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NOTES ON ORGANIZING A turning point in history There is little doubt the anti-union, anti-peoples corporate forces are betting the ranch on the outcome of a worldwide campaign to lower living standards and raise profits. This is because the first law of corporatism is to increase the rate of profit. This has reached the point where today as reported recently in the Washington Post, the "385 of the richest people in the world have a net worth equal to the combined annual income of the poorest 2.3 billion." Up to this point they have generally succeeded with the exception of periods of recession or depression. But now they face a crisis of no room for expansion. The world markets have reached a point of saturation.
This is seen in the incredible world wide financial transactions, under
the electronic computerized system, which transfers trillions of dollars
daily across all borders. The only way left to continue increasing
profits is to cheapen the cost of production, to increase worker
productivity. Alan Greenspan has reminded us of this in his various
economic pronouncements from the Federal Reserve Board. Their only hope
now is to lower wages around the world. To do this they have set up a plan involving the WTO,
IMF, World Bank, etc. In other words a total program based upon no
outside regulation, secret deliberations, no governmental, let alone
peoples' democratic control. It is worldwide control of industry,
government, political and social - a corporate controlled world system.
It is an anti-union, anti-democratic, anti-people system of total
exploitation. CAN WE SAVE UNIONISM AND DEMOCRACY? We can by extending and strengthening unionism. It is
necessary to understand that unionism is the strongest and most
essential anti-corporate power. Even Peter Drucker, guru of management
consultants agrees that unions defend workers' rights and democracy
against the tyranny of corporate power. Without unions democracy cannot
exist. One look at the world history shows that where unions function
democracy is strong. Under dictatorships unions are outlawed. In
addition it is clear that higher living standards are characteristic of
democracy. It can be said that higher living standards is a foundation
of democracy. The history of unionism in our own country as well as
elsewhere is marked by terrorism against unions. Unionism has been
involved in a struggle against corporate terrorism as long as it has
existed. WHAT CAN WE DO? The opportunities for organizing are not a lot. Having
just come out of the prosperity of the 90s, the need for unionism is not
clearly seen. Workers have been taken in by get rich quick stock market
fantasies and comparatively high wages in some industries. But that was
restricted to less than the majority of workers. Now that we are in a
service economy with a huge segment of temp workers, we see a wage
slippage. Younger workers no longer have the opportunities for well
paying jobs as the manufacturing sector continues to shrink. In such
circumstances union organizing is difficult, if workers are being laid
off they are no longer there to be organized. And if they are available
as a source of cheap labor, the downward pressure on wages increases.
But such conditions in the Great Depression led workers to seek union
support. It works both ways. In addition laws, government bureaucracies and media
bias all militate against organizing. Under Bush government policy will
become more ant- union. It is likely that union militancy will be
labeled a threat to the war against terrorism under Bush's "You're
for us or against us" statement. What we have going for us is, for one thing the great
ILWU reputation. Practically any worker except those in highly skilled
crafts would be proud to belong to the ILWU. If we get the message out
to them we will not have too much difficulty getting new members.
Coupled with this, the large number of low paid workers adds to the
opportunities for organizing. Another plus is the connection between union organizing
and the defense of democracy. As noted, trade union rights are
essentially democratic rights. Many are becoming aware of this important
fact. Thus we can count on wide spread public support for organizing.
The ongoing demonstrations against corporate power have brought civil,
religious and environmental groups and others together. To the extent we
can strengthen this unity we will strengthen organizing. The importance
of this cannot be over emphasized. There is one practical suggestion that may bear fruit.
That is guaranteeing that workers fired for union organizing get some
kind of employment on the waterfront. Our union has a proud tradition of
providing jobs for workers on strike. Unfortunately jobs opportunities
on the waterfront are tight these days, but if we could offer that, we
would probably find many volunteer union organizers in unorganized
areas. But our greatest problem in our organizing campaign is lack of rank and file support. This is hard to overcome, largely for the reason our workers are well satisfied comparatively speaking and aren't motivated to struggle as in the past. Overcoming this is not easy. It requires continued and patient efforts such as speaking before union meetings and lunch hours on the docks, talking to members individually and convincing them of the need for organizing. We need a vigorous agitation and propaganda campaign in our meetings, on the job and in our press. If we can make a real effort in this direction we will see real results. Long live the ILWU unionism and democracy! |
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