Ramparts of Resistance

Sheila Cohen

Description

Ramparts of Resistance examines the experience of British and US workers during the last three decades to show the urgency of the need for a new independent politics of trade unionism.



The twentieth century saw great changes in the trade union movement, from waves of strikes in the 1970s to a battery of employer and state onslaughts, culminating in the anti-union legislation of the 1980s and 1990s. Looking at grassroots labour struggles, Cohen explores issues of reformism, trade union democracy and the political meaning of ordinary workplace resistance, and puts forward ideas for change.



Ramparts of Resistance examines the failure of the union movement to rise to the neo-liberal challenge and calls for a new politics of independent unionism and an explicitly class-based renewal of workers' power. Coming at a time when union activity and membership involvement continues despite the odds, this book is an inspiring guide to the direction that unionism should take.
Introduction: Focussing on the Rank and File

Part One: What Happened

1. The Upsurge: 1968–74

2. ‘How Little It Asked’ (The Working Class): 1974–79

3. Gone With the Wind: Thatcher, Reagan and the early 1980s

4. Against the Stream: 1894–9

5. The Workers’ TINA: Class Warfare in the 1990s

6. Into the 2000s: Seattle ... and September

Part Two: What to Make of It All

7. Unions & Unions

8. Punctuation Marks: A Story of Class Consciousness

9. Transitions and Transformations: Which Side Are You On?

Glossary

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Sociology
• Industrial relations
• General officer
• Economics
• Business
• General
• Labor

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849640763
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Ramparts of Resistance Why Workers Lost Their Power and How to Get it Back

SHEILA COHEN

First published 2006 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106

www.plutobooks.com

Copyright © Sheila Cohen 2006 The right of Sheila Cohen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN13: 978–0–7453–1534–8 hardback ISBN10: 0–7453–1534–8 hardback ISBN13: 978–0–7453–1529–4 paperback ISBN10: 0–7453–1529–1 paperback Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Newgen Imaging System (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne.

Only a social order which can solve the problem of employment and unemployment can solve the problem of war and peace. Max Cohen, I Was One of the Unemployed, Gollancz 1945, p. 244

To Lauren & Berry & Kim of course

Acknowledgements

Contents

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Introduction: Focusing on the Rank and File

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Part I

The Upsurge: 1968–74

What Happened

‘How Little It Asked’ (The Working Class): 1974–79

Gone With the Wind: Thatcher, Reagan and the Early 1980s

Against the Stream: 1984–89

The Workers’ TINA: Class Warfare in the 1990s

Into the 2000s: Seattle … and September

Part II

Unions and Unions

What to Make of It All

Punctuation Marks: A Story of Class Consciousness

Transitions and Transformations: Which Side Are You On?

Notes

Index

vii

viii

x

1

9

30

53

75

101

124

149

174

198

222

241

Acknowledgements

The first and foremost acknowledgement must be to my husband and comrade, friend and helpmate, Kim Moody. Few authors have the advantage of an infinite source of wisdom in their own field sit- ting (often literally) feet away from them. Countless are the occa- sions when I have asked, ‘Was that strike in 1986 or 1988?’ and the answer has come instantly from that Mastermind of all things labour-oriented (particularly in his native America). This in addition to being one of the foremost, most consistent, committed activists in the rank-and-file labour galaxy. Few can match that. But among others who have contributed immeasurably both to the material in this book and to my morale while writing it, I would like to include the many union activists clustered around bothLabor Notes, the rank-and-file union project Kim co-founded in 1979, and my own shorter-lived British effort Trade Union News. They include, on the British side of the equation, Davey Ayre, Graham Griffin, Jon Johnson, John Kelly, Pat Longman, Kenny Murphy, Tony Richardson, Roy Wenbourne and above all Glenroy Watson. My many comrades inLabor Notesand related networks, including Martha Gruelle, William Johnson, Chris Kutalik, Marsha Niemeijer, Ken Paff, Charlie Post, Teofilo Reyes, Simone Sagovac, Tim Schermerhorn and Jane Slaughter, helped to make my long stay in the US easier as well as contribut- ing in countless ways to the ideas and information contained in Ramparts. Labour activists who kindly provided interviews – not all of which, unfortunately, I had space to use – include, in Britain, Micky Britton of the GPMU, John Johnson of USDAW, Jack Owen of the TGWU at Lucas, Dave Ward of the CWU and once again Glenroy Watson of the RMT. In the US, a hero of rank-and-file struggle, Jim Guyette of the ‘P-9ers’, allowed me to record his memories of that strike and its bitter legacy of bureaucratic betrayal. And a posse of West Coast activists, including Bill Balderstone, Kay Eisenhower, Caroline Lund and Barry Sheppard, gave much-valued help and information, enabled by the hospitality of beloved friends and life- long rank-and-file activists Erwin and Estar Baur.

viii

Acknowledgements

ix

More personal friends and stalwarts, as well as union activists, include lifelong TDU supporter Steve Kindred, UAW militant and assembly-line poet Gregg Shotwell, to whom I owe a huge debt, Mick Sullivan of the CWU, who always makes me laugh, and AFSCME’s Lynn Taylor, who gave both me and Kim enormous help and friendship in New York. This book would not exist without the patience, encouragement and support of the person preferably known as ‘Beech’ – my won- derful editor at Pluto Press. Thanks also to Robert Webb on that score. And finally, again I would like to ‘acknowledge’ my beloved daughters Lauren and Berry, who helped with useful editing and publishing advice, listening, encouraging, and, really, just existing.

ACTSS

AEEU AEU AFGE AFL-CIO

AFSCME

Amicus ASE ASLEF

ASTMS

AUD AUEW BALPA BL BSC BT CCI COHSE COLA CSEU CWA CWU

DRUM EETPU

EI EPEA FASH FBU FLOC

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Association of Clerical, Technical and Supervisory Staffs (section of TGWU) Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union Amalgamated Engineering Union American Federation of Government Employees American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Merger of AEEU and MSF Amalgamated Society of Engineers Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs Association for Union Democracy Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers British Air Line Pilots Association British Leyland British Steel Corporation British Telecom Corporate Campaigning, Inc. Confederation of Health Service Employees Cost of Living Allowance Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions Communications Workers of America Communication Workers’ Union (merger of UPW and POEU/NCU) Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union Employee Involvement Electrical and Power Engineers’ Association Fraternal Association of Steel Haulers Fire Brigades Union Farm Labor Organising Committee

x

GM GMB HERE HRM IAM IBEW IBT ILA ILWU

ISTC JSSC LIUNA MFD MSF NACODS NALC NALGO NCB NCU NGA NJNC NLRA/B NUM NUMMI NUPE NUR NUS NUT PATCO PCS POEU QWL RMT RSC SEIU SOGAT TDC TDU TGWU TQM

Abbreviations and Acronyms

xi

General Motors General, Municipal and Boilermakers’ Union Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees Human Resources Management International* Association of Machinists International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers International Brotherhood of Teamsters International Longshoremen’s Association (East Coast) International Longshore and Warehouse Union (West Coast) Iron and Steel Trades Confederation Joint Shop Stewards’ Committee Laborers’ International Union of North America Miners For Democracy Manufacturing, Science, Finance National Association of Colliery Overmen and Deputies National Association of Letter Carriers National And Local Government Officers’ Association National Coal Board National Communications Union National Graphical Association National Joint Negotiating Committee National Labor Relations Act/Board National Union of Mineworkers New United Motors Manufacturing Inc. National Union of Public Employees National Union of Railwaymen National Union of Seamen National Union of Teachers Professional Air Traffic Controllers’ Organisation Public and Civil Services Post Office Engineering Union Quality of Working Life Rail, Maritime and Transport (merger of NUR and NUS) Rotherham Strike Committee Service Employees’ International Union Society of Graphical and Allied Trades Teamsters for a Decent Contract Teamsters for a Democratic Union Transport and General Workers’ Union Total Quality Management

xii

Ramparts of Resistance

TSSA TUC TURF TWU UAW UCS UFCW UMWA UNC UNISON UNITE UPIU UPW URW USDAW USWA

Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association Trades Union Congress Teamster Union Rank and File Transport Workers Union (of America) United Auto Workers Upper Clyde Shipbuilders United Food and Commercial Workers United Mine Workers of America United National Caucus (in UAW) Merger of NALGO, NUPE and COHSE Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees United Paperworkers’ International Union Union of Postal Workers United Rubber Workers Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers United Steel Workers of America

* ‘International’ indicates that the union has members in both the US and Canada.

Introduction: Focusing on the Rank and File

… But when it is a question of making a precise study of strikes, combinations and other forms in which the proletarians carry out before our eyes their organisation as a class, some are seized with real fear and others display a transcendentaldisdain. Karl Marx,The Poverty of Philosophy, Progress Publishers 1973, p.151

This is a book with an ambitious aim: to reverse the focus of debate on rebuilding the labour movement. While many recent contribu- tions to that debate emphasise a grass roots orientation, most continue to centre on a set of programmatic injunctions as to what ‘the unions’ ought to do, rather than focusing on what they – or rather their members – are actually doing. By contrast, this book suggests putting workplace-based rank-and-file organisation and resistance at the head of strategic discussion, rather than leaving it as a largely neglected footnote.

FOCUSING ON THE RANK AND FILE

The trade union history covered here, from the 1968–74 upsurge to the present, tells its own story of the class power of rank-and-file struggle – whether in defiance of anti-union legislation, in defence of jobs, or simply in the day-to-day trench warfare of workplace resistance. It illustrates the uncomfortable truth that the main threat to ruling-class demands and strategies has come, time after time, not from lofty political protest but from ‘raw’, workplace- based, rank-and-file resistance. A consistent criticism of such resistance is that it is ‘economistic’ – it lacks the broader political awareness and commitment to social ideals that would be necessary to transform the system, or at least to turn the trade union movement around. The answer to that criti- cism within this book is not that politics, ideals, ideas and ideology

1