WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, OCL CA #332 - Are there still trade union prospects? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 After the fight against pension reform, should the unions be thrown out

with the bathwater of defeat? The answer "yes" is very tempting, as the
outcome of the 2023 movement reinforces trade unionism as a cog in the
co-management of class society and its contestation, rather than as a
tool for social emancipation. Yet it would seem that this lost battle
has restored some confidence in the unions, as evidenced by an
unprecedented wave of membership. ---- Hundreds of memberships... ----
All the components of the intersyndicale would have recorded 100,000 new
memberships since January 2023. The CFDT (610,000 members), claims
45,000 memberships for 2023, i.e. in one semester 30% to 40% more than
the previous year. For its part, the CGT (640,000 members) announced
30,000 new contacts and membership requests in three months, including
4,500 via its website, i.e. a gain of 200% compared to January 2022. For
its part FO (380,000 cards) does not give overall figures but reports a
doubling of contacts, and announced in March "that during the first
weeks of 2023, the level of membership requests sent to the
confederation is almost half of that of 2022, which was already a very
good year with 4,700 requests". So much for the 3 main confederations.

The UNSA (200,000 members) claims to have three times more requests
since January than over the same period in 2022. Solidaires, which
claims 100,000 affiliates, estimated in March at 3,000 the number of
people to have joined SUD unions, including 1,000 for SUD-Education
alone. The FSU (160,000 members) estimates that more than 1,500 the
number of new cards in national education, which will be confirmed at
the start of the school year. The CFTC (140,000 members) spoke of a 133%
increase in membership applications in January and 175% in April. The
CFE-CGC (170,000 members) does not give figures but declares "this
historic social movement allowed us to garner a surplus of memberships
in the first quarter of 2023."

Whatever the store, it seems that the clientele is increasing. However,
this should be put into perspective, because the resurgence of
memberships announced to date should not reverse the de-unionization
curve which has been a striking feature of wage reality in France for 50
years. Since the end of the 1960s, the unionization rate there has been
divided by four to reach 10.3% of union members today, a rate that drops
to 7.8% if we only consider the private sector. This rate becomes almost
zero in private companies with fewer than 50 employees, which
nevertheless employ nearly half of the working population outside the
public service [1].

Especially since, "  most of the time, we observe more exits than
entries. Unions have a tendency to be "holes with holes". According to
the latest Dares survey [2], unionization rates in France are still
falling (around 10.3% of employees) and, even more worryingly, among
those who join, nearly 60 % say they never take part in the life of
their union  " [3].

It should be noted that the total number of union members claimed by the
intersyndicale (excluding youth movements) amounts to 2 million 400
thousand people, and that it was only on 7 and 23 March that the
demonstrators exceeded 2 ,5 millions. The figures for the other days of
national mobilizations range between 1.2 million and 2.3 million to
wither to 900,000 on June 6. From there to conclude with Stéphane Sirot
that indeed 60% of union members never participate in the life of their
unions, to the point of not even going out on demonstration days, there
is only one step [4]. How in these conditions hope that a call for a
general strike will be followed by union members? And we can better
understand the reluctance of the inter-union in this regard, and measure
the error of the analysis of "the betrayals of the union leaderships  "
which should be replaced by a "good" direction.

So if for the moment the unions are welcoming a renewed enthusiasm for
trade unionism and affirm that the balance of power is being built, few
elements indicate that this trend will be confirmed in the long term. It
is also impossible to know what consequences this unionization will have
in terms of mobilizations and actions. But these facts and figures pose
the question of the interest and the nature of unionization today, and
of its necessary evolutions if unionism wants to reconnect one day with
victories in the confrontation against the State and Capital.

A new fact in this wave of unionization is the making of contact by
Internet, via the sites of the centrals, the unions, or the local
unions. Two hypotheses follow from this. The influence of social
networks leads to joining the union as one signs an online petition, as
one finances a contributory project or a strike fund. Membership would
ultimately only have a value of support, which we prefer to express
online, rather than by contacting a trade unionist, the section of his
box or the local union of his city. Such an attitude would confirm the
processes of individualization and the depoliticization of expressions.

It can also mean that people who make contact online are isolated, with
no union members around them, and then this unionization could herald a
breakthrough in the "union desert" that are the small companies with
fewer than 50 employees mentioned above, some key sector such as
logistics, or certain specific employment conditions such as
subcontracting or temporary work. In this hypothesis, this
re-unionization would open up some optimistic prospects, responding in
part to the concerns expressed here and there:

"  Corporate trade unionism (...) is no longer at all in keeping with
the structure of the workforce and the implosion of work collectives
under the effect of today's chain subcontracting.
Industrial unionism, bringing together on a territorial basis the
workers of the same branch, for example commerce, metallurgy,
construction, could be part of the response to this challenge. This
would make it possible to pool union resources and provide a real
framework for organizing the workers of all these small businesses. On
the other hand, organizing all those who work in the same workplace but
with different employers -we think of the site unions, experienced at
the CGT in a very fragmented way - would also make it possible to
rebuild working communities and counteract divisions. » [5]

The breakthrough of unionism in the union desert remains to be seen, but
seems unlikely given the atomization of the workforce, when it would
indeed be necessary. It would also be favored by a reorganization of
union structures no longer on the scale of a profession or a
corporation, but on the scale of living units such as neighborhoods or
territories.

This perspective is the one defended for a long time by revolutionary
unionism, which prefers industrial unions grouped together in labor
exchanges, to trade unions structured in federations. This old recipe
could be brought up to date by refocusing union action on the scale of a
territory, that of the Local Unions. However, the ULs, when they still
exist, did not find their autonomy of action this time, remaining
subservient to the Departmental Unions or the National Federations,
themselves dependent on the declarations of the national inter-union
which should not be shaken "the 'unit ". This wait-and-see attitude of
UL vis-à-vis the upper strata is to be linked to the absence of
interprofessional structures (type AG interpro) at the local level,
unlike in 2019.

What do the praises of the media on the intersyndicale mean? From 1995
(movement against pension reform) to 2019 (point-based pensions
project), passing through 2003 (alignment to 40 annuities for the
public), 2005 (referendum on the Maestrich treaty), 2010 (postponement
of the age departure at age 62), 2014 (gradual increase in the number of
annuities) or 2016 (labour law), the still somewhat combative unions
were decried as outdated, retrograde, conservative structures, and
designated as obstacles to economic modernization and to social progress
by most media. Only the CFDT and its "reformist" allies (UNSA, CFTC,
CGC-CGE) found favor with the eyes of the dominant media thought [6].

Today, the concert of the media is unanimous in saluting the unity of
the inter-union, the start of a social democracy necessary for the
expression of popular resentment, the seriousness of the
counter-proposals against an unjust reform for the population. And these
same media report, and therefore promote, the increase in union
membership. Anecdotally, but significant, a concrete example. My union
was contacted by the local press before the May Day demonstration to
meet a new union member, preferably a young woman, who would have agreed
to testify about her motivations. We didn't have any on hand and
declined. But all you have to do is consult the regional daily press to
find many of these portraits of new union members,

This inversion of media discourse on trade union action responds to a
fear of the radicalization of modes of action and thought in recent
years. The press, and the government, have never ceased to congratulate
the inter-union for the good performance of the respectable and peaceful
protest. Because more and more important fringes of the population
escape the ritualized codes of "union action" and no longer fear either
confrontation or overflow, in the field of work, or in that of the
environment. Capital tries to annihilate the trade union balance of
power by orchestrating its impotence, but at the same time seeks to
perpetuate social partners with whom it must pretend to negotiate, in
order to control the fire of protest.

There is a time when the trade union leaders will have to clearly
display their function: social peacemaker or artisans of the class
struggle? Because the Orwellian moment of the double thought "to win is
to lose by negotiating defeat" [7]could further increase their
discredit, despite the attempts at resuscitation observed this spring.

It took ten days for the intersyndicale to take stock of the 14th
demonstration against the pension reform of June 6, 2023, to declare in
a terse press release: "The intersyndicale and the demonstrators failed
to  make back the government on raising the retirement age from 62 to
64, but we are not turning the page. » [8]

She will nevertheless find consolation in this defeat: "  The experience
of the past 10 months has shown that the unity of professional trade
union and youth organizations on common demands made it possible to
build the balance of power (...) The inter-union that we have built
since July 2022 is a strength. It has already demonstrated its ability
to act together through its demands and mobilization when necessary.
This force will know how to mobilize in the coming months to demand
social progress and to confront the policies of social regression at the
national level, including within the framework of a European
demonstration. »

This declaration of June 15 is a bit like the alliance of the Coué
method and tautology: we are a force, which was not enough, but which
one day soon will be enough, since we have built a balance of power
which was useless but which will allow "  employees with their union
organizations to demand, negotiate and mobilize to win wage increases. »

"Demand, negotiate, mobilize". This triptych of trade union action
carefully excludes the register of the strike, which nevertheless
remains the most effective way to win, as demonstrated again by the
tenacity of the employees of Vert Baudet who snatched a salary increase
after 75 days strike ...

More serious, it seems to me, the prospect of negotiations announced on
supplementary pensions. "  The future negotiation on Agirc Arrco
supplementary pensions scheduled for the fall, like that of unemployment
insurance, will be very important issues in which our organizations will
weigh with all their weight  ".
It was said during this movement that the Borne-Macron reform had the
main purpose of lowering the level of pensions in the pay-as-you-go
system, to promote individual compensation strategies (life insurance,
supplementary pensions) for those who will have them. the means. And
while noting its defeat, the inter-union consecrates the victory of
Capital by precisely agreeing to negotiate on the forms of these
complementary...

In 2019, a European study predicted four scenarios for the evolution of
trade unionism [9]]

The extinction of trade unionism through the pursuit of progressive and
massive social disaffection;
Falling back on the defense of a few protected wage categories, through
the inability to adapt to work changes and new forms of employment,
which are unregulated and precarious;
The replacement of trade union action by the emergence of new forms of
collective expression, driven by public authorities and employers (the
end of joint action and social partnership); or from horizontal
movements like the Yellow Vests;
Renewal: drawing lessons from their decline, unions would be able to
renew themselves in order to regain a place in the world of work and
democratic society.
It is too early to determine which of these perspectives will influence
the spring 2023 movement. A few remarks nevertheless.

Extinction seems unlikely, the development in recent years of an
"expert" trade unionism which provides democratic support for the
support of changes in the workforce is far too precious for the State
and Capital. The passage of the CFDT in front of the CGT in the last
professional elections is a trace of this. This "resource unionism",
involved in the "new management and the management of human resources"
is very well accompanied by the noted decline in the presence of unions
in the workplace in favor of "consulting firms" in social relations. But
is it still unionism? The extinction is also a matter of generation,
insofar as retirees today account for 13% of the workforce of the
unions, a percentage that is steadily rising.

The fallback on certain categories of employees is already effective and
constantly progressing, as we have underlined with regard to the
unionization gap between the public and private sectors. However, it is
concomitant with the extinction due to the various laws on
representativeness (Macron ordinances in the company (end of CHST and EC
in favor of a single body, the Social and Economic Committee).

Replacing is a hesitant trend. We can establish a direct relationship
between the Yellow Vests movement and the multiplication of interpro GAs
in the 2019 movement. Nevertheless, their absence in 2023 clearly
reflects the extreme volatility of this phenomenon, its difficulty in
transmitting practices and cultures of struggle. and to register them in
the long term. The emergence of an "autonomy of the base" had already
been noted in the dynamics of the coordinations of the 80s, which
finally fossilized in the SUD unions to become micro bureaucracies,
certainly combative and sympathetic, but which do not manage to gather a
sufficient critical mass to really weigh in the class confrontation, and
regularly sink into the internal confrontation between aspiring bureaucrats,
This question is to be linked to that of the loss of the centrality of
work in the structural organization of capitalism taken as a global
system, and not as a single economic organization. The current
predominance of environmental issues and territorial struggles in the
fight against capital and its permanent restructuring (the green
transition) may announce an overtaking of the unions by the collectives
of the site struggles or the question of "living it together" supersedes
while integrating it that of "to produce socially useful together". [10]

Renewal. To find a new breath, to rebuild a trade unionism of struggle
and emancipation, and not of accompaniment of economic, ecological and
social changes, the question of a dialectical articulation of work and
territory is unavoidable. The prospect of refocusing trade union
organizations on local unions exists but does not succeed in freeing
itself from the bureaucratic structures specific to the dominant trade
union culture for a century. It would still be necessary that the
defense of work is not confused with that of employment, which maintains
the fable according to which our interests are the same as those of the
bosses.

Still it is also necessary to find an identity and a class consciousness
on which to build a political appropriation of the stakes on the fights
to be carried out. Should we go so far as to "question our vision of the
labor movement, centered around the strike as the nodal point of the
class struggle? "as the text " What "democracy" in the struggles, faced
with a power in tension? emerged from the debates of the Paris newspaper
commission? [11]A certain number of voices consider that 14 days of
consecutive strikes would certainly have built a stronger balance of
power than 14 days of dispersed mobilizations over 6 months. It's possible.
It is still necessary to be able to make the strike desirable and
capable of building it, and this will only be possible through the
strengthening of autonomous and conscious collective structures, whether
they are trade unions or others.
No longer confusing work and employment, rediscovering an identity and
class consciousness, making the strike desirable and building it, this
would almost be the beginning of a revolutionary program. This will only
go through a work of re-politicization of the issues, by accentuating
class antagonisms wherever we are. The task is immense, but there is no
choice but to tackle it, or to continue to suffer the yoke of
exploitation, of submission until the programmed extinction of humanity.

June 26
, 2023

The class struggle and trade unionism
"The history of any society up to our days has been nothing but the
history of the class struggle", declared Marx. Before him, the class
struggle had been recognized by revolutionaries like Proudhon or Babeuf,
but also by bourgeois economists like Guizot. The originality of Marx
resides in the fact of affirming that the classes are linked to precise
phases of the development of the productive forces; and that the class
struggle in industrialized societies would automatically lead to a
transitional phase (the dictatorship of the proletariat) towards a
classless society. If we agree with the first point, we do not share, on
the other hand, the linear vision of History contained in the second.
For us, communism is not inevitable, and the development of capitalism,
the constitution of nation-states, parliamentary democracies are not
obligatory steps towards a classless society. This "progressive" vision
of history has often led revolutionaries to participate in the
acceleration of capitalist development rather than in its destruction:
against their will, they have completed the bourgeois revolution, that
is to say eliminated precapitalism more than capitalism itself.
It is within this framework that we must also understand the history and
role of trade unionism - both as representative of a will to emancipate
the exploited, as an element of integration and as an intermediary
between capital and labour. Trade unionism is therefore in our eyes only
one means among others, contributing punctually to the class struggle,
that workers are chosen according to the times and circumstances. It is
never a question for us of supporting this or that union
unconditionally, but simply of being present where workers are fighting,
when we believe that there are opportunities for rupture and openness.
Neither is it a question for us of fighting within the bureaucratic
apparatuses nor of occupying positions of leadership and union officials.
OCL "  Who we are  "

P.-S.
The text published in CA 332 is an abridged version of this one.

Notes
[1] The total labor force is 30.1 million people, 24 million (80%) in
the private sector, 6 million (20%) in public service

[2] Directorate for the coordination of research, studies and statistics
which produces the statistics of the Ministry of Labor

[3] Stéphane Sirot, Academic, specialist in social movements and trade
unionism quoted in Le Progrès - April 30, 2023

[4] It is possible to nitpick by arguing that union members such as
hospital staff, even cops and guards (the highest rates of unionization
in the public service) are requisitioned on strike days and
demonstrations, but that does not change not this observation that
"unionized does not mean mobilized"

[5] "Trade unionism: What conclusions can be drawn from the sequence of
struggle against the pension reform? Libertarian Communist Platform .
June 2, 2023.
On experimental site unions see CA No. 177 Interview with the USM-CGT
Multi-Professional Union of the Saint-Nazaire Shipyard

[6] On the various movements against pension reforms, see the text
Social movements against pension reform projects (from 1995 to 2020)
published in CA 328 March 2023

[7] See Georges Orwell "War is peace", in his novel "1984" and Vanina's
text Disintegration is integration - Reflections on a very Orwellian era
published in CA n°323

[8] This quote and those to follow are taken from the intersyndicale
press release of June 15, 2023

[9] Quoted by Dominique Andolfatto in "  Retirements: 14 demonstrations
later, what scenarios for union action?  on The conversation June 18, 2023.

[10] Cf Christine Ross "The form-Commune - The struggle as a way of
living" , la Fabrique, April 2023.

[11] It seemed to me, however, that this question had been settled for a
long time with the OCL's refusal to distinguish between a main front
(labour) and secondary fronts (feminism, ecology, anti-militarism,
consumption...), to affirm that the class struggle crossed all social
relations and was not confined to the production sector alone...

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