Preliminary Programme

Against the backcloth of a European-wide ‘crisis of social democratic trade unionism’ arising from the accommodation of Social Democratic and Labour-type political parties to neoliberal restructuring imperatives, Upchurch et al (2009; 2011) have identified the emergence of an alternative model of ‘radical political unionism’ focused on class struggle union organisation and activity, engagement in social movement activity beyond the workplace, and politicised union strategies aligned to new radical left-wing political formations. As an exemplar of this process in Britain, Darlington (2007, 2009a; 2009b; 2009c; 2010a; 2012; Connolly and Darlington, 2012) has documented the way in which a distinctive and relatively successful form of militant and politicised trade unionism has developed within the RMT rail union, involving the repetitive mobilisation of members through strike action, combined with vigorous left-wing ideological opposition to both employers and government.

Yet Mcllroy (2012) has argued that, notwithstanding the RMT’s undoubted industrial militancy, the union has failed to evolve as a distinctive, oppositional political entity; its political initiatives have not engaged substantial numbers of members and have infrequently impacted on mainstream union activity; and the majority of strikes have been concerned with the immediate issues of wages, the labour process, job loss, discipline and safety, rather than ‘external’ political issues, with no necessary connection with political radicalisation (or ‘class consciousness’).

This paper attempts to further probe, document and assess the extent to which the RMT specifically has strong ideological/political orientations and identities to accompany its industrial militancy, and the scope and limits of the term ‘radical political unionism’ to characterise the attitudes and behaviour of its officials, reps/activists and members. It seeks to provide more detailed empirical and analytical evidence than hitherto on the following research questions:

• To what extent does the RMT generalise ideologically (emphasising the roots of workers’ grievances within the totality of social relations within capitalism), politically (arguing for strategies which oppose the role of the state/government) and practically (class warfare)?
• What evidence is there of the interaction between the political initiatives of the RMT and industrial mobilisation and vice versa?
• Does political radicalisation (that embraces class identity and/or consciousness) extend beyond the union’s officials and reps/activists to the members?

The paper utilises a variety of different barometers/measures of ‘radical political unionism’, as well as a range of methods of investigation, and draws on extensive research on the RMT conducted over the past seven years. Re-evaluating a range of existing historical and contemporary literature on the relationship between trade union industrial and political activity, and strikes and political consciousness, it develops an understanding of ‘radical political unionism’ that characterises it as dynamic, contradictory, uneven and a contingent process that is on a shifting continuum subject to wider political developments, and suggests its sustained existence has to be viewed as a matter of degree, relative to other mainstream, less politicised unions.
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The 1910s were a precarious time for the labor movement. The Russian Revolution in 1917 sparked a trend towards radicalization among labor organizations and communist organizations spread all over Europe. These organizations challenged existing notions of the “worker,” causing an identity crisis in class organizations. Suddenly, there were not only workers, but different kinds of workers, promoting not only social democracy and syndicalism, but also communism. The labor movement became fragmented. However, despite the conflict situation during the interwar period, some labor movements like the Swedish were integrated into a strong cohesive labor movement.
How was this possible? This paper presents an explanation of why the Swedish working class so unanimously adopted reformism. Its thesis is that the leadership of the Trade Union Confederation (LO) was well aware of the identity problems the leftwing factions had created for the reformist unions. Because of this, the leadership decided to take actions. As “identity entrepreneurs” the leaders re-formed the notion of the worker by constructing an organizational identity that downplayed class struggle and embraced discipline, peaceful solutions to labor market problems, and cooperation with the employers. This notion was inculcated in the workers through popular education. Study circles became the main tool of the Trade Union Confederation’s identity policy in the 1920s and 1930s and its successful outcome paved the way for the renowned “Swedish Model.”
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In the Cold War context that followed the Cuban Revolution and the implementation of the Alliance for Progress (ALPRO), the regional organizations linked to the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions (IFCTU) / World Confederation of Labour (WCL) and to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), battled their influence over the non-communist working masses in Latin America. As part of such confrontation the educational field became a strategic arena.
Nevertheless, while the historiography of international labour organizations is highly developed, the question of workers’ education has been a subject less explored. This vacancy surprises in relation to the development of the educational field in the period mentioned, visible not only in the amount and variety of courses and publications, but in the emergence of various specialized institutions.
My proposal analyses workers’ training policies towards Latin America, driven by various organizations involved in the world of labour such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Latin American Confederation of Christian Trade Unionists / Latin American Central of Workers (CLASC / CLAT) and the Interamerican Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT) during the 1960s and 1970s.
The paper will focus on the ways these organizations reacted to the recommendations of the Charter of Punta del Este and how that echoed on their training programmes. I will argue that both for the ILO and ORIT, the main problem of Latin America was not the increasing influence of the Cuban experience, but the lack of skilled labor force in the region, from where we can understand the growing attention given to technical and professional training. CLAT instead maintained a more strictly ideologized type of education, with a radical perspective. (Show less)

Trade unions have been organisations with a universal quality:they have developed in polities, societies and economies of strikinglydifferent characters. This paper explores the relationship between the reform of trade unions on the one hand and the boundaries set by national experiences on the other. It assesses the transferability of practices and institutions that have themselves been reflections of particular national histories. The paper will focus on atttempts to reform British trade unions and industrial relations that also drew on comparisons with North America and the Commonwealth. (Show less)