Relearning the lessons of trade unionism
is what the Left needs to do, says the blogger known as Lenin:
The existence of trade unions has been a recognition of the fact that the employment contract is not one taken under conditions of freedom, but under economic compulsion. If it isn’t this capitalist, it’s that capitalista. Therefore, the only power workers have is their number and their ability to organise collectively. The decline in industrial combativity and the serious beating that the unions have taken has meant that many of these lessons have been lost to a new generation. Anticapitalism and the antiwar movement has pulled many to the Left without acquainting them with the nature of social and political power. I would add parenthetically, and at the risk of annoying one or two of the regular commenters here, that this could partially explain the persistence of conspiracy theories among some of these new radicals. For the conceptual operations of Marxism, as invaluable as they are for understanding capitalism, only really come alive in the day to day struggle of workers in confrontation with their employers. You can understand the labour theory of value in a scholastic way – but on a picket line with mounted police in attendance and employers munching sandwiches by the windows as they watch, the force of the terms exploitation and oppression are immediate and apparent.