Do we need a revolutionary union movement? What would a revolutionary union movement look like? How can we build one?
I want to use an article from the comrades of the AngryWorkers collective as a jumping off point for a discussion on these questions. It analyzes the social controls that the capitalist class and its cronies in the state use to prevent revolution. While it’s focused on Germany, it applies to the entire Global North.
I encourage Angry Education Workers subscribers and other educators, especially those of you who are involved in union organizing or from the Global South, to get in touch with your thoughts! Leave a comment or send me an email or direct message.
The article identifies the creation of the welfare state and the rise of trade unions as ways the employing class could control working class antagonism towards capitalist society. Especially by separating the “deserving” from the “undeserving” poor, which trade unions played a large role in. If you don’t have time to read the article, this quote is particularly revealing:
Parallel to the introduction of social insurance, the establishment and legal protection of trade unions developed as the representation exclusively of this part of the proletariat, the “wage laborers”, who can proudly point out that they live from “their own hands’ honest work”. In the early days of modern mass trade unions after the largely spontaneous Europe-wide strike wave between 1889 and 1891, they were referred to as “strike prevention associations” by more critical minds in the workers’ movement. This was because the monopoly granted to them by the state and capital on the form of struggle of the strike in conjunction with peacemaking collective agreements was intended to put an end to the wild goings-on of work stoppages, factory occupations, sabotage and riots on the streets. Although it took two world wars, fascism and the Cold War for this model to become effectively established in the Global North, it still works quite well today with the very moderate use of strikes.
Meanwhile, since the Black Lives Matter Uprising of 2020 and the January 6 coup attempt of 2021, workers increasingly understand that peaceful protest and voting are not effective paths to liberation. Whenever I mention the instances in 1934 when Chicago teachers rioted, looted banks, and beat up horse cops with textbooks to my coworkers, they are always very intrigued.
How can we build organizational forms that can effectively and democratically channel these already existing, escalating working class struggles towards revolutionary action? This piece on “class unions” is also a must read:
I reside in America and I want so bad for us to mobilize and get some real viable protesting done. Not that peaceful "i have to be at work tomorrow by 8 lets wrap this up" bullshit that's been going on. One person can't do the fight of many. People in the Global North and people with the luxury of living within the imperial core not only realize their complacency is afforded to them by the suffering, exploitation and inhumane treatment of the Global South. They also have this idea that they can save themselves with "hard work" and "hustle". Individualism is hindering us (as it was designed to). We need to fight for each other, cause the 1% doesn't give an damn about the rest of us! No more "not my business" or "better them than me". "We have yet to understand, If I am starving you are in danger. People think that my danger makes them safe. They're in trouble"
I reside in America and I want so bad for us to mobilize and get some real viable protesting done. Not that peaceful "i have to be at work tomorrow by 8 lets wrap this up" bullshit that's been going on. One person can't do the fight of many. People in the Global North and people with the luxury of living within the imperial core not only realize their complacency is afforded to them by the suffering, exploitation and inhumane treatment of the Global South. They also have this idea that they can save themselves with "hard work" and "hustle". Individualism is hindering us (as it was designed to). We need to fight for each other, cause the 1% doesn't give an damn about the rest of us! No more "not my business" or "better them than me". "We have yet to understand, If I am starving you are in danger. People think that my danger makes them safe. They're in trouble"