The Role of Communists in the Labor Movement
Decades of wage stagnation, little to no benefits, work weeks well above 40 hours, have all led to US workers looking favorably at unions. As Communists we understand that organizing workers with the ultimate aim of winning working class political power and socialism is essential.
The following is an expansion of a presentation made for the Anna Hass Morgan Club, February, 2022.
COLUMBUS, OHIO— Decades of wage stagnation, little to no benefits, work weeks well above 40 hours, increasing housing costs, drastically declining standards of living, and plummeting life expectancy rates have all lead working people all across the United States to rethink having a union at their workplaces.
Two years of the pandemic have woken up millions of people across the world to how indifferent their employers, and governments, are towards every facet of their lives. We liberally apply the label ‘hero’ to every worker that we have realized are integral to society now, but scoff at the idea of compensating them appropriately for their heroism.
Euphemistically, this is an ‘appreciation shortage’, but in reality it is the culmination of years of degrading the living standards of everyone from bus drivers to doctors — a wage shortage. However, working people are reengaging with organized labor to address the most pressing issues of our time. On the heels of ‘Striketober’ (thousands of workers went out on strike across the US in late Fall of 2021), workers at over 88 Starbucks stores have demanded for their union to be recognized (December 2021-February 2022).
Labor Unions, as we know them, originated in the highly skilled trades of workers performing jobs in factories at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Over the past 200 years, these Trade Unions have expanded and diversified their ranks to represent most skills (job titles) at any given workplace in any given industry. Unions basically serve to bind a group of working people together so that they are strong enough to stand up and make demands from, and negotiate with, their employer.
In the United States, there are 15.8 million workers who belong to a union. The labor movement in the US is represented and lead by the American Federation of Labor — Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The AFL-CIO organizes its member unions to advocate for a variety of problems facing all working people in the US. Ohio has an active union rate of 13.2% in 2020, up from 11.9% in 2019 — which translates to 637,000 people and an increase of 27,000 new members.
Communist Unionism
This organized, relatively class conscious, mass of working class people have the ability to place extreme pressure on the economy and government to gain advances for working people across the country. The Communist Party states that “[w]e recognize that victory relies not on slogans, gimmicks, or conspiracies, but on the understanding of millions won in hard struggles over real issues, an understanding that grows into full class and socialist consciousness. Such consciousness cannot develop as a result of spontaneous struggle alone, but must be combined with explicitly Marxist-Leninist organization and education, tested and proved in struggle.” Thus, under the right leadership, labor union can play a revolutionary role in people’s lives. Unfortunately, the adverse is true when unprincipled and corrupt leaders control labor unions.
The history of the past hundred years shows us what labor looks like when people dedicated to socialism steer the ship. Unions in Germany and Austria fought fervently against the rise of fascism. In Spain, unions mobilized their members to take up arms and defend democracy against a fascist coup. Cuban unions helped the urban movement bring right wing dictator Batista down during the uprising, and now integrally serve to organize society and participate in the democratic process.
During the protests in Cuba in the Summer of 2021, when Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel called on supporters of the Revolution to take to the streets, many Cubans immediately went to their places of work to organize with their coworkers to support the Revolution. In France, unions directed by the Communist Part of France (PCF) lead a general strike (a strike in which all workers, union or not, are called on to stop working) in May 1968 which forced President Charles de Gaulle and his government to flee Paris. President de Gaulle subsequently called the PCF, from the safety of an air force base in Germany, and agreed to hold new elections.
Reactionary Unionism
However, there are catastrophic instances in which unions can play reactionary roles in history. During socialist Salvador Allende’s presidency in Chile, the CIA funneled over $8 million to a wide array of organizations — including $2 million to the truckers union in exchange for their refusal to deliver goods to urban centers throughout Chile. This strike against urban Chile brought down Allende’s government in a violent fascist coup, sponsored by the US, that unleashed a twenty year brutal dictatorship on the Chilean people.
This is why we believe that “The role of the Communist Party is to guide the struggle of the working class to its ultimate aim of winning working class political power and socialism. In the stages of struggle that lead to that ultimate aim, the Communist Party combines political, economic, organizational, and ideological struggle, the exact nature of which changes along with changes in the struggles and in the balance of power. The role of the Party during each stage of struggle leading up to socialism is to combine participation with the millions in struggles where they are at, agitation for the next phase of struggle, and propaganda for socialism, linking activism in the struggles of the present with preparation for the struggles of the future.”
We encourage Party Members in organizing drives to always:
Be a Good Coworker: Work efficiently, pick up the slack for coworkers — not management. Aim to be recognized as a good worker by coworkers and management but don’t suck up at all to management, prepare oneself to be a natural leader at work through your labor, build relationship with coworkers and remembers their interests, know work rules.
Demonstrates Knowledge of Rights: Sick leave, FMLA etc.
We encourage Party Members in established unions to:
Volunteer for Roles
Run in Elections
Provide Critical Views, Analysis, Experience
Always Act in Solidarity with Coworkers
Show up to Union Meetings
Get Involved in Labor Community
Give Union ‘Leads’
Educate Fellow Workers
We encourage Party Members in Solidarity with Labor Actions to:
Follow Union Leadership
Perform Auxiliary Work if Requested
Put Immediate Struggle Above Everything
Don’t Proselytize
Do Work the Union Cannot do
Bring in Allies, Build Networks