unions
Articles about unions and the nature and function of labor or trade unionism.
Program of the AAUD
Program of the General Workers' Union of Germany, adopted at their third national conference in Leipzig, December 12-14, 1920.
Introduction
Syndicalism - an introduction
Syndicalism refers to the practice of organising workers into unions to fight for their interests. Originally, the term comes from the French work for Trade Unionism (Syndiclisme), but in English the term specifically refers to rank-and-file unionism.
Sydney bus drivers defy union and take wildcat action
A six-hour strike by 130 bus drivers in western Sydney on Monday morning, carried out in defiance of their union, has produced furious denunciations in the media and from an industrial court judge. The drivers walked out at the Busways Blacktown depot at 3.30 a.m. against the imposition of new timetables that would impose shorter times for routes.
Drivers said that the timetables, due to commence in October, would be impossible to meet, forcing them to run late, which would not only inconvenience and anger passengers but cut short the drivers’ break periods. The workers said they would be under enormous pressure to drive over the speed limit.
Reactions of the American proletariat during the 1929 crisis
With many commentators stating that the 2008 recession is the world's worst since the great Depression, Prol-position analyses the 1929 recession, its effect on workers in the US and how they responded.
In 1930-33, the situation of the American proletariat declined sharply. While not putting capitalist domination on the line, the proletariat was far from apathetic during that period. This text intends merely to summarize the various forms and phases of resistance by the American proletariat to its deteriorating conditions of reproduction.
Review - Greater than the might of armies editted by Staughton Lynd & Alice Lynd - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes review of Greater than the might of armies, edited by Staughton Lynd & Alice Lynd.
Greater than the might of Armies
Staughton Lynd & Alice Lynd (eds.) The New Rank & File (Ithaca: ILR Press, 2000)
Unions: A Revolutionary Critique - Red and Black Notes
Article by Red and Black Notes, advancing a communist anti-union position, looking at the way unions serve to nullify dissent and channel struggle in "acceptable" directions.
The following article is based on talks on unionism given in Toronto and Montreal in spring 2004.
Lessons Of the Black Sunday Sellout - Wage Slave X
Article by Wage Slave X, examining the lessons that can be drawn by the unions sellout on "Black Monday" in 2004.
Over the May Day weekend, many thousands of working class people around B.C. were confident that something truly wonderful, yet something also deadly serious, was going to flower in the coming week, beginning Monday, the 3rd. Behind it all, what it was all about was what has been sometimes called the 'social question'.
Unions Narrowly Avert General Strike In B.C., Canada - Wage Slave X
Article looking at the near-General Strike in 2004 in Canada. The strike was stopped at the last minute by the unions.
In the week from April 25 to May 2, 2004, what began as a legal strike by 43,000 hospital workers in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada nearly developed into an illegal 'general strike' by upwards of 200,000 workers against the provincial government (which funds the hospitals and the health-care system generally), and potentially involving perhaps another 100,000 to 150,000 unionized workers.
Chinese trade union officials seek to suppress new workers’ rights group
Trade union officials in the central province of Shaanxi have threatened the founders of a new workers’ rights group, saying it is a “reactionary organization” that could harm China’s “Harmonious Society,” Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on 29 June.
More than 380 workers from some 20 enterprises in Shaanxi applied to the provincial Party committee and trade union federation to set up the Shaanxi Enterprise Union Rights Defence Representative Congress, or, “rights defence congress” for short.
