Thoughts for a new trade unionism
Proposals of the radical new SLAI COBAS union. Extracts from Dai COBAS al sindicato, by Gigi Malabarba (reviewed on page 35)
there is support for the Northern League's threat to adopt a secessionist line if their federalist project is not adopted.!
There are two dangers. The current situation could be prolonged indefinitely. This would mean continuing the rampant social and political counter-reform initiated by the Dini government, with the support of the "poteri forti" ("powerful") and the president. A kind of technocratic Bonapartism would be quietly installed. The second danger is that the AN exploits a prolonged crisis, and appears to be the only alternative to the existing system, the only force able to deal with the social problems we face. The AN has a social presence, an
Fi d e organisational network, and a leader of indisputable abilities.
Rifondazione must act simultaneously on the political and social front. We present ourselves as the only party which struggles consistently for democratic demands. This means demanding elections as soon as possible, so that the population can pronounce itself on all the questions under debate. It also means working for a project of radical social transformation. We also need to develop our thinking about programmatic matters. A national conference is planned for the end of March [see page four]
But we must also thoroughly transform ourselves, so as to become a party which can not only organise large demonstrations from time to time, but above all build living, sustained connections with the masses, in factories, transport utilities, the civil service and in each district. We have to train new cadres, who will turn their backs on the bureaucratic ideas and behaviour which have had too great an influence on the development of the workers' movement, and contributed to the serious defeats which we have experienced. * Opinion polls suggest that 27% of voters are sympathetic to the idea of a possible secession of the (relatively insperous) north eastern part of Italy.
• The world of work has sexual characteristics. Any analysis, any demands must recognise this basic fact. Feminism should be integrated into all aspects of union work. We should abandon the logic of lists of programmatic points which, somewhere, dutifully mention "the women question". • The same point about our method can be applied to other questions. Notably ecology. The contradiction between people and nature can and should be more and more frequently linked to the fundamental contradiction: between capital and labour. We should approach perspective. Any approach which neglects the relations of production can only lead to the adoption of "green" neoliberal ideologies, like those of the trade union confederations today... • The globalisation of the economy challenges any approach which tries to defend national interests. Nowadays that would mean defending the interests of the companies against the interests of those who work there... We should not particularly now that frontiers are no longer decisive: the crucial decisions are more and more frequently made by the IF and the World Bank. A class struggle trade union should demand, in each country and at the interational level, equality of conditions in the sale of labour power. This means not simply campaigning for solidarity with the most over-exploited sectors of humanity, but creating conditions for defending the interests of the proletariat of the metropolis itself. Otherwise, the "free circulation of goods", free of all
Italy * constraints on the conditions of production, will break even the most determined worker resistance. • While we should be wary of Toyotastyle company unionism, we should not under-estimate the importance of the immediate workplace and its problems. This is where problems emerge, and where class struggle trade unionism can surge up... We should pay more attention to "guerrilla" campaigns for specific demands. These may seem reductionist and economistic, but they are essential for building a consensus and organising ourselves, by exploiting all the room for manoeuvre and contradictions at the various levels of contract, legislation and practice. The enterprise is still the heart of worker's monitoring and control experiences. New technology does not make the demand for workers' control out of date. Far from it. It makes it possible to imaging workers' control at a much wider scale, from intervention in the way work is organised to control over production itself. • Resistance, and the winning of guarantees for the workers can only effectively be managed at a more general, inter-professional level. Such global action must include the basic defence: protection of salary. This includes both direct wages and indirect benefits and delayed salary (pensions). • It is difficult to build a welfare state though the intervention of a public sector discredited by theft, wastage and bureaucracy. We now face generalised privatisation campaign, and, while we should not give up our defence of the public sector and social security, we should think about re-launching the mutualist-type experiences of the workers' movement at the beginning of this century, in areas like health, training housing and so on. We should, of course, prioritise self-organisation and self-management, without setting a goal of making profits. • The recomposition of a combative social bloc necessitates the reformulation of a social and political programme of transformation and alternative, a transitional programme based on "rupture goals" which can bring us all together, and which each of us should strive to realise.*
International Viewpoint n° 274 5