Unions - anyone in one?

[DaNatural]

Just curious if any of you are in union, as in a voting member of the union, ive been thinking about joining the one for my work, but im not too sure, id like to hear your responses, peace

[Son of Scargill]

Transport & General Workers Union(T&GWU).
At the moment we are fighting to get the union recognised at our workplace,no easy task.Even though we SUPPOSEDLY have a union friendly government,the laws are firmly stacked against us.I don't know about Canadian labour laws,and the effectiveness of unions in your country,but I would recommend joining a union.They may not be perfect,but any weapon is better than none.

[Kez]

Im part of the young communist league

comrade kamo

[El Commandante]

Im part of the same young communist league that Kamo is in, Youth for Radical Change.

[CimSaint]

I'm not in any Union (I'm but 16 years old ), but my dad is, the UA. He's pretty hands off; pays his dues and expects to be taken care. This view is shared by a lot of his co-workers, and it makes the Union half as effective as it could be. There's little solidarity between the Trades, and the management of the Unions is corrupt.

Anyway, my point is, if you join the Union, get involved. Be active. I have no doubt you will, comrade, but it's the only way to be effective. But I would agree with what was said above; any weapon is better than being unarmed.

[the REVOLUTION]

I am in a union. The I.B.E.W. (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). Unions in north america are really a joke. It is better to be part of one than not to be, but their main focus is about making more money. We already make more than enough while children starve all over the world. There are very few unions that have a social conscience. Our unions need to become more politically active and socially aware, something i am working on, but it is hard to get through to some people because our unions are full of racists, biggots, and wife-beaters that are only in the union to make better money.

[Delta]

How many of you are active in a union? Do you think that you are a radicalizing element within the union? And are you able to bring it around to a more class-concious type of organization, or do certain aspects of the union's organization stifle these attempts?

I ask because I'm a member of my campus union, and am wondering if by increasing my participation that I could perhaps make a positive difference (at least enough to justify the effort).

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Yes, yes, yes and yes..

Seriously though, it's important to unionize, be active in your union, build your union, help fellow workers in your union develop conciousness, and do your best to use your union as a force of class war.

One thing you can do is to push to pass revolutionary resolutions in your union (ie. in Defense of Mumia Abu Jamal), and to fight to make the political strike a reality (ie. Longshoremen in the U.S. who struck, and refused to touch cargo going to South Africa, in defense of South African workers and farmers during apartheid).

[Morag]

I'm not currently in a union, but when I am, I'm rather active. Always I'm active from the outside in my parents' unions, because I was brought up in them, pretty much.

By student union, do you mean the students elected you to represent them, or that you work at your campus in a role that's unionised? If the later, you should try very hard to radicalise things, because a campus is a great place to reach people when their fresh faced; even if they don't become socialist/anarchist/whateverist, you might succeed in them becoming more accepting of leftist thought, therefore aiding the future.

If you meant that your a member of a student's council, then I totally suggest trying to radicalise things on campus. I was on a students council for two years and the contacts and experience gained trying to organise on a campus has stood me well since leaving. Depending on the type of campus and it's general feel, you can do a lot of things; start movement on getting tuition decreased (great way to get students thgnking about why their charged at all, where the money really goes, and how it benefits society at all to charge tuition), or International Women's Day marches or events (brings out a lot of feminists, and people who are just forming those ideas, and provides a good avenue to discussing inherent inequalities and why we celebrate Women's Day when we do). Plus there is the general knowledge of "the system" and how to subvert it that you gain- for instance, my campus was actually incredibly left-wing (the Dean was a Socialist and he tended to hire Socialists, as well). Plus, because I was active and really spear-headed a lot of things for the students, I ws chosen to sit on hiring committees for three faculty appointments, meaning I had a chance to vet out political leanings of potential professors and actually swayed the committees twice to hire people who were more left-wing.

So yeah, in any case, you should try to radicalize.

[Janus]

Yes, IWW all the way. :P

[Delta]

I work in a campus job that's unionized under UAW. So the reason I was curious as to whether I would be able to affect much is due to the fact that the UAW is so large, but I suppose I could radicalize at least on a local level. They have no way of controlling that. Thanks for the comments guys, they were both helpful. Morag, your ideas and real experiences were especially helpful.

I'll begin getting more active in the union immediately, and after this next semester (which will be unusually busy for me), I will try to take on a more active role in the leadership. Thanks all

[Delta]

Originally posted by Janus@Jul 24 2006, 10:49 PM
Yes, IWW all the way. :P

That's damn sexy

[loveme4whoiam]

I'm not currently, but when I go to Uni I'm going to join the campus one and try to work the old leftist magic on it :P I'm not sure about the national student union. I while ago I looked on their homepage and there was a notification about the national student blood-donation scheme. Apparently, the scheme does not want the blood of homosexuals, and yet the NSU still plugged it to all its members - fucked up.

I was thinking about joining to try and change from within, but everyone knows what the results of reformism are

[Djehuti]

I am a member of a union (IF Metal, an industrial union), but I am not active within it. And I do not plan to either. I do not believe that you can transform the union into a tool for offensive class struggle.

[Sabocat]

I'm a member of the Carpenters Union and the IWW.

I do not believe that you can transform the union into a tool for offensive class struggle.

Then you need to read a little bit on union history.

[KampfdemKapital]

I am member of the "Sozialistische Jugend", in english: Socialist youth and of the austrian Tradeunion "ÖGB" in english: Union of the austrian Tradeunions

And i am a sympathiser of "www.marxist.com"

[Si Pinto]

Originally posted by Delta@Jul 25 2006, 03:33 AM
How many of you are active in a union? Do you think that you are a radicalizing element within the union? And are you able to bring it around to a more class-concious type of organization, or do certain aspects of the union's organization stifle these attempts?

I ask because I'm a member of my campus union, and am wondering if by increasing my participation that I could perhaps make a positive difference (at least enough to justify the effort).

I'm a union representative where I work.

As for the rest, I'm (along with a few others) trying to pull the union back from the brink of 'uselessness' and 'liberal conformity'...but it isn't easy...but we don't give up .

Unions are important (or they should be) as they can be the breeding ground for class consciousness among'st those who weren't involved in politics at a young age.

One problem in the UK of course is the massively repressive anti-union laws that Thatcher brought in, and which Blair has done nothing about (which shows that he's as socialist as Thatcher was).

[Djehuti]

Originally posted by Disgustapated@Jul 26 2006, 10:04 AM
Then you need to read a little bit on union history.

I think I have. It might be different in other countries, I don't know. But here in Sweden revolutionaries have tried to radicalize the unions since... well a long time ago. The Social Democrats rule the unions, and the unions are top-ruled and beurocratized as hell. While they uphold some rights and grant you some security, they still combat proletarian class struggle initiatives that refuse to go through the union. They actually controls the working class and keeps them in line. Also the unions still are an organization for the sale of the commodity labour force. That is its formost purpose.

We also have a syndicalist union, SAC, and they are good. But even though its members are revolutionary in large and it is a base-democractic union, it's still not revolutionary organisation in my opinion. The CNT in Spain was not revolutionary either. It contained revolutionary elements, but those are rather in conflict with the whole union-stuff.

I am not against being in a union, I myself am in a union. And i am not against organizing resistance at your work place (that is very necessary), but does it have to be through a union? I think that union struggle has to many limitations, and I rather advocate an un-controllable faceless resistance. The unions are in much a detour.

Also check out:
http://prole.info/pamphlets/unions.pdf