Some reader
may consider wrong this reflections´ title
I´m sorry to say to this reader that is he who
may be wrong. What is said in this previous statement is being shown by the
activities developed by social democracy and yellow trade unionism during the
last decades.
As founder member of many collective union
projects, and being a long run unionist myself, I have checked that fascism
congratulates itself (in reality has worked to this outcome during many years)
any time a class trade union turns itself, in the way its leaders work, into a
yellow trade union.
Social democracy gives its help to this
process and besides contributes to the ideological confusion: they call
themselves socialist, but its leaders are pro-capitalists, denying the Marxist
analysis of reality.
Social democracy´s leaders already shown, in
1949, their submission to the interests of capitalism when they help to create
(from a small part of the WFTU) the CIOSL (today known as ITUC) in order to
establish their differences with the major trend at the WFTU in refusing the
logic and coherent anti imperialist and anti colonialist positions then linked
to the necessities of the world´s working class.
It is now, in order not to create further
misunderstoods, to define what a yellow trade union is from my point of view –
and from the point of view – I guess – of those affiliated to the WFTU.
Yellow trade unionism (those considered itself
inter-class, aiming to the Social Pacts to stop the fighting capacities of the
exploited while at the same time supporting social democracy) is that kind of
unionism that never denounces the existence of the class struggle.
This can be achieve in many ways: 1)
“Forgetting” to analyze the economic reality where it works as a trade union;
2) Analyzing the environment in which it works without any reflection
concerning the role played by each social class (exploiters and exploited); 3)
Considering as “superior problems” the difficulties in the collective working
of society, and proposing – as Syriza has made in Greece – to overcome this
problems, created by capitalism, with a new inter class social body: 4)
Changing its former analysis, as trade union, to adapt themselves to what is
imposed by the ruling social class (this is what has been done in Spain by
CCOO).
Our class enemy, those who have lived for ages
over the work performed by others: slave owners, monarchs, dictators,
bourgeois, etc, know fairly well how to use the old formula “divide and
conquer”. It has to do with the division of the enemy. They really know who
their enemy is: the exploited. That´s why they invest so much efforts and
resources to divide us.
The better example I personally know is that
of CCOO, a former instance for all the honest trade unionist of Latin America and other continents turned into a one of
the most useful unions to the interests of world capitalism. For this reason
they receive funds so it can continue working as a trade union in spite of
having lost tens of thousands of members; 2) Bourgeois justice exonerate its
leaders when involved in corruption cases; 3) Its leaders are bought and
corrupted, allowing them its access to high post in big companies, inside the
social services or inside international organizations such as the ILO, etc.
Marxism, that provided the workers and
unionist movement with a clear ideology, was, in its founding times, the clear
ideological basis for CCOO. For this reason, CCOO, as well as all the other
class unions in the world, used the reality of the class struggle to be part of
the anti fascist vanguard. It was the main masses organization that helped to
end with Franco´s dictatorship. In this struggle, CCOO provided a great and
essential ideological support.
Nowadays, in many working neighborhoods of the
Spanish state where CCOO used to be respected – its members being part of the
political councils for the political elections – the ideological confusion has
allowed the neofascist party PP to become the stronger political force.
The same goes on with the workers´ vote in
many European places formerly linked to the anti capitalist struggle.
Besides, the CCOO´ leaders, and those leaders
of the yellow trade unionism of the ITUC (well orientated by the bourgeois, who
continue giving them generous funding) are spreading today the inter class
message in better ways than the bourgeois itself, always in order to cheat the
workers.
It should be enough to read again the
documents coming from the CCOO´s latest congresses, and from those coming from
the ITUC, to realize that, along hundreds and hundreds of pages, they always
use the expression “social agents”, but never the expression “SOCIAL CLASSES”
(those were the words used by CCOO when it was a class union).
As a consequence, we see today the losing, by
the great majority of the working class, of their references concerning the
political struggle. And the lack of political culture helps fascism.
On the contrary, if trade union struggle is
lead by class criteria it helps to identify the working class´enemy as well as
its political organizations (diversified in order to give an image of
democracy, but equals in their respect to the laws imposed by the transnational
companies: now the FTA that denies the states´s capacities of decision – new
treats that count with the support of all the pro-capitalists parties.
Working neighborhoods, unfortunately and as a
logic consequence of the above mentioned (to which we must add the success
attained by the bourgeois in the wrecking of education) are today the places
where a higher increase in votes is obtained by fascist options (this happening
not only in Spain , but all
over Europe ). Lack of political culture – and
also lack of trade union culture – are clearly connected, and make people think
that it should be enough to change the protagonists, without bearing in mind
the fact that the programs and the contents of their political proposals are
those to be changed.
Fascists have always encouraged the inter
class vision. It always have spread the ideology that denies the existence of
the class struggle (as the yellow trade unions and social democracy do). They
have always encouraged ignorance (not only in political terms); for this reason
they burned books, for this reason they promote television and mass media
without critical or cultural contents.
Here´s the great coincidence between social
democracy and yellow trade unions with the fascists. All of them are not
interested in a population equipped with critical sense.
I know that the majority of those affiliated
to the yellow trade unions, as well as those affiliated to the social
democracy, do not desire the rise of fascism. But they accept, as a lesser
evil, not to “divide” their trade union or their parties between those
affiliates orientated for the class struggle and those orientated to the inter
class action. With this attitude, they are giving an ever increasing strength
to the inter class idea used by the fascists.
The only positive future for the political
life in a planet that lately is seeing the resurrection of fascism lies in
clearly place, with its real value, the class struggle.
In my
opinion here we can see the great WFTU´s task: to know how to explain the class
struggle and to know how to organize the exploited to fact its only enemy, the
capital – that uses and give its financial support to fascism.
No doubt that the WFTU, besides being the
great and only world anti capitalist and anti imperialist organization, its
going to be (as it is now) the essential and great anti fascist organization.
I encouraged all anti fascists to understand
this great role to be played by the WFTU.
Quim Boix
General
Secretary of the TUI of Pensioners and Retirees of the WFTU.
