(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #232 - Theo Rival: "The UTCL did not overlook the action business" (fr)

In Unionists and libertarian, Theo Rival back on the experience of the Union of 
Libertarian Communists (UTCL) from 1974 to 1991. Because this book is instructive for our 
struggles, we were in this interview on the design of revolutionary action that took the 
organization. ---- Libertarian Alternative: In 1976, the trend is excluded UTCL Anarchist 
Revolutionary Organization (Ora) fracture crystallizes around union intervention. What 
then are the issues? ---- Theo Rival : When activists who will base the UTCL "enter" in 
trade unionism, they do so at great strikes of 1974, which mainly affect banks and PTT. 
They then discover that revolutionary practice can not ignore the action business, 
particularly through trade unionism.

You can have the most beautiful tract of the world, with over registered "libertarian 
communism" in huge characters, if you do not have a mass practice in companies closer to 
workers' and from their everyday concerns, it is ultimately powerless. This discovery they 
actually do, the sorting center Paris-Brune for example, where is located a freedman 
Postman group linked to Ora. However, we must speak of "discovery" in quotation marks 
because Ora, which is created in the immediate aftermath of May 68, had not left the union 
question in his blind spot: on the contrary, the vast majority of its members have joined, 
and often militated within the CFDT, while self-management. But, despite the crisis of 
leftism opened in 1973, some activists and Paris leading activists of Ora want to continue 
to believe in the imminence of the revolution and they they are enthusiastic Italian 
autonomy and will gradually profess anti-unionism increasingly assertive.

UTCL trend, which is since 1974, wants to find it on the "promise" what could be the Ora: 
that of a libertarian organization rooted in the labor movement. To do this, he must rely 
on self struggles, democratic union practices assembl?istes, which offer support to a 
truly libertarian phrase "class struggle" and at the same time feed.

Can you revisit the experience of the "Walk for Unity" of May 1, 1980 at which 
participates UTCL?

The UTCL What is a little more involved. She impulse alongside other union activists, 
including the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). The trade union movement is then in a 
deplorable state of division. Breaking the union of the left in 1977 generates a sectarian 
turn in the CGT, then subservient to the PCF, while the direction of the CFDT, in the 
"focus" is determined to mourn the class struggle. In view of the elections of 1981, 
nostalgic for the union of the left are calling - "Unity in struggle" - who wants to link 
the unit of industrial action at the prospect of a government-PS PC . If the League is 
involved, it is far more of UTCL. Out of the question as porters water this reformist 
hitch! However, impossible to satisfy union bureaucracies divisions maintained by CGT and 
CFDT. But for UTCL, the unit must be understood in a strategy class, direct confrontation 
with employers, with the overall objective to strike. While each union plans to scroll in 
his corner, its activists will mobilize to 1 May 1980 1 May for a "unity of the working 
class." Part of a call 64 unionists Parisian postmen various persuasions - including 
members UTCL and LCR plays on all fronts - the dynamic results in a "Walk for Unity" which 
brings together 10,000 people including many union CFDT "basic". This is a success, but 
the union that brought him struggling to counter the bureaucrats who want to reduce it to 
a "coup" leftist. Release even referred to as a "walking LCR"! At this time, undoubtedly, 
the numerical weakness of the UTCL prevents make its voice heard ... which would have been 
to develop what is now called the autonomy of the social movement.

In your book, the activists of the LCR are just very present alongside those of UTCL. How 
would you describe the relationship between the two organizations?

This is primarily a relation of reason: the League is an important organization in the 
post-68. In 1980, it still has 1,500 members. The UTCL, just 80. The areas of intervention 
of the two organizations overlap, particularly in the choice of building union left inside 
confederations. Activists are also found in the various battles that punctuate the period: 
anti-militarism, support for trade unionists Eastern Kanaky, racism ... It is some y, a 
nearby "field", common concerns, there is not with the activists of Workers' Struggle 
(LO), the Libertarian Communist Organisation (OCL) or Anarchist Federation (FA) - albeit 
at a specific time unit labor's commitment between FA and postal UTCL). But on the merits, 
there are different "lines" in opposition CFDT, the UTCL seeks to build "the base" based 
on democratization and radicalization structures. LCR is rather stuck in a sort of 
"parliamentary union" where the percentages in Congress are critical. Of course, there is 
what is in the "line" and what the activists and militants ... and this is not always the 
same: in 1989, the Political Bureau of the LCR denounces the creation of South-PTT while 
postmen League with those of UTCL, actively participate! After the issue of party 
electioneering, it's something else ...

You mention the figure of "self-management facilitator struggles." Can you explain how 
this concept is central to analyze the positioning of activists of UTCL?

This is just a concept of revolutionary action that arises as an alternative to the 
avant-garde Leninist. This is both a development that offers UTCL in relation to the mass 
intervention and an expression that actually do its activists. It is also a guarantee of 
efficiency in the strike that was perfectly implemented in the years 1986-1988 
coordinations (railway workers, teachers, Air France ...) where general meetings mastered 
the fight, led to a high level . And it is also the assertion that the revolutionaries are 
not external to the proletariat, they are not intended to "manage" all power to the 
working men and women!

Interview by Irene Pereira

? Theo Rival, Unionists and libertarian, A History of the Union of Libertarian Communist 
Workers (1974-1991) , libertarian Alternative Publishing, 2013, 12 euros.