Labour Unions and The Left

[OddView]

Is having Labor unions necessary in a leftist society?

Sorry is this is obvious or such but I am totally new to this trend of political thought but I would really love to understand it better.

Thanks in advance!

[The Grey Blur]

Not neccessarily but as they are workers organisations Communists must gain their support. Many in western countries have compromised leadership though and it will require a radical over-haul to depose these bureaucrats and re-create the fighting unions of the past.

I think unions could be coopted into a new Socialist state or could remain independent, it is really a hypothetical question.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 12, 2007 05:41 pm
Is having Labor unions necessary in a leftist society?
Well, what's meant by a "leftist" society?

'Cause this board is titled "revolutionaryleft" and based on discussion among "leftists" a lot of members start thinking that means more than it does in the real world....

In a situation where workers hold political power, unions will still be necessary. Because there will still be the danger of the workers' government, and the administration of the economy, becoming bureaucratically corrupted. Unions help defend the immediate economic interests of the workers and can be one form of counterbalance and limit on any bureaucracy that begins growing up in other organizations.

It's interesting to look at some of the points Lenin made in the "trade union controversy" in the early USSR. He pointed out that it wasn't advisable to completely merge the trade unions with the state, even though it was a workers' state, because it was also a workers' state in a mostly-peasant country, with a significant degree of bureaucratic degeneration....the unions were needed to counter that.

Now, when we get to the point where there are no classes in society, there'll be no more need for organizations of class struggle, including unions.

[OddView]

Originally posted by [email protected] 13, 2007 12:37 am
Now, when we get to the point where there are no classes in society, there'll be no more need for organizations of class struggle, including unions.
Thats a very interesting point you raised, thanks for helping me to understand this concept better!

[Raúl Duke]

In my opinion the workers would take over their workplaces through the unions and because of this take over of the means of production the unions transform into worker run co-ops in a socialist society.

this is only my opinion; I really can't tell you what can really happen.

[Kropotkin Has a Posse]

The unions of today have hierarchies, bureaucracy, and sell-out their members to keep things at that damned "equilibrium" that we're stuck in.

So proper radical unions need to cast all of that away.

[The Grey Blur]

Yes but you you don't get radical unions by setting up a tiny little pure one, you work among the mass organisations of workers and try and reverse the bureaucratic trend.

[Janus]

Even in a post-revolutionary society there need to be worker's organizations for decision making and planning purposes. I would think that the original unions will develop more into worker's councils,etc. and shed some of their old skins by this time.

[RGacky3]

Anarcho-Syndicalism dude, look it up :), might shed some light.

My personal thoughts are that Anarcho-Syndicalist Unions are the most Communistic of all institutions as what they are pretty much Workers organisations in every sense of the word, not someone representing them, actual workers organisations made up of workers with equal say actually fighting for a change and making collective desicions. :star:

[Vargha Poralli]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14, 2007 12:13 pm
Anarcho-Syndicalism dude, look it up :), might shed some light.

My personal thoughts are that Anarcho-Syndicalist Unions are the most Communistic of all institutions as what they are pretty much Workers organisations in every sense of the word, not someone representing them, actual workers organisations made up of workers with equal say actually fighting for a change and making collective desicions. :star:

My personal thoughts are that Anarcho-Syndicalist Unions are the most Communistic of all institutions as what they are pretty much Workers organisations in every sense of the word, not someone representing them, actual workers organisations made up of workers with equal say actually fighting for a change and making collective desicions.

Thats really subjective. In India CITU (http://citu.org.in/Defaulta.htm) is the biggest and have evrything you credit with Anarcho-Syndicalist Unions even though it is affiliated with Stalinist/Revisionist CPI(M).