Taming the new unions
Since the collapse of Stalinism the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions (ICFTU), formed by "non-communist" unions in 1949, has been basking in triumphalism while at the same time declaring that it has turned over a new leaf. Their aim has been to integrate the newer, militant national federations that have emerged in a number of
International Viewpoint #249 October 1993 these unions continued to keep their distance.4 While the "new" unions preferred and for good reasons, to remain neutral, they had often developed relations with specific ICFTU-linked International Trade Secretariats.5 The International Metaldeveloping countries. We examine the background to the ICFTU's change of heart and whether it is genuine. ROLAND WOOD — 20 September 1993
NTERNATIONAL contact and solidarity between unions has a long tradition, but the creation of international union organisations is a relatively recent development. It was in 1945, in the aftermath of the War, that the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was formed. For four years there was a period of fragile unity in one international body, before the political tensions between East and West resulted in a split.
In 1949, under pressure from the American Federation of Labour (AFL/CIO), "non-communist" unions broke away to form the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).! In many respects the international union movement was the first battlefield of the cold war.
### Mineworkers
When in May 1983, the British National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) broke from the ICFTU's Miners International Federation (MIF)2 to prepare the formation of the International Miners Organisation (IMO), it was hailed by supporters as the first crack in "cold war" trade unionism. The London Financial Times commented that it breached "for the first time in over thirty years the Iron Curtain which has separated federations of unions in the communist (sic) countries and their allies from the bulk of those operating in the market economies in other parts of the world."3
While the ICFTU never had any real reason to feel threatened - the IMO was, after all, only a sectoral organisation — it was clear that there were moments when they worried. In March 1985, prior to the first conference of the IMO in September of that year, the British Transport & 26
General Workers Union (TGWU) hosted a conference of Ford unions. The meeting was bitterly opposed by the ICFTU's International Metalworkers Federation for involving Communist-affiliated unions from European Ford plants. NUM leader Arthur Scargill was known to have made approaches concerning the affiliation of the TGWU's power station, oil and chemical workers to the IMO
Clearly, if this had been achieved the lasting impact of the NUM's initiative — the unification of forces on a non-aligned basis — would be greater than it is. It only required maybe one or two other national unions to be drawn into the IMO for some real impetus for change to have been generated. Rather, the NUM remained alone in leaving the MIF, and while the WFTU unions disbanded their own miners federation to join the IMO, the new organisation did not really expand beyond that initial base.
What was of lasting significance however, was the emergent centrality of the new, militant union federations in the developing world: the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the Brazilian CUT, the Philippines First of May Movement (KU), the Korean Congress of Trade Unions (KCTU), and the continental wide Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU). We examine the importance of the "new" federations below.
A number of these federations constituent unions, for example the South African NUM, were quickly seen as a major ingredient for the future if the IMO was to grow. Their importance had also been recognised by the ICFTU although, of course, for different reasons. But despite the non-aligned status of the IMO and, given the influence of the Scargill leadership, the more radical orientation overall, workers Federation for one, had made it very clear that no affiliate could keep its membership if it joined the IMO.
If the divisions in the international trade union movement were to be brought to an end it was to be on the ICFTU's terms, and on their terms alone. This clearly implied defeat of the WFTU. In the case of the IMO - and indeed anybody else that was foolish enough to jump the gun in the belief that the divisions were wrong on principle - the ICTU attitude was akin to advocating infanticide: they wanted the IMO strangled at birth.
Reconciliation?
Following the collapse of Stalinism, the WFTU plunged into a predictable crisis. The organisation searched for a new role and orientation. The old ideological confrontation with imperialism was buried. Instead, it was argued that the trade union movement should be depoliticised. At its twelfth congress in November 1990 it began to invite the ICFTU (and the Christian World Congress of Labour) to consider reconciliation, co-operation and "greater unity". Lack of co-ordination between the international organisations in the past was put down to "obstacles set by the Transnational Corporations (TN's)".
The ICFT was not interested. Their then General Secretary, John Vanderveken, said in reply that: "Our greatest asset in Eastern Europe is (that) we never collaborated in any way with those who sided with their oppressors..." The implication was clear. The WFTU has all but collapsed.
1. The smaller Christian World Confederation of Labour is not examined in this article.
2. The MIF is an International Trade Secretariat (ITS) linked to the ICFTU. These Secretariats group together national unions which cover particular industries
3. Cited in International Labour Reports, No 13, January/February 1986
4. Third world unions that did join the IMO, such as the Cubans, Vietnamese and Nicaraguans, were previously affiliated to the WFTU miners federation.
5. It is not essential that a member of an ITS is actually an affiliate of the ICTU
International Viewpoint #249 October 1993
But is the ICFTU really in any position to claim some ideological victory?
Perhaps not victory, but while social democracy now appears bereft and impotent the ICFTU has, to a large extent, escaped from being enveloped in the same crisis. This is so despite the impact of this crisis on many of the ICFTU's constituent federations, particularly those from countries where there had appeared to be a stable social democratic culture or consensus. So how has the ICTU escaped these pressures?
### Class-collaboration
The reasons lie in the ICFTU's organisational character and its ideological framework — class-collaboration par excellence.
The ICFTU has never been a movement. Rather, it is an organisation of union leaderships — based in the West and dominated by the West. This is not a semantic point because it tells us much about the ICFTU's raison d'etre.
Despite a membership of 113 million it receives only one percent of each constituent federations funds, amounting to approximately £7 million a year. This does not compare well with, for example Greenpeace, who with 4.3 million members receive £110 million.® But the axis of the ICFTU's work has never been found in well co-ordinated international campaigns; on the contrary, they have always preferred to discreetly lobby government and international financial institutions, particularly in relation to development projects in the Third World and particularly if there is any money in the offing. In the past, the ICFTU was dependent on such funding for some forty percent of its total income.?
"Development" clearly meant the development of capitalism. A creed was
• The nation-state had the capacity to develop and protect national economies — a clearly ridiculous idea now, given the emergence of new trading blocs, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, alongside the establi-
• The State would be willing to help unions gain access to international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
• These institutions would be willing to meet workers needs.
This ideological framework owed much to the social democratic and liberal
Keynesian consensus that was prevalent in the post-war period. Although that consensus began to crumble the ICTU continued to hold to the above assumptions.
From the 1960s to the 1970s, when industrial output in almost all Third World countries grew rapidly, the ICFTU became mesmerised. They became integral to the process of "development"; playing the role of adviser; regulating and ideologically shaping the indigenous union movement in accordance with the requirements of the regime that, whatever opponents may have said about its faults, was believed to be leading the nation into happiness and prosperity.
The results of this practice have become almost legendary among internationalists and union militants. It is now openly admitted that financial assistance, even when it was directed at State-sponsored unions, went into the pockets of dictators such as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti.
Change began to occur, at least at face value, from the early 1980s. The ICTU could not fail to recognise that the "new" federations were not only militant but growing; and they were growing in opposition to union federations that were often sponsored by the State, affiliated to the ICFTU or in receipt of their aid.
The possibility of smashing the "new" federations was unlikely. The ICFTU had little option other than to attempt to tame and capture the "new" unions. But given their past record how
They were not about to perform somersaults and declare support for the methods and political practice of the "new" unions. Rather, they proceeded to correct, and openly admit too, the worst excesses of their past, emphasising in particular the fight against dictatorship, the principle of independence from the State, the centrality of democratic rights in developing countries, but without rejecting the central tenets of their ideo logical framework.
¡GRASSROOTS!
But, as we have noted, many of these unions were formed and grew in opposition to that ideological framework. The ICTU's change of heart in relation to specific issues was not unwelcome, but it was rightly seen as largely cosmetic. Scepticism, and on occasions, hostility to the ICFTU remained.
Nonetheless, links were formed, in the main direct and bilateral, principally with national federations that constituted the so-called progressive wing of the ICFTU: the Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian federations. The progressives had long argued that the "new" unions should join with them to change the ICFTU from within.
### Respect and integrity
What was essential for the "new" federations was that solidarity and links were based on mutual respect and integrity. Of particular importance was the space and time this allowed for a strong and stable federation to be built by the militants themselves rather than profes sional advisers from the West. Furthermore, it allowed the "new" federations to build links with each other, which lead to the unofficial establishment of an "actively non-aligned" current within the international trade union movement.
It may seem a little cruel to suggest it, but the ICFTU was able to take advantage of the progressives independent activity. All forms of aid and assistance had to be reported to the ICFTU through their regional co-ordinating structures, for example the Southern Africa Co-ordinating Committee. This combination of bilateral solidarity by the progressives with co-ordination through the ICTU structures by the "conservatives" helped to contain pressures acting on both wings of the bureaucracy, since both were able to claim credit for the solidarity.
The clear advantage though lay with the conservative wing since they were able to point to the work of the progressives as an example of real changes and of their plurality. The present ICTU
General Secretary was recently quoted as saying that he was a progressive too.
Specifically referring to COSATU he said: "If they believe they can make us more progressive, they are welcome.")
6. Cited by P Waterman in South Africa Labour Bulletin
Vol 17 No 3, May/June 1993.
7. Ibid.
8. The ICTU has claimed that this has always been their view while at the same time now admitting that it was not the case in practice. They also believe that unions should be independent from all political parties
9. The ICFTU in South Africa', South Africa Labour
Bulletin, Vol 17 No 1, January 1993.
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Furthermore the progressives limited bargaining power inside the ICTU, based on specific conditions, has been significantly reduced.
Whereas previously they had considerable resources at their disposal, inherited from a long period of social democratic consensus in their countries, this is no longer the case. (The recent victory of the Norwegian Labour party notwithstanding.)
What was important for the ICFTU was that the progressives had initiated a dialogue, agreement had been found which formed the basis for joint work, and an opening had been created in which the ICFTU's ideological seeds could be planted.
"Bureaucratic"
This is not to say that affiliation immediately means capitulation to the ICFTU or that it is inevitable. The Brazilian CUT, which affiliated to the ICFTU in 1992, was as recently as its Congress in September 1991 still opposed to affiliation. Delegates argued that membership would mean associating with "bureaucratic" unions in the West, and worse, with "business" unions in the United States. It was proposed that the CUT should remain "actively non-aligned".
While the CUT may have already been on the verge of being worn down by the ICFTU's persistent courtship, it would be ridiculous to assume that they will immediately or easily give up their views, activity and campaigns — a political practice that has amounted to a strident opposition to the external debt, austerity programmes and structural adjustment policies. The CUT remains a federation that is starkly opposed to the
But CUT affiliation still represents a defeat. Affiliation heralded a new crack but this time in the "actively non-aligned" trade union movement.
We should note however that the CUT was at a disadvantage in at least two respects, in comparison with, for example, COSATU:
• Throughout the 1980s South Africa was a permanent feature of solidarity work in the West. Much has been written on this and we do not need to elaborate other than to stress how this helped COSATU to build a highly respected independent profile.
• Not without its problems, the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU), has begun to emerge as a strong continental wide federation, independent of the ICFTU (although some 28 member unions are ICFTU affiliates), and as a powerful tool for South-South solidarity, challenging the domination of the North/West federations over trade union activity. There is nothing comparable with the OATUU in Latin America.
The emphasis of the ICFTU's recruitment is shifting again, predictably to Eastern Europe where Poland's Solidarnosc and the Czech CKOS are already affiliates. This has created some urgency in tying up loose ends with the "new" federations. The Brazilian CUT has affiliated. The Korean CTU has applied for affiliation but was being opposed by the official union federation, an ICFTU affiliate. COSATU is also an obvious target and at the end of 1992 the ICFTU sent its biggest delegation to South Africa.
But COSATU is also a target of other "non-aligned" unions and federations, particularly from Asia, in so far as they are appealing to COSATU to only join the ICFTU if certain conditions are met.
In a statement published in the South Africa Labour Bulletin of May/June of this year worker leaders from a number of unions in Asia and the Pacific outlined the ICFTU's failure to translate their new found loyalty to democratic and independent unions into practice. By way of example they pointed to the fact that the ICFTU's International Executive Committee was to consider the request for affiliation from the Indonesian SPSI, fully supported by the ICFTU's Asia Pacific Regional Organisation. The militaristic, state-sponsored SPSI was formed following the 1965 coup and the suppression of independent unions. That the ICFTU leadership could even contemplate the affiliation of such an organisation speaks volumes on the lack of real change in their orientation and character.
The statement, naturally, voiced the specific concerns of militants and their unions in Asia. The Asian unions can see the direction events are moving in — the de facto unification of the international trade union movement. The unwritten message was clear enough: the break-up of the "actively non-aligned" and its integration into the ICFTU must, at this stage, go no further. Otherwise, unification will have been achieved on the ICFTU leadership's terms and that would constitute a defeat for much of what the "new" federations have represented and fought for.
Prior to the Brazilian CUT affiliating the most important "actively non-aligned" unions — principally the CUT, COSATU, OATUU, the Philippines KMU and the South Korean KTUC — held a potentially powerful bargaining position. The logical development from "active non-alignment" would have been towards a worker-controlled internationalism involving an open campaign for the establishment of a single, unified, democratic and accountable international organisation.
### Resources
But the possibility of such an initiative was always limited. While the bonds between the "new" federations were becoming stronger, particularly between COSATU and the CUT, there was a consistent problem about the time and resources that could be allocated to international work.
This problem is unlikely to disappear. COSATU and the CUT are both currently pre-occupied with what the immediate future will hold in their own countries following proposed elections next year.
Even in the light of these problems, with the forced retreat of the progressives - the "new" federations' most likely allies, at least with regard to democratisation of ICTU structures - it seems sorely inadequate to propose that the most that can be achieved in the face of the ICTU's triumphant steamroller is that affiliation should not occur until some genuine change has been squeezed out of the ICTU bureaucracy.
Mass, militant and independent unio nism will remain a central feature in the developing countries, but unless it becomes a central feature of the workers movements of the North/West too, there is the danger that this unionism could become internationally isolated or open to being neutered by the ICFTU.*