Notes on Organizing

A turning point in history

There is little doubt the anti-union, anti-peoples corporate forces are betting the ranch on the outcome of a worldwide campaign to lower living standards and raise profits. This is because the first law of corporatism is to increase the rate of profit.

This has reached the point where today as reported recently in the Washington Post, the "385 of the richest people in the world have a net worth equal to the combined annual income of the poorest 2.3 billion." Up to this point they have generally succeeded with the exception of periods of recession or depression. But now they face a crisis of no room for expansion.

The world markets have reached a point of saturation. This is seen in the incredible world wide financial transactions, under the electronic computerized system, which transfers trillions of dollars daily across all borders. The only way left to continue increasing profits is to cheapen the cost of production, to increase worker productivity.

Alan Greenspan has reminded us of this in his various economic pronouncements from the Federal Reserve Board. Their only hope now is to lower wages around the world.

To do this they have set up a plan involving the WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc. In other words a total program based upon no outside regulation, secret deliberations, no governmental, let alone peoples' democratic control. It is worldwide control of industry, government, political and social - a corporate controlled world system. It is an anti-union, anti-democratic, anti-people system of total exploitation.

CAN WE SAVE UNIONISM AND DEMOCRACY?

We can by extending and strengthening unionism. It is necessary to understand that unionism is the strongest and most essential anti-corporate power. Even Peter Drucker, guru of management consultants agrees that unions defend workers' rights and democracy against the tyranny of corporate power. Without unions democracy cannot exist.

One look at the world history shows that where unions function democracy is strong. Under dictatorships unions are outlawed. In addition it is clear that higher living standards are characteristic of democracy.

It can be said that higher living standards is a foundation of democracy. The history of unionism in our own country as well as elsewhere is marked by terrorism against unions. Unionism has been involved in a struggle against corporate terrorism as long as it has existed.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

The opportunities for organizing are not a lot. Having just come out of the prosperity of the 90s, the need for unionism is not clearly seen. Workers have been taken in by get rich quick stock market fantasies and comparatively high wages in some industries. But that was restricted to less than the majority of workers.

Now that we are in a service economy with a huge segment of temp workers, we see a wage slippage. Younger workers no longer have the opportunities for well paying jobs as the manufacturing sector continues to shrink.

In such circumstances union organizing is difficult, if workers are being laid off they are no longer there to be organized. And if they are available as a source of cheap labor, the downward pressure on wages increases. But such conditions in the Great Depression led workers to seek union support. It works both ways.

In addition laws, government bureaucracies and media bias all militate against organizing. Under Bush government policy will become more ant- union. It is likely that union militancy will be labeled a threat to the war against terrorism under Bush's "You're for us or against us" statement.

What we have going for us is, for one thing the great ILWU reputation. Practically any worker except those in highly skilled crafts would be proud to belong to the ILWU.

If we get the message out to them we will not have too much difficulty getting new members. Coupled with this, the large number of low paid workers adds to the opportunities for organizing.

Another plus is the connection between union organizing and the defense of democracy. As noted, trade union rights are essentially democratic rights. Many are becoming aware of this important fact. Thus we can count on wide spread public support for organizing.

The ongoing demonstrations against corporate power have brought civil, religious and environmental groups and others together. To the extent we can strengthen this unity we will strengthen organizing. The importance of this cannot be over emphasized.

There is one practical suggestion that may bear fruit. That is guaranteeing that workers fired for union organizing get some kind of employment on the waterfront.

Our union has a proud tradition of providing jobs for workers on strike. Unfortunately jobs opportunities on the waterfront are tight these days, but if we could offer that, we would probably find many volunteer union organizers in unorganized areas.

But our greatest problem in our organizing campaign is lack of rank and file support. This is hard to overcome, largely for the reason our workers are well satisfied comparatively speaking and aren't motivated to struggle as in the past. Overcoming this is not easy. 

It requires continued and patient efforts such as speaking before union meetings and lunch hours on the docks, talking to members individually and convincing them of the need for organizing. We need a vigorous agitation and propaganda campaign in our meetings, on the job and in our press. If we can make a real effort in this direction we will see real results.

Long live the ILWU unionism and democracy!

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