Two faces of workers resistance

[Hit The North]

Here are two stories which illustrate two divergent effects of the economic crisis. One from the streets of Paris:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7857435.stm

The other from oil refineries in North-East England:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7857996.stm

Thoughts?

[BobKKKindle$]

Both of these cases pose decisive lessons for revolutionaries - most importantly, it shows that an economic depression does not guarantee that workers will become more militant and take united action against the bourgeoisie, because the feelings of fragility and betrayal associated with depression can also create opportunities for reactionary forces to take control of the movement and exploit latent prejudices such as hostility against immigration communities, and in order to avoid the second possibility we need to make sure that socialists are present in every workplace and doing everything they can to put forward progressive arguments and encourage unity between all workers regardless of nationality or cultural background. That's really the point of being a socialist in the first place - to fight against reactionary ideas and win people over to a progressive viewpoint. In addition, these cases also show that trade unions are capable of being used for reactionary purposes even though they supposedly exist to represent the interests of the working class, and even in France, it's important to point out that trade unions have historically been used to undermine revolutionary situations by using popular unrest to put pressure on employers in exchange for temporary improvements in wages and working conditions without seriously considering the possibility of revolutionary transformation and getting rid of the bosses altogether - in particular, the CGT, the largest trade union in France, has traditionally been controlled by the reactionary PCF, and had a major role in co-opting the revolutionary spirit of 1968.

[Hit The North]

Two interesting quotes by two workers on the BBC News24 report on the "anti-immigrant" oil refinery walkout:

1. "If I'm unemployed and I go for a job, I'm in competition with another man. But I should be in competition with what I hold in my hands - my skills. Not competing with him for an hourly rate."

2. "It's good to see us stand up for each other. For a change."

As ever, contradiction abounds.

What should be the socialist response to workers who want to take action in defence of their wages and conditions, but for "reactionary" reasons?

[Enragé]

Well, put forward the point that immigrant workers should be paid the same as british workers. I mean, thats what's making the employers turn to immigrants: lower wages. They can exploit them more. By organizing for higher wages you show solidarity with immigrants, and stand up for british workers.

As for how to react on the moment of such a walk-out, tough situation. It all shows how racism is engrained in the system: from the standpoint of the individual worker, every immigrant is an another competitor

[cyu]

1. The media is owned and controlled by capitalists
2. In order to maintain their rule, capitalists use a strategy of divide and conquer
3. The targets of division in this case are "natives" and "immigrants"

From http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1953679

While there are certainly many unions that do not discriminate when it comes to who they try to organize, this is not true of all unions.

One of the arguments sometimes used by organized labor is that the hiring of illegal immigrants drives down everyone’s wages. Because the immigrants are afraid of getting caught and have nowhere else to go, they are willing to accept much lower pay than those living here without fear. It’s hard to enforce minimum wage or work safety standards when the employees are too afraid to come forward – so the employers that hire these immigrants have an unfair advantage in the market.

My brother says, "It's not about giving a man a fish, and certainly not about teaching a man to fish... it's about letting a man fish!"

I certainly agree with this. Instead of fighting illegal immigration, organized labor should encourage the immigrants (and themselves) to simply take democratic control over their places of work, because even if they managed to send all the immigrants back to their countries of origin, their jobs will be shipped overseas anyway, in search of people willing to accept lower pay and with less rights to organize.