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Worker solidarity was always a myth
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Worker solidarity was always a myth
Worker solidarity was always a myth
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| hawk |
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 5:35 pm
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Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 271 |
Thirty-five years ago, I remember attending labour union conventions where a new delegates would get up at a microphone and state that if all the workers would vote for the New Democratic Party (NDP, Canada's mild-socialist party) most of working people's problems would disappear. He may have been right.
The seasoned union activists would politely listen and say nothing more than give mild approvals. I also remember dozens of unions asking the working people of Canada and the United States to boycott products over working conditions or to support striking workers. The vast majority of the people would not do so and we all knew that they would not do so. Last week, I read this excerpt from a British magazine and it make me think about one of the working-class basic beliefs. Is class (worker) solidarity just a myth?. Is it an ancient dream and hope as old as the oldest stories in the Bible? Most likely yes. Quote: “No British politician could ever destroy working-class solidarity anyway, for the simple reason that no such thing ever existed, large parts of the Tory-voting working class being deeply suspicious of it and avid to leave their roots behind at the earliest opportunity.”
Private Eye 07 July 2011 # 1291, page 25 This was not the first time I read similar thoughts. An American newspaper writer spelled it out clearly back in the 1920s. Then he was talking about the AFL. Here are excerpts from a five-page essay that was originally written as a column in the Baltimore Evening Sun. Quote: “ Perhaps one reason lies in the fact that labor leaders, in the Republic, are mainly mountebanks who are for themselves long before and after they are for labor and that it is thus easy for the professional politicians to corrupt them. (Doesn't this sound true?)
... The American workman, like every other American, has ambitions, and is thus disinclined to think of himself as a workman. In other words, he refuses to be class conscious. What he usually hopes is that on some near tomorrow, he will be able to escape from work and go into business for himself, and so begin oppressing his late colleagues. The dream makes him resist the regimentation that must inevitably go with every really effective labor movement. (If not an independent business owner than at lease become a supervisor or manager?) ... But hope, (of escaping the working class) I believe, will linger long after the last reality has been squeezed from it., for men never abandon it without a hard struggle. … but from unorganized labor. It is from that discontent is greatest, for the Federation and the brotherhoods are wholly selfish and not only refuse to help the poor fellows without their ranks but even give capital a hand in oppressing them.” H. L. Mencken Labor in Politics 11 August, 1924 A Carnival of Buncombe: Writings on Politics H. L. Mencken describes why working class solitary does not exist and furthermore, convincingly explains why we cannot expect the professional labour leaders to help make it happen. It is not in their personal self-interest to do so. When PATCO went on strike and the AFL-CIO leadership did nothing but pose in front of the TV cameras during a one-hour symbolic solidarity picket line then abandoning them, I realized that the organized trade unions were just a sham. I have read in a different post on this site that the employers are already advertising for scabs to replace striking grocery workers if the union goes on strike. How so depressing. Nothing has changed in the character of the working class since the start of the industrial revolution. Nothing. |
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| John A. Joslin |
Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:00 pm
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 83 Location: Detroit, Michigan U.S.A. IBEW #58 |
There is a mythic quality to the words, ' working class solidarity'. But If you are using the word 'myth' to mean fiction .... I think you're mistaken , or maybe I misunderstand you. I agree that 'solidarity' is often very scanty, too little , too late, or completely MIA... but it can exist.
Granted , that is not exactly the same as saying it 'does exist' as a kind of a constant , I dunno' like maybe the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere...? All I can say is that I've been around it, seen it , felt it and benefited by it . I think of working class solidarity as a possibility , more of a hard to kindle flame that requires the right kind of spark plus some ticklish nurturing . Hard to do it , easy to screw it up and everything else. Elusive comes to mind. If you ever were trying to keep track of a diving loon , trying to figure out where or if it would ever surface again , frantically scanning the dappled water surface , looking at exactly the wrong spot and maybe never seeing it again... maybe you could accept that graceful hidden swimmer as a crude physical analogy to the idea of working class solidarity. Just cuz' it's undetectable most of the time , doesn't mean.... etc. And I would add the condition that you can jettison the words ' working class' and still have solidarity. I can't think of a time I've been around or seen 'working class' solidarity when anyone involved ever used that phrase, but it seemed to fit the bill. H.L. Mencken is a sharp observer , but I read his words ( excerpt ) to be more of a withering criticism of official labor executives etc. than a categorical declaration of the impossibility of solidarity. He might have believed solidarity to be an impossibility, of course. But I don't think he proved it right there. I am a member of an officially organized trade union called the IBEW. I can't tell you how many times I've been completely disappointed by official IBEW policy,and those loyal louts ( not loons, I like loons ! ) who carry out the assorted policies, I never have figured out where the damn stuff ( official policies ) actually comes from. We unemployed and/or working stiff type IBEW-ers regularly fail to carry out, discover , or adhere to much of anything that goes with the phrase, ' working class solidarity'. Suits the IBEW blimps at the policy spigots just fine , it appears. But every once in a while we discover that fleeting thing called 'solidarity ' and are amazed at what happens next. I won't go so far as to say it is occasionally accidentally re-invented... I really don't know what the hell happens, but I do know 'working class solidarity ' when it pokes its lovely head out of an unlikely, placid corner of some smooth surfaced pond and all of a sudden for a little while , there are ripples all over the place. - the shit is scarce, I agree, J.Joslin |
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| hawk |
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 1:03 am
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Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 271 |
Solidarity can happen, sometimes, in some conditions.
I saw it in China in 2008 when there was a tremendous country-wide outpouring of donations of food, blood and materials for the earthquake victims in southern China. It was a wonderful thing to experience. In forty years in Canada I have never seen any national or international union leader be able to create any sense of comradeship among a sizable number of working people for any cause what-so-ever. I have seen Quebec unionists stir up passions for separation but not for working-class solidarity. |
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| John A. Joslin |
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:56 pm
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Joined: 02 Apr 2006 Posts: 83 Location: Detroit, Michigan U.S.A. IBEW #58 |
Quote: In forty years in Canada I have never seen any national or international union leader be able to create any sense of comradeship among a sizable number of working people for any cause what-so-ever. Hyper-ditto , down here in the Southern wastelands. Most ( almost every one of 'em... ) take 'solidarity' to be the old-fashioned name for what happened way, way back in the day when 'we fought & died ' to establish what we have today. Solidarity is thus, officially, an antique reference , quaintly suitable to be hauled out of cold storage once a year to spice up the odd stale speech or two recited just before the main event... the serving of the fresh hot dogs at the Labor Day picnic. You mention national & Int'l union leaders. Hell, come to think of it, I haven't even seen or heard of any Local union leader creating anything useful on behalf of working people around Detroit. In order to survive as a union member wandering around out here in the Solidarity Desert, I have learned to patiently ask , " What would we do if we didn't have a union...? " (That helps to sort out the awful confusion which can set in if you're a brand-new union member, or just lazy or dumb enough as a veteran union member to figure that 'the union ' will be right there at your side when the going gets tough.) - John A. Joslin ( IBEW construction electrician ) Note: One glaring exception to the generally decrepit state of 'actually existing unions' down here in the yew-ess of A. is the California Nurses Association and its national affiliate , the National Nurses Association. They absolutely reek of vitality! Vitality isn't a word I've ever used before in connection with my own union, the IBEW . |
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| Laboryes |
Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:14 am
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Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1967 |
John A. Joslin wrote: Most ( almost every one of 'em... ) take 'solidarity' to be the old-fashioned name for what happened way, way back in the day when 'we fought & died ' to establish what we have today. Solidarity? For lessons on solidarity we need look no further than the people of Egypt! For a brief time they got it and I believe they still do. I have a friend that just returned from Egypt. His total reason for being there was to touch base with workers and people who participated in the protest. I can't speak for Canadians or people of Detroit but I can speak for Californians! From what I see, people in my area anyway, are still way to concerned about stuff and look good to worry about solidarity! On another note many still belive that voting for guns & god will be their salvation! Kneel-Obey & Pray is their mantra! This is probably the main reason why UFCW Local 8 despite it members size is one of the weakest unions in the state of California IMO. When you have union leaders with the main objective to cozy with the boss as much as possibe and a membership that continue to vote against their best interest solidarity is a word, or state of being that you will never witness! This is the very reason I've reach out to other groups of people who understand the solidarity concept! _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn |
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| hawk |
Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2011 8:28 pm
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Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 271 |
Quote: I have a friend that just returned from Egypt. His total reason for being there was to touch base with workers and people who participated in the protest. Solidarity has happened and there are many examples of it in history, especially in nationalist struggles to overthrow a foreign power. Modern China and Vietnam showed an unbelievable willingness to suffer for decades in the fight for a cause that was bigger than individual selfishness. The French Revolution and the Spanish Civil War brought forth similar sacrifices. In the North American labour movement, it rarely surfaced except in local strikes for limited periods of time. After Lenin seized power in October 1917, he used the trade unions to crush the worker's Soviets. They were happy to do so as the labour leaders feared the undisciplined worker soviets. Our labour leaders have the same function today. Keep the workers in their place. I think the UAW preached: "Unity in the leadership, solidarity in the ranks" when I was with them. That meant that all the union leaders did what the Director said and the workers needed to go along with whatever was decided was in their best interests. It has been a very long time since I heard a labour leader make a speech. Do they still sound like they are stuck back in the 1930s? Full of bluster and thunder sounding so forceful and energetic but always stopping well short of suggesting that workers take any action. They tended to fill the balloon full of expectations until it was almost ready to burst and then they suddenly let the hot air escape. Just wondering. |
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