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What to do if your trade union leadership is reactionary? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by KrupskayaPraxis@lemmygrad.ml to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml

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I am a member of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions, or FNV, and they are not that progressive. They include the police union and don't make a stand for Palestine. They have made a statement today as a reaction to calls to kick the police union out of the federation. These calls came after police violence against pro-Palestine supporters. The leader of FNV defended the police union in his statement. I think the union has an important place in the fight against capitalism before, during and after the revolution. So when the union is compromised, it means it will be harder for change to happen. I do have hope for the union, but how can you exactly help bring back the revolutionary spirit and ideals?

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[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 22 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

It's funny you should bring this up because i know someone else who also asked this same question once upon a time: "Should Revolutionaries Work in Reactionary Trade Unions?". Of course the conditions today are very different so you cannot simply transfer their conclusions one to one to your situation, but it helps us understand how a revolutionary ought to think about and discuss these sorts of questions.

Study your conditions, analyze them and apply the dialectical materialist method and draw your own conclusions.

[–] ComradeEd@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

careerists and charlatans, who deserve only to be shot

Lenin is so based.

[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 6 months ago

For me the central passage of that text is this:

"We can (and must) begin to build socialism, not with abstract human material, or with human material specially prepared by us, but with the human material bequeathed to us by capitalism. True, that is no easy matter, but no other approach to this task is serious enough to warrant discussion."

It is in effect a complete rejection of idealism, the recognition that we must work with the material reality at hand and not with the fantasy of an idealized revolutionary subject which we have constructed in our minds.

[–] CyberSyndicalist@hexbear.net 15 points 6 months ago

If there are enough of a movement to remove the police union to warrant a reaction then there must be something to build on. I guess you talk to other union members about the reactionary nature of police unions to grow that movement. I don't have experience here though so take this with a grain of salt.

[–] D61@hexbear.net 4 points 6 months ago

Learn socialist history and theory in regards to political struggle, figure out if you are good at propaganda or agitation or find comrades that are.

Do what you can to teach others that unions can do more than just manage the worker/employer relationship and that it has a moral duty to use its massive body to act. Don't expect to fix anything on your own, but every little thing you can do paves the way for the next person who feels the same way you do.

[–] Kultronx@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

unfortunately not a lot of easy answers here. if you're not attached to your job you could quit and find a job with a better union, or you could try and rally the support of your fellow workers to get a better position within the union, but that could be very tough

[–] commiewolf@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Federation of Dutch Trade Unions

I'm pretty sure it's the biggest trade union in the country unfortunately. This is a common thing in Europe for most of the biggest unions to be reactionary in some way.

[–] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

honestly I'd just give up on the union and dedicate more organizing time/efforts outside of work then

[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is the wrong approach. Unions are an essential battleground of the class struggle and abandoning them to the enemy is a grave strategic error. What should be done is agitation and propaganda work among the rank and file, first and foremost against the collaboration with the so-called "police union" (which is not a union since police are not workers but the reactionary guard dogs of capital), and secondly against the reactionary leadership which continues that collaboration. When sufficient critical mass has been built a political struggle must be launched inside the union aiming at the delegitimization and eventual unseating of the reactionary leaders.

[–] AcidLeaves@hexbear.net 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean ones efforts and energy is limited, doing whatever you think is most effective is the correct thing to do

It may be union stuff, it may be more party work

[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 6 months ago

True, true. I wasn't saying that this is what everyone should do, but that revolutionaries as a whole should not abandon union work.