conference notes
* conferences Canada: Gay trade unionists' conference Canada's first ever "Solidarity and Pride Conference for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Trade Unionists and Our Allies of the Canadian Labour Congress" took place in Ottawa on October 15-17th. Gary Kinsman* reports. Three-hundred and forty lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and some supportive heterosexual union activists (more than three times the number originally expected) participated in a series of workshops on "making the links, ," "activism," workplace issues and negotiating for our rights, current legal battles, "finding our histories" (at which a network for recovering queer union histories was initiated), and negotiating benefits along with a cabaret and popular theatre.
A highlight of the conference on the first night was a showing of US gay historian Allan Berube's wonderful slideshow on the history of the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union from the years of the depression to the cold war titled No RedBaiting! No Race-Baiting! No Queen Baiting! This inspiring slideshow gave us all a glimpse into progressive union history where the struggles against class exploitation were intimately associated with struggles against racism and hetero-
Although some participants felt that there was too much stress on group process exercises at the beginning of the conference by the end of the conference it was clear that this first conference of its kind had brought together hundreds of activists who were not only union activists, and lesbian and gay activists, but also were profoundly committed to the struggle against racism and sexism.
While not all unions were represented (there were only a small number of Steelworkers present) and some were more present than others (the public sector CUPE had a good presence) there were many occasions for networking and strategising throughout the conference.
Many called for the conference to be an annual event and some raised concerns that it was not a policy making conference that could submit motions to the next CLC conference. The final plenary was quite energising and people also committed themselves to trying to involve more people of colour in the next conference and to strengthening the struggle against
It has been a long time since I have been at such a large progressive conference with activists committed not only to the fight for lesbian and gay rights but who saw this as linked to the struggle against class exploitation, racism and sexism. It showed very concretely that hundreds of lesbian, gay, and bisexual activists are playing an important part in the union movement (even though this is not always recognised) across Canada and Québec (and there were a number of delegates from Québec). Queer activists are playing an important part in broadening out, expanding, and transforming the union movement so that it takes up all of the forms of oppression in this society. I hope the second "Solidarity and Pride" conference gets off the ground soon. * * Activist in the New Socialist Group and member of the Laurentian University Faculty Association in Sudbury, Ontario. Organising on the USMexican border Twenty-five activists from both sides of the border gathered in Ciudad Juarez in late October for an eight-day workshop on organizing in the maquiladora (border zone assembly plant) sector. Jess David Kincaid
The event marked the culmination of a year's work for the new Workers Center for Labor Studies (CETLAC). The Center was created by Mexico's Authentic Labor coming soon Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Sydney, Australia, April 1998
Organised by the Asia Pacific Institute for Democratisation and Development. See full-page advertisement in the September issue of this magazine
Participants include Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate for East Timor, Mari Alkatiri, Foreign Affairs head, FRETILIN, Revolutionary Front for Independent East Timor, Dr Jayanta Rongpi, Member of Indian Parliament representing the Autonomous State Demand Committee, Assam, Prof Francisco Nemenzo, founding chairman, Union for Socialist Ideas and Action (BISIG), the Philippines, Renato Constantino Jr., Chairman SANLAKAS democratic federation, Philippines, Anna Maria Nemenzo, Vice-Chairman, AKBAYAN (Citizen's Action Party); National Co-ordinator, Women's Health Philippines Inc. and Malik Miah (Solidarity, USA). 28 International Viewpoint #295
The Bougainville Interim Government, All Burma Student Democratic Front, All Burma Students League (India and Thailand), Peoples' Democratic Party (PRD) of Indonesia, Malaysian Peoples Party (PRM), Communist Party of Nepal (UML), Union of Kanak and Exploited Workers (USTKE), New Caledonia, NewLabour Party (NLP) of New Zealand, Labour Party of Pakistan, Melanesian Solidarity (MELSOL), Papua New Guinea, Indonesian National Democratic Struggle Committee, Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) of Australia, Campaign for Popular Democracy, Thailand New Socialist Party of Sri Lanka (NSSP), Australasian Federation of Tamil Associations, Free West Papua Movement (OPM) and Russia's Communist Youth League (KOMSOMOL) will also be represented. The conference secretariat in Australia is based in the national office of the Democratic Socialists. Contact Max Lane, P.O. Box 458, Broadway 2007, Australia. Tel: 61-0296901320; Fax: 96901381 <apiaustralia@peg.apc.org>
Front (FAT) with the support of U.S.based unions including the United Electrical workers (UE) and the Teamsters.
Local and national FAT organizers, members of the FAT National Coordinating Committee, and representatives of University of California at Berkeley's Labor Occupational Health Program gave workshops during the week, which focused on democratic union organizing and worker health and safety in the maquiladoras. The event also included seminars with lawyers and professors from Mexico and the U.S., including presentation and discussion with Mexican political-scientist and columnist for El Universal newspaper Samuel Schmidt.
Participants in the workshop included activists and organizers from Juarez and other areas of Mexico, including three organizers from Han Young de Mexico, the Tijuana plant whose workers recently became the first on the border to vote for an independent union, the FAT-affiliated Independent Metal Workers Union, or STIHMACS. [See article elsewhere in this issue.] El Paso union representatives were
also present, as well as representatives from several U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Christine Neumann-Ortiz, from the U.S. publication Voces de la Frontera (Border Voices), which examines work in the maquiladora sector, was hopeful about the results of the event. "There is a rich experience here from people who have worked for years in the maquiladoras, she said. "Added to that is the FAT's practical experience of years of fighting for independent unionism. The idea is that together we can change how things happen on the border."
In a city where over half of employment is in the maquiladora industry, the birth of an independent union movement could have significant consequences. The population is booming on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, as masses of people have migrated to find jobs in the maquiladora sector. The rapid urbanization of Juarez has been compounded in recent years with the on-set of NAFTA, as the number of maquiladoras increased due to lower labor costs for foreign companies manufacturing in Mexico. * Mexican Labor News and Analysis, Vol. 2, No. 20, 2 November 1997 EuroMarches launched in Luxembourg The European Marches (EM) movement was formally established in Luxemburg on 4-5 October.
The network will be called European Marches against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion. 4 and 5. A constitutive motion was approved, establishing, among other things, that "the network has a loose structure and decisions are not enforceable on organisations or collectives who are members. Decisions are not taken on a majority basis but arrived at only after working towards a con-
The network is pluralistic. Differences in the economic situation across the European Union should provoke the exchange of ideas and actions, rather than create division within the movement. There is a general acceptance of different approaches to common objectives, such as the fight against unemployment, job insecurity and social exclusion.
The network is in no way a new organisation, nor does seek to compete with existing European union structures (the European Trade Union Congress, ETUC), or with existing organisation of the unemployed, (the European Network of the Unemployed, ENU), or with any other organisation involved in the fight against social exclusion."
The first concrete initiative of the network was the approval of the call for an
EM demonstration on November 20, in Luxembourg city at the same time as the meeting of the European Summit on Employment.
We all know that it would be impossible to relive the Amsterdam Rally every six months. On the other hand, we need to fix long term aims to continue forward from Amsterdam. Delegates agreed that we should not limit ourselves to demonstrating every time there is a European Summit! Though, obviously, organisations in the host country of these Summits will inevitably put strong pressure on the EM to organise something. The next European Co-ordination meeting on 10-12 January 1998 will try to find a way out of this
Delegates evaluated the Marches earlier this year, and concluded that they were part of a series of events that might be pushing EU Member State governments to do something about unemployment. Other factors include the election of social democratic governments in Britain and France, ETUC pressure, the initial promises of France's Jospin government, and the campaigns for full employment of the network of European economists, and members of European parliament, animated by British MEP Ken Coates.
Over 100 delegates were present, representing eleven countries - Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, the Spanish state, and Sweden. Proof of the dynamism created by the launch of the European Marches. [EMN/JD] * Young Finns in Cuba
Finland's Young Communists had mixed impressions of the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Cuba in late July.
According to the editorial in Murros
"Various discussion groups were part of the program, but these were usually so big that no actual discussion took place. Especially as no commentary from the floor was allowed. Thus the level of conversation was quite low and some people slept through the meetings."
The Young Communists of Finland (YCF) came to Havana after an 8 year break in participation in the Festival movement, writes the YCF InfoBulletin. With 42 participants (seven YCF comrades), this was among the smallest ever Finnish delegations. Times have changed, notes InfoBulletin. The Democratic Youth League of Finland (SDNL), which mainly hosted the 1962 WFYS in Helsinki, boycotted the Havana festival because of "the human rights situation in Cuba"
The editorial of Murros was also amazed by the presence of "so called hardliner "communist" organisations. Among , other things, these declared that Stalin was an OK. guy and that his atrocities are only conferences * western propaganda. The Red Youth of London stated in their flyer that Trotsky was an FBI agent and Orwell an imperialist pig. Yeah, and Lenin was probably Santa Claus."
Over 12,000 youth participated in the Festival, which, according to Murros, shows that it is worthwhile to organise them in the future. "But they should concentrate on solving the world's problems instead of presenting uncritical admiration of the host country and North Korea.
For the seven participants from the Communist Youth of Finland, the best in the Festival was "meeting people and organisations from other countries. " "the spontaneous activities of the participants" and "the positive Cuban attitude on life." Criticisms included "tight schedule" and "limitations on moving around." Excess bureaucracy and "old practices of conduct" in the 'discussion' sessions "flattened the atmosphere.
"Class distinctions in Cuba are greater than I thought, commented one delegate. Another suspected the Cuban revolution of having decayed into the USSR model "right from the start." Delegates were alarmed to see the growing role of the Yankee dollar, dislocating the country's
Despite these limitations, Communist Youth created international relations with over 40 organisations and the Special Issues we had produced in English were literally ripped from our hands." * Source: CYF InfoBulletin 3/97
'Disappointing' meet-
ing of Scandinavian
Young Communists
A Nordic meeting of Communist Youth, initiated by the Communist Youth of Finland in early August, failed to develop a sound basis for co-operation.
Although participants agreed that Nordic youth have the same problems, like racism and unemployment, and that these could be fought internationally as well at nationally, big differences emerged over "a question as basic for Communist Party supporters as the analysis on Soviet Union... The views of the Finns and Sweden's Revolutionary Communist Youth (RKU) were totally opposed. They think that the shit hit the fan only in the sixties, and that the Stalin line was OK."
The only other group which attended was Norway's Rød Ungdom (Red Youth). Denmark's Rød Ungdom apparently failed to find the location. organisations didn't respond. No surprise that, according to their newsletter, Communist Youth of Finland, this meeting was a disappointment." *
----- photo credits and running heads -----
29
book notes
* reviews Inside Cowley: Trade union struggle in Britain in the 1970s by Alan Thornett reviewed by John Mcllroy
Anyone who believes macho management and attacks on shop stewards began with Mrs Thatcher and the victimisation of Derek Robinson should buy this book.
As you read the extracts of 1970s newspaper reports, stating that new investment in British Leyland was dependent on the hope that "militant moderate union officials can destroy the Trotskyist power base in the vital Cowley plant you will see in a new light TGWU General Secretary Jack Jones's alleged transfer of power to shop stewards.
Inside Cowley demonstrates convincingly the disastrous impact of union leaders' enforcement of Labour's 1970s Social Contract in weakening workplace trade unionism and softening up the union membership for the brutal offensive of neo
Alan Thornett worked in the Cowley assembly plant of BL becoming a shop steward in 1963 and TGWU full time deputy convenor in 1967. The plant was unique in Britain. It harboured a factory branch of the Socialist Labour League (later Workers' Revolutionary Party) over 40 strong which played a leading role in factory politics.
In his earlier book, From Militancy to Marxism, Thornett chronicled the making of militancy at Cowley, the winning of key stewards from the CP and management's strategy for regaining control, centred on the imposition of Measured Day Work to replace the traditional piecework system, and thus remove direct control over pay bargaining from the stewards.
Inside Cowley documents in absorbing detail the continuing attempts of the company to break the militant factory leadership and regain control over pay and production. Anchored in an analysis of events in Cowley, it is also an outline history of trade unionism in the car industry - and wider - in the 1970s.
1974 saw the birth of the Social Contract and the intensification of the management offensive. Removing Thornett was seen as beheading the stewards' organisation, and he was duly set up on tabricated charges. The book traces the complex interactions between membership, stewards, union officials and management.
The officials viewed militancy - and their exclusion trom the plant - as a challenge to their tunction of accommodation with the company. Their role was to 30 International Viewpoint #295 develop and finesse the attack on the leading stewards, although there were partial exceptions, notably Moss Evans.
Militancy in a car factory has perforce to be sectional at times, and often has costs for trade unionists. Management and officials were able to exploit sections of the membership who ignored the benetits strong leadership had brought them, and sometimes wives insulated from workplace struggle.
They used embittered ex-Trotskyist Reg Parsons, who had already been in touch with Jack Jones, to orchestrate an opposition in the shadow of a virulent media witchhunt against the left. Years later, TGWU full time officer David Buckle reflected on the crusade to "break the power of the Trots - we did everything we possibly could to try to break the backs of these people." The result was an important defeat for the left: the Regional Committee split the 5/55 branch, the power base of militancy, and substituted a secret ballot of all members for election of convenors by stewards. As the media feeding frenzy climaxed, the convenor Bob Fryer and deputy convenor Thornett were removed and a new leadership around Parsons was elected.
It was nonetheless a partial defeat. Thornett retained his steward's card and his base in the transport section because of the depth of support he enjoyed from the drivers. An inspiring section of Inside Cowley deals with the fightback, a crucial episode in the history of trade unionism in the car plants.
By December 1977, against all odds, the left around Bob Fryer and Alan Thornett had gained the leadership of the new 5/293 branch and won key positions in the convenor elections. At the heart of the matter was the fact that the Buckle-Parsons leadership opened the workforce to the management offensive: events proved militancy was the best protection.
But if a key lesson of the book is that a strong base in the grassroots 1s indispensable another is that it is insufficient. Lacking the resources to build adequate support at District and Regional level, the plant leadership was soon under renewed attack from higher levels of the TGWU.
The flimsy charges of "disruption" for challenging minutes; of breaking union confidence by distributing branch bulletins on the gate when management prohibited distribution inside the factory; the TGWU bureaucracy's kangaroo courts; attempts to ban the left from stewards meetings; the manipulation of ballots - all beggar belief - unless you know the TGWU
It hasn't changed a great deal. If some sections of the trade union leadership fought against the bosses with a fraction of the ferocity they deploy against their own members we would be in Utopia today. But the story exemplifies, too, the imagi nation, determination and stamina of our best militants.