Outdated trade unionism

One hundred and fifty or so years ago Karl Marx’s call was: 

“Instead of the conservative motto: “A fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work!” they [workers] ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword: “Abolition of

the wages system!”” (Karl Marx’s address delivered on June 20 and 27, 1865, at two sittings of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association)

 “For the full representation of labour in Parliament, as well as for the preparation of the abolition of the wages system, organizations will become necessary, not of separate Trades, but of the working class as body. And the sooner this is done the better. …” (Frederick Engels, Trades Unions, written

on about May 20, 1881, C. W. 24, pp. 386-89)

 Those measures were proposed during the ascendance, the fledging period of capitalism when production relations, i.e., the wage labour/capital relation, were working in collaboration with the growing productive forces of society even though capital’s growth was always cyclical in nature. Workers had to organize themselves in trade unions as a class-in-itself to defend their economic interests. Eventually a privileged bureaucracy of trade union leaders seized control and began to lead the unions. Some trade unions used to pay lip service to Marx’s revolutionary watch word – “Abolition of the wages system”. However, as yet none of them have relinquished their reformist begging bowls. Preoccupied with wages, they actually accept wage slavery and capital’s tenure.

 Since about the beginning of the past century productive forces began to overwhelmingly outgrow the relations of production and the two became antagonistic, opening up the perspective of a revolutionary transformation of society. This requires two necessary conditions to mature – 1) an objective

condition – productive abundance for all and 2) a subjective condition – revolutionary will and organization of the working class worldwide.

 Regarding the first, potential abundance has been growing progressively over the years, with free access to it for all waiting to be achieved through the revolutionary seizure of the whole affairs of life by the working class. History has conferred upon them this revolutionary task of ushering the humanity into a new era of freedom and happiness. And for that, they have to turn themselves into a class-for-itself. In this respect the working class’ nineteenth century organizations, trade unions, have become irrelevant vis-à-vis abundance – when “all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more  abundantly” (Marx, CGP) whereby the principle: ‘From each according to ability and to each according to needs’ can be implemented with immediate effect. Let’s capture abundance by throwing away our begging bowls.

 As regards the second condition, the core constitution of the urgently necessary revolutionary organization has been present on the scene since the inauguration of the Socialist Party of Great Britain in 1904, giving rise to the World Socialist Movement – the embryo of “the working class as body” (Engels) in many countries of the world. However, workers in general still remain intensely brainwashed with capitalism’s perverted cultural constitution, having been crippled of their social consciousness and revolutionary responsibility and confined in the blind alley of reformism and the never-stopping merry-go-round of trade unionism which has become hopelessly backward-looking nowadays, mostly being led by power-monger overweening bureaucracies. In Marx’s days the trade unions were “conservative” within the economic sphere; in our time they have become outdated because the objective situation permits us to replace capitalism with socialism right here and now.

 The historical phase of conservative economic class struggle waged by trade unions has gone by. Now is the time for political class struggle “to win the battle of democracy” (Marx and Engels) using parliaments to end classes and class struggles forever by founding a cooperative society. Having this end in view, workers initially ought to form independent, leaderless, democratic workplace groups, factory groups having the object of socialism everywhere. They ought to win control of political power with a view to replacing capitalism with a society based on the common ownership of the means of production by the whole society, with production directly for use. Instead of remaining obsessed with wages and led by the age-old diehard bureaucratic trade unions, they must make every effort to themselves put in order their own world socialist Workplace Groups based on revocably delegated participatory democratic principles as a step towards the long-awaited global unity of the working class.

 Further, the ongoing panoramic technological progress pertaining to a new industrial initiative having profound implications leading to mobile, internet, robotics, automation and artificial intelligence is set to seize many manned jobs of the world. This threatens mass unemployment (“reserve army of labour” or “industrial reserve army” or “relative surplus population” in Marxian parlance) the world over, jeopardizing the present employment system with devastating consequences for the dehumanizing market system which piles up colossal unsold stocks vis-à-vis abysmal poverty, malnutrition, hunger, global warming, climate catastrophe and environment destruction. Beside this vicious trend, capitalism is generating absolute overproduction causing far-reaching economic degeneration and global crisis – “the epidemic of overproduction” (Manifesto). Trade unions are hopelessly powerless to reverse this drift. The only solution is: to end employment and unemployment i.e. abolition of the wages system altogether. A radical change is indispensable

in our thinking, leading to a radical change in our socio-economic system. Actually, the whole humanity has arrived at the threshold of a leisure society, Marx’s all-encompassing scientific society. What is necessary is just to will and organize class-wide and worldwide, to realize this profound prospect.

 Elect MPs as mandated socialist delegates to take over parliaments and pronounce: Annulment of all property and territorial rights whereby all that is on and in the Earth will become the common heritage of the whole humanity. This will help clear away obstacles for the working class movement as a

whole and usher humanity into the realm of freedom towards World Socialism.

 BINAY SARKAR
World Socialist Party (India)