American citizen. Whilst the US holds 17% of votes in any IMF decisions.) The role of these new institutions at that time was to regulate the international economy so as to avoid the re- occurrences of the depression of the 1930's. Particularly by providing loans to bail out bankrupt economies and prevent harmful flow on effects on the global economy of such economic collapses. In the context of the 3rd World Debt Crisis of the late 1970's and early 1980's, the Western Powers and these global institutions were able to intervene in 3rd World Countries to ensure free trade and establish greater control over their economies.(1). This intervention has taken the classic form of the World Bank and the IMF compelling Govts in the 3rd World to adopt "Structural Efficiency Programs", which remove barriers to imports and foreign ownership, introduce anti-Labor laws and encourage privatisation. In this context, multinational companies based in the West have been encouraged to transfer some operations to the 3rd World eg the relocation of multinational owned factories from Australia to South East Asia, reorganise company operations in many different countries as part of a global strategy and dominate 3rd World country economies. This process has been encouraged and made possible by containerisation, advances in computerised accounting and treaties for the standardisation of measurements in regard to machinery parts. International Privatisation Conspiracy One of the most important global capitalist strategies has been privatisation, which has greatly assisted multinational companies domination of 3rd World countries economies. It highlights the interplay between international institutions and local States in carrying out Global capitalist agendas. The ideological and policy origins of privatisation lie in the rightwing think tank the "Adam Smith Institute" which shaped the policies of the British Thatcher Govt. in the 1980's. The success of the Thatcher Govt. in privatising industries, particularly impressed the US Govt. and its agencies. Consequently, USAID set up in 1981, the Bureau for Private Enterprise. 5 years later it became the explicitly titled "Centre for Privatisation" sponsored by half a dozen private companies. In 1985, USAID organised and hosted an international conference on privatisation where UK and USA based multinational company representatives could meet representatives of 3rd World Countries to discuss privatisation strategies. Following the conference, USAID commenced a global initiative to spur on privatisation. USAID missions in various 3rd World countries were to pressure Govts to introduce 2 privatisation measures per year with the threat of the withdrawal of USAID money. During the 1980's, 83 countries privatised state industries, assets and services. Assisting this privatisation has been particularly British based international management consultancy firms such as Price Waterhouse which has helped Govt's rubber stamp privatisations with supporting reports and studies. In 1989, Price Waterhouse set up a Department dedicated to privatisation which has become a major source of its income. Whilst in 1990 alone, 51 countries had hired privatisation advisers. (2) Hand maidens of Corporate Globalism An important reason for the success of corporate globalisation policies multinational corporations internationally expanded operations, a massive global privatisation surge and such corporate reorganisation strategies as the world car projects, has been the collaboration on various scales of centralised bureaucratic union movements and formally social democratic labour parties and Govts. Recent developments in the railways in Australia, throw light on this process. In the case of Freight Corp. in NSW which the Carr ALP (Australian Labor Party) Govt. recently sold to Lang Corp and Toll Holdings, the RTBU (Rail Tram & Bus Union) hierarchy played a key role in the sell off. It completely caved into the privatisation and had been propagandising its merits to RTBU members with a Price Waterhouse Report funded by the NSW Govt. Treasury Department. Intriguingly, the senior, RTBU NSW official who played such a central role in urging privatisation on Freight Corp. workers is a graduate of the Harvard University trade union officials training course. A notorious CIA recruiting ground. Another notorious cave-in by the RTBU hierarchy to privatisation in recent years involved maintenance on the East Hills rail line. It's tender was given by the Carr Govt. to the US based civil engineering giant Fleur Daniel without any opposition by the RTBU. An important process associated with corporate globalisation has been the watering down of Govt. legislation implementation to assist multinational company activity. A most dramatic move in this direction was the proposed MAI Treaty which was to ensure changes in countries' laws to remove restrictions on multinational company activity. Whilst the formal treaty has been dropped, there is important and growing evidence that unofficially MAI is being introduced. In the case of the NSW Railways, the NSW Govt. Department WorkCover turned a blind eye to major breaches of Occupational Health & Safety legislation by management associated with the regular rorting of OH&S committee elections in City Rail and unsafe practices occurring during the renovation of City Rail stations prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics . (3) In regard to ongoing coordinated global action by the international labour movement against global capitalist institutions and multinational corporations and their strategies. Little is going on. Except in the case of isolated major disputes. The one day international maritime strike in support of the Liverpool Dockers. The boycott of the Neptune Jade scab ship in San Francisco in 1997 during the Liverpool Dockers dispute which involved members of the syndicalist oriented IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). Scattered actions in support of the MUA (Maritime Union of Australia) during the 1998. Whilst most international gatherings of "unionists" are often junkets for management stooges who hold positions in the bureaucratic unions. As mentioned, the success of privatisation strategies has been particularly assisted by the union hierarchies and their machines. In the case of multinational companies' production re-organisation strategies such as General Motor's world car project, union reps in G.M. factories are playing a critical role in facilitating the process. At General Motors Holden Fisherman's Bend engine plant in Victoria, AMWU (manufacturing union) shop stewards who are overwhelmingly management co-thinkers are playing a critical role in preventing on the job resistance to speed ups and gross breaches of Occupational Health & Safety. Whilst in the late 1990's the officials of the vehicle builders section of the AMWU assisted management at Holden to impose 12 hour shifts on future plant extensions via the approval of an enterprise deal. This close collaboration which often characterises the relations between bureaucratic centralised unionism and employers and agencies of the State is in sharp contrast to the anarcho-syndicalist approach. It emphasises the goal of coordinated direct action by workers within industries and branches of countries between countries to challenge global corporate power. It's also in stark contrast to the elitist "direct action" of the "activists" of the anti-globalist spectacles such as at the Seattle, S11 and M1 Protests, etc. Tiny minorities engaging in symbolic protests against summits of global capitalism. @HEAD - 2 ÿ Anarcho-syndicalist International Organising In terms of achieving this goal of international coordinated direct action on the job, the anarcho-syndicalist record has been poor. However, there has been significant steps to achieve some measure of cooperation between anarcho-syndicalist mass labour movements in different countries. The most significant development in this direction was the formation of the International Workers Association in the early 1920's, with initially affiliate unions mainly based in Europe and Latin America with several million members. Concurrent with this international organisation and expansion of syndicalist movements was the crest of the post WWI revolutionary wave, whose pinnacle was the Russian Revolution and other upheavals, which raised workers morale and inspired militancy. This growth was short circuited by a combination of disastrous factors. The sudden mushrooming of syndicalist movements in the post WWI period with many drawn into the movement due to disillusion with existing social democratic unions with little grasp of syndicalist principles led to short lived stability. Later causing splits to form independent unions which subsequently were drawn into Communist Party orbits such as with the German FAUD (Free Workers Union of Germany) which lost most of its heavy industry membership base in the Ruhr and most of its entire national membership after a few years to an independent union which soon became a Communist Party satellite. Whilst in France, the Communist Party was able to takeover the initially syndicalist oriented CGTU (General Confederation of Labour United) giving birth to a split - the CGTSR (Revolutionary Syndicalist) of some few thousands of members. Later in the 20's and 30's, fascism and dictatorships contributed to the crushing of many mass syndicalist labour movements. Most significant being the Spanish CNT (National Confederation of Labour) which at its peak in the late 30's had several million members. Anarchist groupings such as sections of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) influential in the Spanish CNT, also contributed to this crushing of mass syndicalist movements by dictatorships with their unrealistic/simplistic revolution around the corner views and incitement of ultra militant and insurrectionary adventures which encouraged ruling classes to resort to ultra rightwing measures. The ultra sectarian orientation of such groups led to purges of other more coherent anarcho-syndicalist groupings in mass syndicalist unions (in the CNT sections of the FAI were instrumental in the purging of the Revolutionary Syndicalist Committees, later to be known as the BOC(Worker & Peasant Bloc) and the Trientistas and encouraged a hysterical climate unfavourable to informed debate and the development of more realistic revolutionary strategies. In those countries unaffected by massive State repression and Fascism, syndicalist minority union movements confronted by a tightening web of labour legislation, competing majority bureaucratic union federations and an emerging welfare state, gradually took on orthodox union features, as in the case of the Swedish Workers Centre (SAC). (4) Consequently with the exception of the Spanish CNT, the various affiliates of the IWA underwent massive membership declines after the early 20's and the IWA was unable to coordinate direct action within industries between different countries. The most significant cooperation of various anarcho-syndicalist/anarchist formations and IWA affiliates focused upon support for the CNT during the Spanish Revolution and Civil War 1936-39. It involved the supply of finance, medicines, arms and soldiers on a limited and inadequate scale. By the late 1950's, the IWA was reduced to essentially a micro bureaucracy and was left without any union affiliates and only propaganda groups in a few countries. With the re-emergence of the CNT in Spain in 1976 following the death of Franco,.(its resurgence occurred on a large scale with the CNT claiming 300,000 members by the late 70's but as more a cultural movement/political party rather than as a classic labour movement), there was a renewed interest in the anarcho-syndicalist label and an attempt to revive the IWA. The revived IWA since the early 1980's has been a shadow of the IWA of the interwar period and has failed to develop as a mass international labour movement. The CNT since the late 1970's began a down hill slide stemming from several splits and state repression, and today may only have an estimated 1,000 or so members. (5) This splitting process has particularly affected IWA affiliates. In the case of the Spanish and French CNTs it has focused on the issues of participation in State controlled elections to workplace committees and the associated cooptation of union reps via petty privileges. Differences over the issue of alliances and pacts with other alternative unions led to a major split in the revived Italian Syndicalist Union (USI) in the 1990's. Most of the rest of the IWA has consisted of propaganda groups with little if any industrial influence and strong tendencies towards becoming sects ideological groups which are existential in character - ends in themselves. Currently the IWA looks to becoming an obstacle to a genuine resurgence of anarcho-syndicalism on an international level and seems to be encouraging the crystallisation of weird sects with syndicalist regalia. What international syndicalist activity has been taking place inside and outside the IWA certainly involves little coordinated direct action within industries. It consists of supporting of strikes/resistance conducted by bureaucratic/centralist unions due to grass roots pressures such as the British Miners' Strike of 1984-85 and the Australian Maritime dispute of 1998, embassy protests, email/snail mail protests, international pickets/boycotts eg borders bookshops in various countries over a sacked IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) member and IWW organising drive in the USA, the boycott of the Neptune Jade during the Liverpool Dockers' Lockout, and participation in anti-Globalist protest demonstrations. In conclusion, as I have argued the international syndicalist movement as an internationally organised force is at a low ebb and unable to play its appropriate role. Whilst the employer offensive is sweeping the world as a raging torrent. It lacks significant organisations of industrial direct action resistance with few exceptions. Let alone organisations to prepare workers for the self management and collective seizure of the means of production in the world. The following are a series of suggestions for re- building the global anarcho-syndicalist labour movement. The most important steps must occur in our own industrial backyards. 1. To assist on the job organisation in the context of the contemporary ferocious employer offensive, a greatly expanded "outside the job organisation" including various catalysts for workers militant self organisation is an urgent priority. 2. The harmful and very pervasive Leninist, Stalinist and Vanguardist legacy upon the anti-capitalist movement in many countries needs to be eliminated. 3. To achieve this goal, a wide ranging discussion process involving cycles of conferences developing a critique of Leninism needs to be inaugurated. Such a process would change the culture of the anti-capitalist movement and facilitate a syndicalist orientation. As occurred in the years of the initial rise of syndicalism in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. 4. The winning of a major victory in the class struggle to change the psychological climate, and raise greatly workers' morale and countering the employer offensive is crucial. In this context, a major resurgence of anarcho-syndicalist style unionism and its international coordination within industries would start to come on the agenda. 5. A most important focus of such a victory would be the USA rather than some backwater, particularly in regard to its key role as a the world's super power and media publicity. 6. The publication of anarcho-syndicalist oriented workplace papers in a range of different strategic industries on a long range basis with the support of appropriate "outside the job organisation" including experienced motivated personnel and infrastructure. Supplemented by a wide periphery of supporters and helpers. Mark McGuire