ALHI discussion of way forward for labour

REPORT OF THE DISCUSSION GROUPS

AT Alberta Labour History Institute (ALHI) CONFERENCE

"1919: THE GREAT LABOUR REVOLT"

Question for the discussion groups:

“What Does 1919 Tell Us About

How Workers Need to Organize Today

to Meet Capitalist Challenges?”

Here are the collective comments from the groups:

1. Issues today that require collective responses and collective organization and responses by working people (echoes of 1919)

--restrictive labour laws

--right to a living and a living wage

--ignoring of treaty rights and treating Indigenous people as an underclass

--privatization of public services and public lands; contracting out to deprive workers of union representation and basic rights; use of P3s to save governments money at workers’ expense in short term but saddle society with long-term costs

--anti-union policies of the state, including allowing CLAC and other company unions to claim to be real unions and legislation like Bill 9 that ignores collective bargaining agreements

--climate change: need for science-based approach without profit motive and for transition to post-fossil-fuel economy in ways that do not penalize working people

--austerity measures including demands for wage rollbacks

--human rights violations and attacks against immigrants; limited rights of temporary foreign workers; anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy

--attacks on women’s rights including reproductive choice and equal pay

--growing income and social inequalities after four decades of neoliberalism

--attacks on health care as a fundamental right

--lack of progressivity and fairness throughout our tax systems

--benefits of automation going to capitalists and not to workers; general problem of lack of consideration of workers and population more generally under monopoly capitalism and of unthinking acceptance of technocratic solutions to complex issues

--precarious labour needs to be combated—people have a right to work and incomes that has to take precedence over “needs” of capitalists that create precarity, insecurity, and poverty.

--mandatory overtime and failure to pay overtime wages are ongoing problems

--lack of proper training of workers and full certification

--brainwashing by the state, the media, and corporate research institutes/pseudo-grass-roots lobbies

--disinformation in social media

2. Strategies unions and allies can undertake collectively to try to prevent the reintroduction of austerity policies

--rallies by the thousands, as in Hong Kong and in anti-Klein actions in 1990s and 2000s

--more training of cadres and more involvement of all workers in decision-making about how to respond to neo-liberal pressures rather than relying solely on leaders

--more education of unionists and other workers about labour history and about the workings of the capitalist system as well as about how workers in other countries have organized to fight austerity measures and to demand social changes that create greater equality and that fight climate change

--demand electoral reform; understand political system and organize for elections

--meetings that bring different unions together

--organize wherever we are and build solidarity across society

--collaboration of labour with change-seeking groups, including, for example, Idle No More

--development of ongoing connections among unions and change-seeking civil society groups

--development of a manifesto among cooperating unions and change-seeking civil society groups that connects all the needs of their members and creates solidarity across a broad section of society

--pressuring of politicians

--raising funds for activities related to informing the public and pressuring politicians

--union militancy including engaging in strike action and providing support for workers on strike; sympathy strikes of the 1919 variety

--other forms of direct action

--court action

--research and education: the need is to counter the slick propaganda of right-wing populists; we need to develop our own media and protect our words and ideas

--we need to follow the money and expose the greed behind opponents of workers’ rights and opponents of climate action

--need to provide opportunities for genuine feedback/open questioning including townhalls and social media outlets

--support young people’s struggles and work with youth-led organizations

--recruit seniors to be part of movement for societal change

--confront hate-mongers

--organize in rural areas and not just the cities

--boycotts—hit the pocketbooks of our opponents; also “reverse boycotts” in which we spend money in ways that help our causes.

3. Is a general strike a realistic goal for working people 100 years after the last general strikes? If so, how can it be organized?

--Yes, if we build capacity, beginning with training cadres

--Yes, if we are building relationships with the broad public, as the American teachers’ unions did before and during their various strikes.

--Yes, if people recognize that “people power” exceeds the power that governments pretend that they can exercise over people.

--Yes, but we need to begin with awareness-building and rotating strikes

--Spreading knowledge of workers’ history can be used to build a movement and a struggle

--We need to build alliances with working-class groups of all kinds, whether unionized or not, movements such as Justice for Janitors, Migrante, etc.

--educate/prepare to deal with police

--There are more cushions in 2019 than 1919 and so it is harder to hit the level of desperation of a century ago. On the other hand, a sense of injustice generally results from efforts by the ruling class to attack acquired rights. So, if there is an all-out attack on what working people and others consider to be their rights, militancy up to and including general strikes cannot be ruled out.

--A broader leadership base needs to emerge from our movements.

--Days of Action can be used as a test for whether the militancy required to build to a general strike exists. [A Day of Action - a one-day general strike -- was used in 1976 to oppose Pierre Trudeau's price and wages cap law, which it was said only capped wages.]

--We should be looking at novel tactics that workers are employing or have employed elsewhere in the world to prevent erosion of their rights. Japan was mentioned in this context.

--We need to recreate a sense of working-class culture and class conflict rather than accepting ruling-class hegemony that claims that we are a one-class society but a few people happen to have all the money and make all the decisions.

Thanks for reading.

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