In Unionists and libertarian, Theo Rival back on the experience of the Union of
Libertarian Communists (UTCL) from 1974 to 1991. Because this book is instructive for our
struggles, we were in this interview on the design of revolutionary action that took the
organization. ---- Libertarian Alternative: In 1976, the trend is excluded UTCL Anarchist
Revolutionary Organization (Ora) fracture crystallizes around union intervention. What
then are the issues? ---- Theo Rival : When activists who will base the UTCL "enter" in
trade unionism, they do so at great strikes of 1974, which mainly affect banks and PTT.
They then discover that revolutionary practice can not ignore the action business,
particularly through trade unionism.
You can have the most beautiful tract of the world, with over registered "libertarian
communism" in huge characters, if you do not have a mass practice in companies closer to
workers' and from their everyday concerns, it is ultimately powerless. This discovery they
actually do, the sorting center Paris-Brune for example, where is located a freedman
Postman group linked to Ora. However, we must speak of "discovery" in quotation marks
because Ora, which is created in the immediate aftermath of May 68, had not left the union
question in his blind spot: on the contrary, the vast majority of its members have joined,
and often militated within the CFDT, while self-management. But, despite the crisis of
leftism opened in 1973, some activists and Paris leading activists of Ora want to continue
to believe in the imminence of the revolution and they they are enthusiastic Italian
autonomy and will gradually profess anti-unionism increasingly assertive.
UTCL trend, which is since 1974, wants to find it on the "promise" what could be the Ora:
that of a libertarian organization rooted in the labor movement. To do this, he must rely
on self struggles, democratic union practices assembl?istes, which offer support to a
truly libertarian phrase "class struggle" and at the same time feed.
Can you revisit the experience of the "Walk for Unity" of May 1, 1980 at which
participates UTCL?
The UTCL What is a little more involved. She impulse alongside other union activists,
including the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR). The trade union movement is then in a
deplorable state of division. Breaking the union of the left in 1977 generates a sectarian
turn in the CGT, then subservient to the PCF, while the direction of the CFDT, in the
"focus" is determined to mourn the class struggle. In view of the elections of 1981,
nostalgic for the union of the left are calling - "Unity in struggle" - who wants to link
the unit of industrial action at the prospect of a government-PS PC . If the League is
involved, it is far more of UTCL. Out of the question as porters water this reformist
hitch! However, impossible to satisfy union bureaucracies divisions maintained by CGT and
CFDT. But for UTCL, the unit must be understood in a strategy class, direct confrontation
with employers, with the overall objective to strike. While each union plans to scroll in
his corner, its activists will mobilize to 1 May 1980 1 May for a "unity of the working
class." Part of a call 64 unionists Parisian postmen various persuasions - including
members UTCL and LCR plays on all fronts - the dynamic results in a "Walk for Unity" which
brings together 10,000 people including many union CFDT "basic". This is a success, but
the union that brought him struggling to counter the bureaucrats who want to reduce it to
a "coup" leftist. Release even referred to as a "walking LCR"! At this time, undoubtedly,
the numerical weakness of the UTCL prevents make its voice heard ... which would have been
to develop what is now called the autonomy of the social movement.
In your book, the activists of the LCR are just very present alongside those of UTCL. How
would you describe the relationship between the two organizations?
This is primarily a relation of reason: the League is an important organization in the
post-68. In 1980, it still has 1,500 members. The UTCL, just 80. The areas of intervention
of the two organizations overlap, particularly in the choice of building union left inside
confederations. Activists are also found in the various battles that punctuate the period:
anti-militarism, support for trade unionists Eastern Kanaky, racism ... It is some y, a
nearby "field", common concerns, there is not with the activists of Workers' Struggle
(LO), the Libertarian Communist Organisation (OCL) or Anarchist Federation (FA) - albeit
at a specific time unit labor's commitment between FA and postal UTCL). But on the merits,
there are different "lines" in opposition CFDT, the UTCL seeks to build "the base" based
on democratization and radicalization structures. LCR is rather stuck in a sort of
"parliamentary union" where the percentages in Congress are critical. Of course, there is
what is in the "line" and what the activists and militants ... and this is not always the
same: in 1989, the Political Bureau of the LCR denounces the creation of South-PTT while
postmen League with those of UTCL, actively participate! After the issue of party
electioneering, it's something else ...
You mention the figure of "self-management facilitator struggles." Can you explain how
this concept is central to analyze the positioning of activists of UTCL?
This is just a concept of revolutionary action that arises as an alternative to the
avant-garde Leninist. This is both a development that offers UTCL in relation to the mass
intervention and an expression that actually do its activists. It is also a guarantee of
efficiency in the strike that was perfectly implemented in the years 1986-1988
coordinations (railway workers, teachers, Air France ...) where general meetings mastered
the fight, led to a high level . And it is also the assertion that the revolutionaries are
not external to the proletariat, they are not intended to "manage" all power to the
working men and women!
Interview by Irene Pereira
? Theo Rival, Unionists and libertarian, A History of the Union of Libertarian Communist
Workers (1974-1991) , libertarian Alternative Publishing, 2013, 12 euros.
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