File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-02-21.035, message 67


From: wdrb-AT-siva.bris.ac.uk
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 17:45:12 GMT
Subject: RE: M-I: Marxists in unions


While I think it is right to question
the potentially revolutionary role of trade unions,
there have been at least two disputs in the UK
in the last 15 years which had roots in trade unionism
but transcended and narrow catrgory of reformism...
one was the miners strike of 1984/5...the other
the present Liverpool docks dispute.

Will Brown

Louis Godena wrote:
<
I wrote in this forum last fall that unions,  *as such*,  were wholly
incompatible with a Marxian revolutionary program,  but were, on the
contrary,  indispensable to strengthening capitalism in its twilight era.
It is not that workers are docile or counter-revolutionary -- though
tempermentally,  urban dwellers seem the least suited for purposive and
determined revolutionary action -- it is just that organizationally,
American trade unionism is a natural agency for reform,  not revolution.
This has always been so,  even during the heyday of Left agitation (authored
and embodied largely by the Communist Party).    Demands for union
recognition or an eight hour day could succeed (with largely defensive
violence if necessary) where more fundamental demands could not.
Principle always took a back seat to the humdrum world of higher wages and
more time off.    The Left was cleaned out of the shops in the 40s/50s with
hardly a whimper from the rank and file who had lately benefited from the
sacrifices of these same stalwarts.>>


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