The reformist line, promoted and defended by the labour aristocracy, presently dominates the Canadian union movement. But the class-struggle current, although it is weak right now, continues to develop as more and more workers come to see the bankruptcy of the reformist orientation in fighting the effects of the economic crisis.
The young communist movement is playing an important role in guiding and orienting the development of this class-struggle trend.
Class unions existed at one time in Canada and elsewhere. For example, there was the Workers’ Unity League of the ’30s in Canada and the Red International of Labour Unions in the ’20s and ’30s, made up of class unions around the world.
Today in Spain, the Syndicato Unitario, a class union, has 300,000 members.
The trend towards unions like these is developing in Canada. Let’s look at the principles and objectives of class unions and how they function.
Class unions firmly defend the immediate interests of the working class and make the daily battles part of the workers’ overall struggle for socialism.
As an organization of the working class, the class union cannot limit itself to the economic struggle for better working conditions and wages. As long as the capitalist system exists, the bosses will always try to take back what they have been forced to concede. They will continually try to step up the exploitation of the working class in order to boost their profits.
Until the workers get rid of the capitalist system itself, the cause of all the injustices they face, they will constantly have to take up their struggles over and over again.
That’s why class unions not only fight hard to win better working conditions, but they also teach their members the limitations of short-term struggles for particular demands.
They mobilize, educate and unify the working class and show that every conflict between workers and bosses is part of the general struggle in society between the bourgeoisie and its state on the one hand, and the working class on the other.
These unions leave no illusions about the role of governments, the police or the law. They denounce all the bosses’ or the bureaucrats’ attempts to institutionalize class collaboration through bipartite or tripartite committees. These committees enslave and weaken the union movement, turning it away from its objectives.
The guiding principle and basis of action of class unions is that the interests of the bosses and the workers are irreconcilable.
This is why they act as schools of class struggle for the masses of workers.
Karl Marx summed up the role of unions in Wages, Price and Profit:
Trade unions work well as centres of resistance against the encroachments of capital. They fail partially from an injudicious use of their power. They fail generally from limiting themselves to a guerilla war against the effects of the existing system, instead of simultaneously trying to change it, instead of using their organized forces as a lever for the final emancipation of the working class, that is to say, the ultimate abolition of the wages system.
Unions with this perspective defend the workers best. They are strong because they understand the nature and the objectives of the capitalist class, and they use every struggle to strengthen the labour movement as a whole.
While their membership includes workers with different levels of political consciousness and diverse political opinions, class unions use every class-against-class struggle to educate all their members and raise their political consciousness.
These principles are the basis for a clearcut tactical orientation for the day-to-day struggles.
Class unions use direct action, organizing and mobilizing the rank and file to fight the bosses for their demands.
Negotiation, while necessary, becomes secondary, and depends on the strength of the workers’ fight.
90% action, 10% negotiations: this is how the labour movement sums up this tactic. And time and time again it has been proven that only mass action gets results.
These actions also bring together the working masses, tightening ranks of the different strata of workers with their different levels of political consciousness. These actions forge the class unity that is indispensable for victory.
But this does not mean that we always have to walk out, demonstrate or go on strike. Our actions must be planned and organized to hit at the right time and place.
During a contract negotiation the union would hold extensive consultations with the workers on their demands. But at the same time, a class union does not claim that the contract is a magic wand that will resolve class struggle.
The contract is the result of the workers’ struggle against the bosses. It is only a temporary truce.
And the workers must constantly take action to defend the gains they have won in the contract.
In opposition to the union bureaucrats who swear by negotiations and neglect or oppose direct action, class unions make direct action their basic tactic.
An important principle of class unions is to work toward the greatest possible inter-union and worker unity.
To achieve this, consistent action and agitation must be taken up to assist all worker and mass struggles.
Constant effort is made to coordinate the actions of different groups of workers, different unions and regions of the country.
Instead of leaving workers isolated to face their bosses alone, class unions do everything possible to strengthen and broaden the struggles.
The constitution of the Syndicato Unitario of Spain says: “The organizations that make up the SU must contribute, through united action, to tbe struggle the workers are waging, no matter what nationality or region they may come from.”
This is how the unions contribute to building worker solidarity, unity among the workers of various nationalities, among men, women and immigrants. This solidarity is a key element in the resolute struggle against the capitalist class.
By starting from the working-class point of view and a scientific conception of society, the class union educates its members and encourages their conscious participation in union life.
The class union uses every working-class struggle, every manifestation of exploitation and oppression to raise the class consciousness of all union members.
By adhering to decisions and principles defined by the union convention, the class union shows the role and the short and long-term goals of the union. Thus it wins its members to its point of view, particularly those still influenced by reformism.
With this fighting orientation as its guide, it does education around union work, the role of stewards, the rights and duties of the members.
Union newspapers, courses and conferences are widely used, and information committees and union councils also work toward these goals. Their goal is to educate members in the spirit of class consciousness.
Class unions promote proletarian internationalism in their ranks. They recognize that the peoples of the world have the same interest; to end the barbarous imperialist system.
Thus they give resolute support to the struggles of workers from other countries who are confronting the same enemy.
And they support national liberation struggles. Anything that weakens the imperialist exploiters is in the interest of the workers.
This is why they send support resolutions, financial aid and other means of support to the struggles. And they invite leaders of these struggles to come to address their meetings.
Class unions practice broad proletarian democracy. The union is controlled by the rank and file: this is a fundamental principle of democracy.
The union also ensures that its members actively participate in union life, structures, general meetings or tasks.
Decisions are made after thorough debates in which all opinions are expressed. They are not made hastily by a gang of bureaucrats who tell us to leave everything to them.
Union leaders and officials apply the decisions of their members and place themselves at their members’ service.
They have no special privileges and are paid the same wages as an average worker in their industry. They can be recalled at any time by the workers.
If they fail to carry out the union’s decisions or fail to apply its orientation, the structures that elected them can call a special meeting and remove them from their functions.
To reach important decisions or prepare a convention, all the wheels are put in motion so that the members have all the information they require in order to take a stand.