Fundamentals of Trade Unionism, and Challenges of the Trade Union Movement in West Africa*
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| during the paper presentation, after group work on the topic |
INTRODUCTION
I wish to start by
expressing my utmost appreciation to the Friedrich Ebert Stfiftung in Cotonu
and Abuja for the invitation to present this paper. It is a great opportunity
to discuss with young men and women from a diverse array of trade unions in the
West African sub-region, on pertinent issues that the working class faces, at
this critical juncture in human history.
Similarly, I must particularly
commend the FES Republic of Benin Office for its consistency in organising the
Summer University, which I had the pleasure of attending several years back, as
a youth. I must say that the school is a very intensive one with rich
discourse, and presents an opportunity for young trade unionists to establish
or consolidate networks of friends and comrades that would be of immense value
in themselves, and for our work as emerging trade union leaders. This, I say
from practical experience.
The theme of this year’s
Summer University, “Innovative Trade Union Leaders’ Strategies, for the Recruitment and
Mobilisation of Youths in Trade Unions” is a very important one, for
several reasons, in my humble opinion.
First, it expresses an
understanding that the challenges before us in building the trade union
movement goes beyond mere expansion of formal recruitment, and involves mobilisation. Second, it appreciates the
fact, particularly within the working class, that, the youths are not just the
“leaders of tomorrow”. Considering the fact that tomorrow starts today,
exercising leadership starts now.
Third, it rests on a collective/movement
perspective of leadership. Our unions’ leaders are not only the presidents and
general secretaries of our unions. Everyone invited for the Summer University
from my experience in the past might be below 35years of age, but are already leaders
in the union movement at different levels from the shop floor to the
international scene. I actually remember at least one General Secretary
(Abdoulaye Kabore from Burkina Faso) in my set, and about two others became
General Secretaries a short while later. The lessons they learnt and networks
they made while in the Summer University have been invaluable for them and many
others who passed through Lokossa.
Fourth, the importance of a
strategic approach to the tasks before us can hardly be overemphasized. Such an
approach requires a thorough understanding of where we are, how we got here and
what is to be done. Such understanding would benefit from being critical
without being dogmatic, involving the flourishing of diverse perspectives bound
by a common commitment to building workers’ power and a vibrant trade union
movement in the sub-region. From the theme, this approach also captures a
salient element; the trade union youth is central to the future of the trade
union movement through its active and
strategic place as a generation within its class, and as the class’
representative within its generation.
The present state of the
trade union movement generally cannot be understood without situating it in the
rapid changes which the world of work has witnessed since the 1970s, to the
detriment of workers. The bosses attacks (economically, politically and
ideologically) against the working people globally, over the last four decades
or so, shattered the social democratic “class compromise” of the post-War era.
This “neoliberal globalisation”, which economically takes the shape of;
privatisation, cuts in public spending on social services and liberalisation of
all markets (including the labour market) has gone parri pasu, with the promotion of “individualism”, and
“consumerism” as against solidarity and cooperation, by the establishment.
Some of the results of this
multifaceted process include: restructuring of the working class with
increasing precarity and informalisation of work; declining trade union
memberships, more often than not with consequences that include reduced trade
union finances and; reduced inclination of youths to identify as “working
class” (many working class youths, particularly graduates would see themselves
more as “middle class” professionals).
The “Great Stagnation” which
started in 2007/2008 with the “Great Recession” has however reposed the
challenge of organising for unions
and activists, striving for a better emancipated social life.
Trade unions are the primary
organisations for the defence of workers economic rights and interests. But,
trade unionism, even where it is
non-partisan is necessarily political. This
is because it is about power relations between the working class and the
bosses, in the workplace, and the broader
society.
This paper has two main
objectives. First, it aims at putting in perspective the fundamentals of trade
unionism as the phenomenal unified pursuit of the modern working class for “a
better life”. Second, it attempts to
assess the problems and prospects for the trade union movement. It is thus
broadly organised into two general sections, which engage with these two
objectives.
I very much hope that the
paper and discussions in the aftermath of its presentation will not only serve
to enlighten us all better on the topical issues herein, but also inspire us as youths, to building the
trade union movement and working class activism from below, in our workplaces,
sectors, countries, the sub-region, continentally, and indeed, globally.
TRADES UNIONS AND TRADE UNIONISM
Humankind has come a long
way from our early beginnings as hunters and gatherers of animals and plants.
The long drawn process of social development which has witnessed and brought
about several transformations in its pathways has at its core, the production
and reproduction of our material needs and cultural life. Such have been
possible through the collective deployment of human labour, utilising different
sets of implements to transform nature, and in that process, transforming
ourselves.
An element of the labour
process since human beings left the stasis of our humble origins has been the
exploitation of the immense majority who work, by an infinitesimal minority,
who reap the fruits of such social labour, relaxing in luxury and having time
to benefit the most from cultural development as well. Such were the early
societies built on slavery in the classical societies of Egypt, Greece and
Rome, as well as the medieval societies of Europe and Africa with such glorious
empires and kingdoms like Mali, Ghana
Such exploitation could not
be maintained for any reasonable extent of time without oppression. But, the
innate essence of human beings is for freedom. Thus, oppression tends to breed
resistance in its wake. The necessarily social nature of the toil of working
people, and the exploitation as well as oppression that they faced, informed
their combining to resist. This took many forms, from withdrawal of their
labour to outright armed rebellions. The first recorded “strikes” (downing of
tools) were in Egypt, by slaves building the pyramids. In ancient Rome, the Thracian
slave Spartacus led a revolt of his comrades against their masters and the Roman
state. Similar rebellions can be found throughout medieval history and in the
Americas, in the wake of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
These struggles of working
people to be free, and/or to win a better life, could be considered as the
pre-history of what today is trade
unionism. Trade unions are of course in many ways, qualitatively different
from the temporary combinations of
working people that waged those struggles. But as union members, the modern worker
marches with the spirit of unity and struggle of subaltern classes, over the ages.
The working class and trade unionism
The modern working class
emerged with sorrow, tears and blood from the industrial revolution. This was
with the establishment of factories, mines and large plantations all geared at
large scale production, necessary for the accumulation and expansion of
capital. Eighteenth century Britain is
the archetypical country in understanding that rupture with which capitalist
development supplanted the earlier feudal form of social organisation, though
elements of this new (capitalist) mode of production along the lines of mass
production which we have come to know as given in today’s world, could be found
a few centuries earlier in other European countries like the Italian city-state
of Venice and the Netherlands.
With large scale production
came the proleterianization of labour i.e. the organisation of waged labour on a mass scale, for its
most efficient exploitation. Peasants were sucked into factories and mines as
unskilled labour to work. Artisans of yesterday who worked their handicrafts
alone or as a few guild masters and journeymen could not compete with the
cheaper products from the factories and had to become workers in these
factories to be able to earn a living.
Working conditions were
terrible. Men, women and even children worked, at times for up to sixteen hours
a day in the most horrible conditions. The bosses who owned these enterprises
saw themselves as urban and more ruthless “lords” over the workers, in a
similar (and less concerned) way to the supremacy of the feudal lords over
their serfs on the lands in the rural areas.
But the concentration of
workers brought with it a sense of oneness, solidarity,
expressed in different ways. Mutual
aid societies or cooperatives to make ends meet and for all to be there for one
in moments of need, were some of the earliest of these forms. The earliest
trades unions, which were known as “trade clubs”, started as what could be
considered as “social clubs” by former artisans who had been thrown into the
mass life of the factories and mines. As Richard Hyman informs, they tended to
meet at ale houses (beer parlours) and the extent of money to be used for
buying drinks would even be enshrined in their constitutions.
The growth of the labour movement
did deepened the concerns of these clubs beyond the merely social. The labour
movement is a conceptually broader term than the trade union, even today. And
while it almost overlaps with the working class movement, I would argue that it
is broader in the sense that it encompasses the broad gamut of all those who
work, their organisations and the interactions between these. It would include
the working class, the cooperative/mutual aid movement, the peasantry and the
anti-establishment/socialist movement. With struggle, trade union rights
gradually begun to be won and consolidated. At the heart of these struggles
once again, we find what is the fundamental ethic of the trade union movement
i.e. solidarity.
In Africa, capitalism did
not emerge organically; it was an
introduction of colonial domination. This had some consequences for the pathway
of the trade union movement’s development. Essentially though, despite the
differences in strength and size between the more industrialised countries of
the global north and those in economically backward countries in the Global
South, particularly in Africa, the nature and fate of the working class is one.
The trade union movement is thus, not surprisingly, an international one, no
less than rule of the bosses stretches beyond borders.
Be it, at the level of the
enterprise, country or globally, trade unions are best understood as organizations
of workers who come together with the aim of bettering their lots. There are,
generally speaking, five major substantive issues which are at the heart of the
workers’ quest in combining, these being: wages and other material
remuneration; working conditions; job security; working time and; respect and
dignity. Trade unionism is that drive, that quest for improvements in these
substantive issues. This drive precedes even the formation of trades unions.
Thus we see that while trade unionism might be the “business” of trades unions,
it is actually a working class phenomenon, which precedes and even leads to the
formation of trades unions themselves. Trade unionism is the natural tendency
of workers to economic self-defence.
Combinations of workers in
furtherance of trade unionism start with the spread of solidarity based on
their shared circumstances. Trades unions are the more lasting forms of such
combinations and they then drive trade unionism as the process of what they do.
How a trade union movement
conducts its trade unionism is influenced amongst other things, by: the
dominant conception of trades union within it; the history of its emergence
and; the economic and politico-legal framework which the IRS is situated in. With
the winning of recognition as legal and legitimate social actors, the major
means through which trade unions pursue the economic aims of trade unionism is
collective bargaining. Other ways are through: mutual aid to union members;
industrial action, particularly strikes and; political liaisons.
Types of trade unionisms[1]
There are different
approaches to trade unionism adopted by different (and possibly at different
times, by the same) unions. These are approaches to fulfilling as they best
think they could, the goal of a better life for the worker.
It might be useful before
going further here to point out the two broad goals of trade unionism as being on
one hand, substantive goals e.g. better pay, shorter working hours, increased
vacation period and on the other hand, procedural goals i.e. control over the
work process. In a sense the different approaches do place different weights on
each of these two broad categories of goals, as we will see. It would however
not be strictly correct to distinguish this or that approach to trade unionism
on the basis of a strict concern for either substantive goals over procedural
goals or vice versa. They reflect the two sides of the fundamental coin of
trade unionism.
The four basic approaches to
trade unionism could be said to be: corporatist; “economistic” (business);
political (partisan) and; social movement unionisms.
Corporatist unionism: this would be the approach to unionism promoted by
a union which is bounded by a unitary-systemic conception of trade unions. This
could be the described as the form of trade unionism in state capitalist,
fascist, totalitarian or one-party states. The way towards fulfilling the aim
of a better life for the working class is seen in total support for the broader
political system more often than not under the control of a party or military
junta. We can also find such unionism in some house unions even in more “democratic” societies. This approach places
less priority on mobilization, being more often than not perpetuated by trade unions
that were formed by or owe their “powers” to the state, or management more than
to the workers.
The situation though, might
not be so simple in the long run. The practical reality of exploitation and
alienation drives workers even within such unionism to seek interstices of
resistance. It could start by still claiming corporatist support to the powers
that be, or as a drive for more radical unionism by the time it emerges through
fermentation. Examples of these include how Solidarnosc emerged from the Polish
docks and to some extent the situation in Zambia where the ZCTU that had given
tacit support at some point in time to the one-party dictatorship would become
the rallying centre for the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy.
Economistic/business unionism: this form of unionism asserts that trades unions
should be concerned strictly with bread and butter issues of wages and working
conditions. During the Cold War, it was the dominant paradigm of “free” trade
unionism. It rests largely on a pluralist conception of trades union and indeed
of society as a whole. Its classical home is the United States and 20th
Century trade unionism in Britain largely falls into this approach as well.
Some myths need to be
dispelled in understanding this brand of trade unionism. It is not necessarily
always conservative. It could be radical in pushing what the unions’ want,
which as Gompers the founding President of the American Federation of Labour
and its arch proponent summed up is “more”. More wages, more leisure time, etc,
but not necessarily more direct control over the political steering wheel of
society.
This brings us to the second
myth which business unions themselves perpetuate i.e. trades unions have no
business with trying to change society (read; politics). The American trades
unions ties with the Democrats is no secret, and the British trades unions
actually birthed and still wields considerable direct influence in the Labour
Party. Not only is overt political support given by business unions to
non-radical parties, the roles of some of them played during the cold war,
particularly the AFL-CIO (not to talk of the then International Trade
Secretariats), was to say the least, questionable.
Thus essentially, even
business unionism is more often than not political, somehow or the other, in
its pursuit of largely substantive union goals. It however upholds the primacy
of the capitalist system and seeks accommodation within it.
Political unionism: this is a form of unionism which is not only more
overtly political, but more importantly, where the trade union usually, is
affiliated to a political party, formally. When this form of unionism is
described in most pluralist literature, a picture of left-leaning unions
co-joined to radical left parties gets conjured. This is not a correct reading
of the situation.
First is the fact that the
political party a trade union which practices political unionism is affiliated
to might very well be centrist (as with some of the unions affiliated to the
Socialist International parties), right-wing (as with “solidarity” affiliated
to the fascist BNP in Britain) or religious (as with the French Confederation
Francaise Democratique du Travail, in its earlier incarnation and some
affiliates of the WCL, before its 2006 merger with the ICFTU to form the ITUC).
Second, the term political
unionism gives the impression at first glance that (left) union movements with
this approach are not concerned with economic issues, mobilizing simply to
overthrow the capitalist system. Nothing could be further from the truth. The
French Confederation Generale du Travail, which with its close ties to the
French Communist Party, could be taken as a classical example of a trade union
movement committed to political unionism as been at the fore of economistic
struggles as the defence of jobs, wages and pensions, in the several waves of
resistance to austerity attacks on the working class, in recent times.
Third, some of the leading
trade union movements with direct links with workers parties or liberation
movements have maintained their independence somewhat, despite such
affiliations, and could hardly be reasonably said to practice political
unionism. The two most striking examples are the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (in a tripartite alliance with the African National Congress and
the South African Communist Party) and the Brazilian Central Única dos
Trabalhadores, which has very close ties with the ruling Workers’ Party (PT).
This might give a clue to
the shift away from political unionism where the trade union movement mobilizes
around a partisan political line by left-leaning union movements. Experiences
of the diktat that characterized the political unionisms of trade unions
affiliated to “Communist” Parties during the Cold War and the changing seams of
the social issues which confront today’s society and the current dimensions of
the perennial conflicts between the classes of the haves and the have-nots,
might have contributed to this shift towards social movement unionism.
Social movement unionism[2]: this is a form of unionism which combines struggle
for the substantive bread and butter concerns of trade unions with the
procedural goals of greater control on the work process and broader demands for
social, economic and environmental justice. It involves the mobilization of
workers within the industrial relations system, to win their set wage and
non-wage goals including dignity and respect.
But it is also premised on a
realization that effectively building workers’ power in the workplace cannot be
separated from the mobilization of the broader mass of working people, women,
youths and communities for a better world. Social movement unionism thus
entails the forging of alliances and coalitions of organized labour with other
oppressed and marginalized strata of society.
Indeed the most vibrant and
left-tending trade union movements today are the bastions of social movement
unionism. CUT in Brazil, COSATU in South Africa and KCFTU in South Korea are
fully committed to this mode of unionism as are trade union movements in the
Philippines and to a limited extent the US, which initially led to the
theorization of this “new” model[3].
This brings us to the need
for a clarification. Social movement unionism is not limited as an approach to
left-leaning trade union movements. It is becoming fashionable in contemporary
times across several climes in the developed world .This was in response to the
declining strength of unions in the face of ceaseless attacks by the bosses
over the past three decades of neo-liberalism. The consequences of these
included declining memberships of unions, and the weakening of the social and
political influence of trade unions.
At the heart of social
movement unionism, particularly in the Western industrial relations systems, is
also a replacement of the services model (common to them) with the organizing
model, of trade union organizing. Due to the constraints of time and space, we
will not go into the details of trade union organising models. But it suffices
to point out that organising is at the heart of any real unionism, being (or at least, which is supposed to be) the
most fundamentally defining activity of trade unionism. Social movement
unionism places organising hinged on mobilisation as the centre piece of its
method.
THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT IN WEST AFRICA: PROBLEMS
AND PROSPECTS
Trades unions in Africa, as
we pointed out earlier, arguably arose during the colonial period. This was as
a result of the introduction of wage labour by the colonialists. There was the
need for the early colonialists to have porters to carry them and their
luggage, as they set out discovering several rivers that indigenes have been
fishing in for centuries. These early “casual” workers that they employed gave
way to a further set by the late 1800s who built the harbours and railways that
were need for the transportation of produce and other primary commodities
extracted within the hinterlands of the colonies. A significant number of the
workers used for these projects were forced
labour. But that was of course not sustainable.
As the colonial
administrations became more entrenched, the expatriates that came to take
charge as district officers, resident officers etc. could not function without
a coterie of supporting staffers. Clerks, messengers, cleaners and so on, and
so forth, became the earliest full time (public sector) workers. Schools were
established to equip the emerging native servants of the colonial governance’s
machine with some basics on “‘rithmetic, ‘reading and ‘riting”, and school a
new generation of such servants in civics, and the enough of religion for them
to know their place in society. Native teachers of course would soon be the
backbone of the schools, and part of the first generation of trade unionists.
A number of the early trade
unionists on the continent were also some of its most fervent young nationalists,
and many of the leading nationalists during the later phase of the anti-colonial
struggle had started their activist careers as unionists. Across Africa, in its
decade of independence, names of trade unionists rang out as the names of the
new political leaders. These included: Patrice Lumumba of the DRC; Ahmed Sekou
Toure of Guinea; Julius Nyerere of Tanzania; Hamani Diori of Niger; Felix
Houphet-Boigny of Ivory Coast; Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia; Modibo Keita of Mali;
Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria and; Tom Mboya of Kenya. Only the last two amongst
these did not become heads of states, but they were leading member government
officials.
While a number of the
unionist-nationalists distinguished themselves at some point in time or the
other, it was the mass of workers as a
class, with their trade union organisations that fought against the
colonial capitalists, playing a decisive role in winning Independence, as it
became clear to the imperialists that their continued direct rule would only be counter-productive to their primary
interest i.e. capital accumulation.
As Dan Gallin notes in the
1986 introduction to his survey of ‘the working class movement in tropical
Africa’ which was first published in 1956[4] “The
labour movement, throughout Africa, had begun to emerge as a unifying and
liberating force. It was then, as it is now, despite its divisions, the only
universal reality on the continent, transcending national borders and, at that
time, colonial spheres of influence”.
Some notable general/mass
strikes for example proved to be the turning points in the anti-colonial
struggles, confirming Galin’s correct assertion. Examples of these are the 1945
Cost of Living Allowance (COLA)
strike in Nigeria, and the 1952 pan-“French West Africa” strike of railway
workers and the 1953 strikes across Central African mines which made the Financial Times at that time to observe
that “clearly a new power has arrived in Africa whose potentialities are
tremendous” (cited in Dan Gallin ibid).
A similar situation would
play itself out in the anti-sap period of Africa’s working people’s struggle
for a “second independence”. Trade unions where central to the mass
mobilisation against military dictatorships and one-party state machines, by;
forming political parties, establishing alliances/coalitions or creating the
best context for the struggles of more partisan or overtly political
organisations to challenge the powers that by organising mass strikes.
In the course of these
popular struggles, a number of the union leaders bided for political offices. While
ex-unionists like Frederick Chiluba in Zambia and Adams Oshiomhole in Nigeria
became heads of states (or as in Adams case, governors of states), several
others like Morgan Tsvangarai in Zimbabwe also tried but failed. But the victory of individual (ex-) trade
unionists has never translated into much difference for the working masses.
The challenge of building
the trade union movement in Africa,
and specifically in West Africa, in defence of workers and for a better society
cannot be overemphasized. It is with our collective strength and struggle that
we can bring to birth a new world on the ashes of the old, and not the
magnanimity or expected benevolence of a few who turn out worse than those they
condemned at some point in time.
The horizons are not bleak.
There are problems, and very dire ones too at that. But there are also
prospects and bright ones too. One of the greatest prospects lies here today,
with young women and men, as trade union activists sharing ideas, knowledge and
experiences. We are part of an awakening generation of working class activists,
within and outside our workplaces, seeking answers and ready to fight for what
they stand for; a better life.
It is important to note here
as we look at the problems and prospects, that, both are intertwined. There are
no strictly problematic phenomena, nor do we have silver bullets of prospects.
Trade union and working class structure
“In labour studies and
related fields”, the term structure “is used to isolate and identify the
distinguishing characteristics of any wage-earning population, particularly
wage earners that have organised themselves in protection of their interests
and rights” (Otobo 2000: 93). This includes severable “variables” which
influence how organised labour is spread across a particular territory, usually
a country, but in the inclusive case we are tackling here, the West African sub-region,
without prejudice to the nation-state context, which it overlaps with, in a
sense.
The nature of the national
(and sub-regional) economy; demographic concerns such as age, and sex; geographical
size and topography; the average level of education and skills of workers; character
of the state (and regional bloc), as well as the political-legal framework; the
type of opposition forces to the state or its government(s); the attitudes of
private employers; the nature of the informal economy (particularly as it is
articulated with the formal sector); international relations between the
states, regional bodies and trade unions; union leaderships’ ideological and
political orientation and; identity issues such as race, ethnicity, gender,
generation and religion are all factors which influence trade union structure
in one way or the other, as it becomes historically established, through collaboration
and contention.
This is quite an extensive
list and it would be impossible to look at the problems and possible prospects
in each of these factors. But we can put in perspective a broad picture from it,
to get at specifics of benefit for us to generate innovative strategies for
mobilisation of working class youths.
The primary element in this
myriad of factors is the nature of the economy. As with economies across the
world, generally, countries in West Africa are capitalist. But it does not simply
end there, the capitalist economies run by the elites in these countries are
some of the most irredeemably dependent you can imagine, being backward
neo-colonial entities. Unemployment and underemployment have always been very
cogent problems, with a very large informal economy.
Six of the countries with
the highest unemployment figures in the world are on the continent of Africa,
with three of these (Liberia, 3rd, Burkina Faso 4th and
Senegal 9th) being in the sub-region. Youth unemployment is also much
worse than (often more than double) the general unemployment rate. This has
severe impact on the characteristics as well as the size and spread of the
working class.
Within the ranks of those
employed, trade union membership is also declining. This is often at the
instance of the employers, who either make use of anti-union legislation or
circumvent trade union rights where such are formally enshrined. But quite a
number of young new workers, particularly those that are well skilled also do
not see any need for belonging to unions. Peripheral workers in the informal
economy on the other hand are organised, more on the basis of mutual aid
concerns than as platforms for fighting for enhanced wages and working
conditions. This is particularly so because the informal economy is dominated
by self-employed operators or working people hoping to one day gain their
“freedom” and establish their own small(or not so small), one-person businesses.
Interestingly though,
despite this concrete scenario, in which we see trade unions in the sub-region
(and Africa in general) as weak(ened), they are still very much relevant and
indeed feared by the bosses and their states[5]. This
is because of the strategic place of the working class in the production
process and the history of struggles of the trade union movement at different
turning points in our countries’ histories.
This leading role of the working class in society is one that we could
leverage as youths for building the trade union movement. Such prospects are
also ripened by the current global economic crisis, which our countries
(particularly those without mineral deposits) are not immune from. We have to
be creative to seize the time.
Between the international and our internal
structures
The trade union movement, as
we pointed out earlier, is an international movement. This is so in two general
ways. First, we face an international (capitalist) system, such that our
national economies are integrated into one world economic system where severe
shocks such as those which started in the United States and Europe half a
decade ago reverberate across the world. Second, our unions have ties which
bind us with workers in other parts of the world.
Looking at the matter of
internationalism at a sub-regional level as this, we also cannot but consider
the relations between us, sadly enough (but not without its “advantages”) as a
legacy of colonialism, as being international as well. This is despite the
similarity of our economies and in our situations.
In this sub-section, we
consider “the international” from the second point above; i.e. relations
between trade unions. These relations were polarised during the cold war along
the lines of pro-Western and pro-“Communist” trade unionism. In fact these were
considered as view points for typifying trade unions (Otobo op cit: 84-92). The paralysis, at a
time, of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which represented the
pro-Soviet unions, left room for the growth of the “free trade unions” that in
2006 metamorphosed into the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
Today, the ITUC remains dominant, but the WFTU has had a rebirth. However, most
WFTU unions also belong to the ITUC and its affiliated Global Union Federations
(GUFs).
But I think the problem in
today’s age goes far beyond that now largely historic divide. It is one, in my
view, that tries to address the question of how international trade unionism
can be brought to bear in strengthening the building of class-based trade unionism from below. In this sense, sectoral networking, particularly within
(sub-) regions is very critical.
In recent times, trade
unions on the continent have started taking steps in this direction. It started
with the establishment of the West African Health Sector Unions’ Network
(WAHSUN) on November 9, 2007, at Abuja. We now have pan-African networks of
workers in several sectors such as; municipalities and local governments,
utilities and energy, and the civil service, being at different stages of establishment.
This will not automatically
bring about greater unity and with it our collectively enhanced strength if it
is not tied to mobilisation of rank
and file workers. The sharing of experiences and ideas by our leaderships could
be very useful for interpretation of the world which trade unions confront. But
the point however, is to change it. Such change can come about only through
mass mobilisation, based on pro-workers and poor and anti-neoliberal programmes
and campaigns.
This brings us to the issue
of the broader confederated structure of trade unions in West Africa, the
Organisation of Trade Unions in West Africa (OTUWA). It was established in
April 1983, at Conakry, Guinea. But, it has been more “notable” for its
invisibility in the struggles and concerns of the working people on the
continent, than for any positive impact in the growth of trade unionism in the
sub-region.
Its formation was based on
the 1983 General Council Resolution of the Organisation of African Trade Union
Unity (OATUU), mandating trade union federations (i.e. national centres) in the
different sub-regions of the continent to form Regional Trade Union
Organisations (See Hassan Sunmonu 2007).
In the same period, unions
in the southern sub-region formed the Southern African Trade Unions
Consultative Council (SATUCC), which has been very much alive. Similarly in
East Africa, the East African Trade Union Confederation (EATUC) is thriving
from its base in Arusha. Why is OTUWA mired in paralysis?
A major reason it would seem
is the language divide between unions in the West African sub-region, mainly along
the lines of English-speaking and French-speaking countries. This problem has
also been confronted by the network that has actually risen to the challenge of
building a pan-African structure from the grassroots i.e. WAHSUN. But, as
programmes such as this university and the current developments in WAHSUN show,
it is a surmountable problem.
Behind this problem is a
more real one; the material weakness of
most trade unions in the sub-region. The political-legal framework for
unions in French-speaking countries allows more for fragmentation and this on
its own part contributes significantly to their relative material weaknesses. This difference of legacies from colonial laws
is largely what makes a problem of weakness appear more as one of language
divide. On one hand, solidarity is required from the bigger unions, as we have
seen in WAHSUN even in relation to links
between unions in English-speaking countries, only.
On the other hand, there is
the need for us to reconsider our internal organisational structures. The fact
that political-legal frameworks allow for fragmentation does not mean we should
be so splintered. An example is the Trade Union (Amendment) Act 2005 which
liberalised the conditions for forming unions and union federations, but the
result of which has been consolidation of these.
Mergers are not the only
things we need to consider with regards to the challenges of our internal
structures. Internal democracy is an
often mouthed building block for the trade union movement’s renaissance but
which is more often than not, not embraced. A union can hardly be virile when
it does not have a vibrant internal life.
This requires regular
meetings particularly at the shop floor (national
and regional meetings tend to hold more regularly anyway); regular trade union education and training and;
the establishment of mandate seeking and report-back mechanisms
Alliances and coalitions
The challenge of a trade
union renaissance cannot be separated from the broader challenge of building on
traditions of mass struggle. It is
not accidental that the greatest moments in our history as a movement are those
moments when there were great upsurges of mass struggle. This is because, as we
pointed out earlier, the trade union movement is a component (and a very
important one too at that as the primary organisation of the working class), of
the broader labour movement.
There is thus the need for
building greater unity not only within the trade union movement in our
countries and internationally, but also between the trade unions and the larger
“civil society” movement. Indeed, there are issues of concern at both the
national and international level, that make it obvious to us that alliances and
coalitions with such non-trade union bodies are necessary. An example at the
international/regional level is the response to the Economic Partnership
Agreements (EPAs), by civil society that resulted in the emergence of the
African Trade Network (ATN), which the trade union movement is very much
involved in.
But forging alliances and
coalitions comes with its own problems. The non-membership character of most
NGOs (the dominant form of structures within the civil society movement), and
the donor-driven activism of quite a number of them raise questions of
constituency, accountability and transparency. There are those NGOs that want
to establish “coalitions” with us to justify the next tranche of financial
support from Washington, London or Brussels. We thus have to be careful, and
establish alliances and coalitions based on programmes
and campaigns that concretely defend the rights and promote the interests
of working people.
It is not only “NGOs” in the
strict sense of the word that we have to rise up to the challenge of building
alliances with. There are a diverse array of organisations, with memberships, representing working
people in the informal economy. While a few trade unions at a time did try to organise
associated working people in their sectors that approach does not seem to be
one that could be so successful. Due to its peculiarities, self-organising by
working people in the informal economy appears to be much more apt.
We should however not leave
it at that. Lasting alliances and coalitions with or involving informal economy
organisations should be given priority by the trade unions. The specific forms
this approach will take could differ based on the concrete realities in our
countries. But it is an approach which would strengthen the trade unions in
particular and the working class in general.
There are also a other
membership organisations that we could forge closer relations along these
lines. These include, community-based organisations and professional
associations of the intelligentsia and other middle class forces that seek to
build a better society or at the very least are ready to defend democratic
rights. We should maintain our class identity but strike together at the chinks
in the armour of the bosses where and when we can. Alliances and possibly
coalitions tend to be easier to establish when they become necessary, when
relations had been established hitherto.
Finally, as youths, the need
for alliances with the students’ movement has to be stressed. The studentry has
always played very important roles in the struggle for democratic rights. The
ideological onslaughts of neoliberalism have checked this reality to some
extent, but it cannot checkmate it. In recent times, we have seen the critical
roles students have played in Burkina Faso and Senegal. These are examples of
the continued relevance of the students’ movement.
But more often than not, the
relations between students’ unions and trade unions have been largely episodic
and tactical. There is the need for more structured and strategic relationships
to be established. For this to be organic, we as youths (ex- or even current
students who are also workers), have a central role to play. In playing this
role, we should see the students’ movement in its totality.
For example, apart from the
students’ unions and their confederations, there are a number of designated
higher institutions that are training grounds for specific cadres of workers.
An example is the relationship between students in colleges of health
technology and health workers (which in Nigeria, the Medical and Health
Workers’ Union of Nigeria is cultivating). We should encourage our unions,
where they have such umbilical cords with such bodies of the students movement
to strengthen relations with the studentry.
A strategic approach to cultivating prospects
We have thus far been
concerned with a generalized approach in looking at problems and prospects,
even where we dwell on key specifics. We cannot but now look at some elements
of what a strategic approach at cultivating the prospects for a trade union
renaissance in the sub-region would entail.
Ideological re-orientation: it is difficult to give what we do not have. First,
I strongly believe that we should start from an appreciation of the trade
unions and their federations as organs of a class
movement. I was shocked many years ago when in an informal discussion
involving six of us, all trade union education officers, only my humble self and
a unionist in his sixties considered the trade unions as components of a
movement based on commitment! The other full timers (and who were educating
workers!) saw themselves as being in the trade union, just like being in any
other work; to earn their daily bread.
The passion and desire to
struggle for a better life for and with the working class, and ultimately to
win the self-emancipation of that class, has to beat in our hearts for real and
lasting change in how we work as a movement to be established. It is in this
sense that Oscar Neebe, one of the Harmarket martyrs expressed the view that
the labour movement cannot but be socialistic. Now, we could argue about what
socialism is or is not, or about different “brands” of socialism. But that commitment
to working class emancipation which is at the heart of socialism, even as
“ideology”, is of utmost importance for a re-orientation of young workers
towards the trade union renaissance we seek, irrespective of whatever labels we
give it.
Research-to-action linkages: quite often, the “old”, “ideological”, trade
unionism is counter-posed as “table banging”, to the “modern”, “scientific”,
“social partners” form, of supposedly “new” collaborative/social partnership
unionism. But this is a half truth, if not an outright lie. It is arguable that
the old militants might not have been very savvy with their knowledge (and of
course this generalisation too would not be true), but collaborative unionism
could as well be built on lack of knowledge.
The important thing I
believe, is that it is not enough to rest our arguments on how we feel, we need
to establish research-to-policy[6] and
policy-to-action linkages. Knowledge is power. And in today’s “information age”,
with the internet and the general access to information that trade unionists
have, we do not have any excuse to be
lax in establishing these linkages. It is in this light that I would urge
anyone of us whose union does not have a research unit or department to play
the role of a catalyst in getting one going.
Our research work must not
be limited to that of a unit or department as a mere cog in a bureaucratic
machine. Active research which draws
in the lived experiences of working people must be at the heart of not only
what, but also how we research. And
it must involve as broad a circle of activists in our unions as possible.
Campaigns and the creative use of Information
Education and Communication:
mobilisation requires “IEC”, to borrow from the NGOs lexicon. These
information, education and communication materials and media include:
flyers/leaflets, posters, newslatters/magazines/bulletins, and the use of;
phones, websites, list serves, social media network, to mention a few.
We have to learn how to use
these creatively for the most effective impact. It is in this light that we
need to learn/develop our understanding and utilisation of the campaign strategy. Effective
mobilisation requires constant and consistent campaigns within our unions and
by our unions on issues of concern to the working people, in line with social
movement unionism.
IN LIEU OF A CONSLUSION
It has given me great
pleasure to raise the issues in this paper with you, and I look forward to a
very health discussion in the aftermath of this presentation. The paper has
tried to put key elements of what the fundamentals of trade unionism are, in critical
perspective, and based on this, look dispassionately at the challenges the
trade union movement in West Africa faces in a general sense, as a leadoff for
our joint discussion.
In doing this, the paper
points at the fact that, as the primary organisations of the working class, the
fate of the trade unions cannot be separated from that of the broader labour
movement. Thus, while we considered the different types of trade unionism, the paper
has allied itself with social movement unionism, which in its different
variants grasps at this reality.
Generalisations which the
paper makes are not simply schematic, but borne out of years of experience
working with trade unions in the sub-region and continentally particularly with
(but not limited to) those in English-speaking countries. I however do hope to
learn from you all, as together we fill in the gaps.
On a final note, permit me
to point out that history rests on your shoulders. Life’s greatest beauty is in
its youth. With its verve, and straddling of the divide of what has been and
what will be for and of society, youth equally bears responsibility.
It is not enough that we
come here, discuss and even have fun, and then
return back to our countries for “business as usual” to become the order
of the day. This is the time to (re-) think, reflect, and of course to act. I strongly believe that efforts
that earlier Lokossa alumni had commenced to deepen networking should be
consolidated in this direction, and built on, along with similar efforts. I do
remember that during the coup in Niger there was an effort to mobilise mass
action which some alumni pursued, winning a few of the unions they belonged to
the idea. List serves created before then were also used for exchanging ideas
for a while, but later the tempo died down.
We must see our tasks as
being beyond the collective emerging from Lokossa. But we cannot but also look
at how we could leverage on that cadre, talking broadly which is expanding in
size and influence within the sub-region’s trade union movement. FES Cotonu
could have some role or the other to play in this direction. I must also
specially thank Nouratou for her roles at different times in the post-Summer
University efforts at networking and mobilisation. There are no maps in our
quest for trade union renaissance rooted in mobilisation. But the compass is
quite clear: organise! organise!! organise!!! Or as a song in the Nigerian
trade union movement goes: “educate your mind, mobilise your strength, organise
your body, for the future generation. Work for your freedom, work for your
honour, work for a better future, or comrades, fellow comrades!”
The future, our future, your
future, awaits our sculpting hands. A
luta continua! Victoria ascerta!!
* Being
a paper presented on Monday August 26, 2013, at the 2013 Friedrich Ebert Foundation
(Republic of Benin Office)-organised Summer School for Young Trade Unionists in
the West African Sub-region, held on August 26-30, 2013, at Lokossa, Benin
Republic.
REFERENCES
Aye, B. 2010, ‘Trade
Unionism and Trade Unions; An Introductory
Perspective’,
being a paper presented at a 1-day National Workshop of the Total branch of the Petroleum
and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), held on June
5, Port Harcourt, available online at: <http://solidarityandstruggle.blogspot.com/2010/06/trade-unionism-and-trades-unions.html>
Giacometti, A 1956, ‘The
Working Class Movement in Tropical
Africa’,
The New International, 1986 edn, IUF,
available online at:<http://www.globallabour.info/en/2011/04/the_working_class_movement_in_3.html>
Hyman, R. 1975, A Marxist Introduction to Industrial
Relations, Macmillan, London
Otobo, D. 2000, Industrial Relations, Theory and
Controversies,
Malthouse Press Ltd., Lagos
Schillinger, H. R. 2005, ‘Trade
Unions in Africa: Weak but
Feared’, Occasional Papers-International Development Cooperation,
Sunmonu, H. A. 2007, ‘Harnessing
African Trade Unions
Contribution
to Political, Social and Economic Initiatives of the African Union: Past,
Present and Future’, being a paper presented to the African Union/OATUU
Partnership Forum, held on April 3-5, Accra
Waterman, P. 1993,
‘Social-movement Unionism: A New Union
Model
for A New World Order?’, Review (Fernand
Braudel Centre), vol. 16, no. 3, summer: 245-278
[1] This sub-section draws from an earlier introduction
of mine on trades unions and trade unionism in 2010
[2] For an early exposition on SMU that is still very much relevant, I
recommend Peter Waterman (1993). I would also recommend the various articles
and books by Kim Moody on the subject
[3] It could actually be considered as being much more like what trade
unions were like, before they became more bureaucratized and leaderships felt
more convenient with institutional over organizing power.
[4] with the pseudonym Andre Giacometti
[5] See Hubert Rene Schillinger, 2005 ‘Trade Unions in Africa: Weak but
Feared’.
[6] with “policy” here used in a broad sense i.e. written or as convention,
or as understanding
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