W.H., Intro,
Understanding China & Its Unions, for Niebyl-Proctor,
1/11/15
Most
of us intuitively know that safety-&-health protections in a union plant
will likely to be stronger than in a non-union plant, even if the union lacks an
OSH subcommittee, or if it’s ineffective.
Still,
an ineffective or absent safety-and-health subcommittee can endanger not only
workers but the union’s existence at the plant.
Counter-intuitively,
maybe, a very strong safety-and-health subcommittee can also endanger the union’s existence.
Why?
Because to survive, the union faces many other necessary tasks, for example,
equality tasks, organizational tasks. If those are not addressed, or if the
union fails to achieve a balance between several necessary tasks, that too can
bring the union down.
This
presentation argues that states formed by socialist revolutions, like China
today, or the Soviet Union before its collapse – that these states can be
compared to unions risen to state power atop great mass upsurges that broke the
old ruling class’s power. In China, that mass upsurge conquered on Oct.1, 1949,
with the CPC at its head.
Labor
unions in China, in turn, can be compared to a subcommittee of this
union-risen-to-state-power, charged with addressing one of the necessary tasks
-- defending workers’ interests in workplaces.
But
after seizure of power, the necessary tasks are much more numerous than those of
a union in a capitalist factory, they include econ. Development, and balancing
between them is much more complex.
A
union-risen-to-state-power, with far greater resources than those of a union or
a working-class party in a capitalist country, still can only make the best out
of a bad situation. Even if it somehow figures out the best solutions – there
may be many such solutions—it is still left with a bad situation. ‘Freedom is
the recognition of necessity.’
The
Soviet Union recorded enormous achievements in its 74 years of existence, yet it
still collapsed. Identifying and addressing the weaknesses and unmet challenges
that led to the Soviet collapse is essential to complete humanity’s transition
to socialism.
-------------------------------------
UNDERSTANDING
CHINA AND ITS UNIONS
SUMMARY:
There is a lot of confusion about China and its unions in the world workers'
movement. This paper compares China to a 'union risen to state power' – a
special organization of the working class – and China's labor unions as a
subcommittee of this union in state power. The labor unions are charged with the
important task of protecting workers' interests in the workplace. Other
important tasks of the 'union in state power' include economic development,
education, public health, equality for women, youth and nationalities,
environmental protection, and much more.
To
maximize its strength, the 'union in state power' needs both
relatively-independent and effective subcommittees (including labor unions)
addressing necessary tasks, and periodic harmonizing mechanisms and bodies to
balance between those tasks. This is because even a 'union in state power' must
make the best out of a bad situation.
'China
as a union risen to state power' helps explain why the education and standard of
living of workers in China has climbed in recent decades, even though labor unions
in China have not been particularly effective (although they are becoming more
so). In capitalist countries, unionized factories generally have stronger safety
and health protection for workers compared to non-union factories, even when the
unionized factories lack effective safety-and-health subcommittees. The analogy
also helps us understand that the exploiters' antagonism to China is like their
antagonism to unions: it is a class antagonism. The material foundations and
common interests exist for cooperation and unity between unions worldwide,
China's unions included.
KEY WORDS: Class
character of the Chinese state; labor unions after a socialist revolution;
relative separation and harmonizing mechanisms; making the best out a bad
situation.
In April 2010, Richard Trumka,
president of the AFL-CIO, the main federation of labor unions in the US, spoke
at Harvard University. A coal mine explosion in West Virginia a few hours before
his talk had left 29 miners missing and feared dead. Their fate weighed heavily
on him.
I asked Brother
Trumka if he would support mine-safety cooperation between US and Chinese
unions. His answer was positive. He cited health-and-safety cooperation with
mining unions in other countries, such as South Africa. The emphasis was
in the right places. Then he added: “But [unions in China] are not real unions.”
Unions do differ in
some ways in China, Vietnam and Cuba, compared to unions in capitalist
countries. But how? Indeed -- What is China itself?
This was the
question posed to me by a worker-intellectual, founder of a labor research
center, shortly before his first trip to China in April 2008. “I don't know what
China is,” he said to me. “Is it capitalist? Is it socialist?” His uncertainty
mirrors widespread confusion about China in the world workers' movement.
This
worker-intellectual came from a family of Teamsters, the union of truck drivers;
he had once been a fuel truck driver himself. One of the things I really liked
about him was that when he referred to the Teamsters, it was without a snicker,
even though he was conscious of the Teamsters' shortcomings. He understood that
it was, above all, a union, a workers'
organization, facing huge obstacles and challenges in the face of capitalist
hostility.
I said to him,
“China is as if the Teamsters had risen to state power atop a great upsurge that
broke the old ruling class's power.” He smiled. I think he understood.
UNIONS IN CHINA ARE LIKE
'SUBCOMMITTEES' OF UNIONS IN
CAPITALIST COUNTRIES
China is like a
union risen to state power, a special form of workers' organization, with a
government and army. This workers' organization in power must now address not
only defense of workers' interests in the workplace – the traditional task of
unions – but a thousand other necessary tasks as well: food supply, economic
development, education, equality for women and national minorities, environment,
public health, and other tasks . And it must find a balance between them, under
conditions where it must make the best out of a bad situation. If it seriously
fails at any of these tasks, it risks being busted or “decertified” -- a term
used in the US when workers actively or passively drive out a union that had
until now represented them. Decertification leaves workers without protection
against the exploiters. The same thing happened to workers in the Soviet Union
after 1991.
Complicating matters in a 'union
in state power', China included, is that workers generally form a minority of
the “membership”. Workers are the state's social base, but a majority of the
residents are not workers – they are peasants, self-employed, youth, managers,
intermediate layers, officials, plus a small but significant minority of
exploiters, owners of private businesses, small and large.
China's labor
unions are like a very important subcommittee of the union in state power,
with two very important responsibilities: to defend workers' interests in the
workplace, and to shape overall state policy. More on that shortly.
First, let's apply
this analogy to unions in capitalist countries. The Teamsters, for example, may
have several subcommittees that address necessary tasks, such as organizing,
safety-and-health, and civil rights (to achieve equality for African American or
women workers).
The safety-and-health
subcommittee may find that certain practices or chemicals threaten workers'
health and should be discontinued. Yet, discontinuing those practices could also
lead to unemployment for many African American workers, who are
routinely assigned the most dangerous work by the bosses. A potential
contradiction thus exists between the union's safety-and-health and civil rights
subcommittees. The organizing department, another subcommittee, may require so
many resources that it leaves little for safety and health or civil rights
tasks. How such contradictions are resolved requires harmonizing mechanisms
between the subcommittees, and ultimately will reflect the general level of
labor organization, consciousness and power.
Continuing with this analogy: In
order to be effective, each subcommittee of a union needs some independence from
other subcommittees as well as from the overall leadership. Without that
relative independence, it is difficult for subcommittees to be effective. But
without the harmonizing mechanisms, it can be very difficult for the union to
balance between its many tasks.
A union in state power that
champions economic growth at the expense of defending workers in the workplace
will weaken its social base. But poverty will distort and can compromise the
state's entire structure. So will continued social inequality or environmental
destruction. This is why periodic harmonizing mechanisms are also necessary for
the union in state power. It needs to reconcile the priorities of of the various
subcommittees and develop the state's overall policy and
decision-making.
Even
'unions risen to state power' must make the best of a bad situation. While they
have much greater resources than unions in capitalist countries, they do not
have unlimited power. They face the exploiters' hostility and anarchic economy
at every turn.
Both kinds of
unions, whether in power or under capitalist rule, must therefore balance
between many necessary tasks, no small feat. A
leadership that is unable to reconcile contradictions
between subcommittees may place them under its discipline, or even abolish them.
But then the necessary tasks of the subcommittees are unlikely to be carried out
well, if at all, and the appropriate balance between tasks will not be reached.
Labor unions in China are like a
subcommittee of the “union risen to state power.” Their very important
responsibility is to defend workers' interests in the workplace -- AND to
participate in shaping overall state policy. Thus, unions' responsibilities in
China include not only addressing wages, benefits and working conditions but
also having a voice in over-all tasks, such as environmental policy or setting
prices, to give just two examples.
The government of a
union risen to state power is not the same thing as the state. The government is
best understood as one of the state's “subcommittees” addressing two vital
tasks, organizing economic development and defense against exploiters'
inevitable attempts to bust the union. The state, on the other hand, is the sum
total of all the “subcommittees”, including government and labor unions, that
are addressing necessary tasks, AND the harmonizing mechanisms required to
develop overall policies.
Ideally, each of
the necessary subcommittees of the “union risen to state power” should be
relatively independent, effective and strong in its own right. Also ideally, the
periodic harmonizing mechanisms must be developed to balance the contradictions
between the subcommittees. Achieving both is very difficult, yet it is
ultimately essential. The Soviet Union was unable to resolve this balance, and
fell to counter-revolution 74 years after it was formed. What happened to the
Soviet labor unions after Yeltsin seized the government offices in Moscow and
began to attack workers?
A general principle applies: a
workers' organization and its sub-organizations will be as effective as the
corresponding interest and control from below, and the coordination and
harmonization from above. This requires worker empowerment and education,
internal democracy, and prompt and effective two-way flows of information in
order to arrive at decisions.
MUCH HAS TO COME
TOGETHER
In summary, the
relationship between the Chinese state and its labor unions is like the
relationship between a union in a capitalist country and one of its
subcommittees. There will be many uncomfortable moments in the process of
reconciling contradictions between union subcommittees (tasks). Why? Because the
resolution of differences between the tasks of subcommittees is not obvious. But
as long as the subcommittees remain committed to the union's overall interests
and power, productive solutions will be found while serious errors will be
avoided and lesser errors corrected.
A surprising conclusion from this
analysis is that strong subcommittees of a union -- or union in state power --
can actually weaken the union. How? The overall structure can be weakened if the
harmonizing mechanisms have not been developed. A strong and effective
safety-and-health subcommittee is very desirable in a unionized factory. But if
that strength is achieved at the cost of other tasks, such as those of the civil
rights (equality) or organizing subcommittees, the whole union can be weakened.
The same is true for a union in state power. In turn, the leadership can weaken
a union if it fails to develop and use the harmonizing mechanisms.
Much then has to come together to
strengthen labor's organizations, whether in state power or under capitalist
rule. All this while working to overcome capitalism's limitations and forced
'competition' among workers, limitations that constantly require our
organizations to make the best out of a bad situation.
WHY ARE CHINESE
WORKERS' STANDARDS OF LIVING RISING WITHOUT EFFECTIVE UNIONS?
One way to see this analogy
between unions and unions-in-state-power is as follows: In capitalist countries,
safety and health protections for workers in unionized factories tend to be
stronger than in non-union factories. This is true even when the unionized
factories lack effective safety-and-health subcommittees. How could that be?
Because there is a union in the factory.
In China,
the education and standard of
living of workers in China has risen even though unions have not been
particularly effective (although they are becoming stronger). How could this be?
Because the Chinese state itself is a ”union risen to state power.”
Effective labor
unions can strengthen the Chinese and similar 'unions in state power', such as
Vietnam, Cuba, and People's Korea; the critical requirement is that for
effective balancing mechanisms to harmonize the unions' tasks with those of
other necessary 'subcommittees', including the government (economic development
and defense). Similarly, an effective safety-and-health subcommittee will
strengthen a labor union, provided the union also has the mechanisms to balance
the union's many challenges.
EXPLOITERS' ANTAGONISM TO CHINA
IS LIKE THEIR ANTAGONISM TO UNIONS
In 2009, the capitalist media
repeatedly broadcast the false claim that the bankruptcy of General Motors and
Chrysler was due to auto unions' “greed” and “Cadillac health plans”. No mention
was made of the massive overcapacity in the industry, or the general crisis of
capitalism. The exploiters' state then acted to greatly weaken unions and
cheapen labor. The action was backed by the courts, police and prisons. Today,
the capitalist media are making the equally bogus claim that
postal worker unions' “greed” and “plush pensions” are bankrupting the US Postal
Service, and public workers' unions are similarly bankrupting local governments.
These false claims are then used to attack the unions, cut wages and plunder
union pension plans.
How many times have
the capitalist media also claimed that China is behind the loss of jobs in the
US, that China is trying to poison our children, or that its “currency
manipulation” is bankrupting the US?
The exploiters' antagonism to
China is like their antagonism to unions here, a class antagonism. It reflects
the fear and hatred of the exploiters towards organization of the exploited.
China is a special form of labor
organization, a 'union risen to state power'. It is in world labor's interest to
defend China and similar states-- and their unions -- against the exploiters'
attacks, just as it is in our interest to defend the Teamsters and other unions.
It is in labor's interest to
develop cooperation among all of our class's organizations, in power or not,
flaws and all, to enable humanity to overcome capitalism's cruel and deepening
limitations.
This
paper was prepared for a US-China Labor meeting at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, May 28, 2011. Special thanks are due to professors Cheng
Enfu, Liu Shuchun, Feng Yanli, and Ding Xiaoqin of China's Academy of Marxism
and the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE), and Liu Cheng of
Shanghai Normal University. US-China Labor meetings are dedicated to
facilitating understanding between unions in the US and China, with the goal of
developing cooperation around necessary tasks, such as environmental tasks,
organizing or international labor solidarity.
Eric Brooks, Bonnie Weiss and
Maja Weisl of the Communist Party USA, and Dave Campbell and Mike Zielinski of
the United Steel Workers all contributed to this article, along with Al Sargis
and the Boston China Study Group. This article is dedicated to Maja Weisl, who
died shortly after helping shape this article.
