France, Alternative Libertaire AL dossier spécial sur
l'éducation populaire - Class struggle: when the union makes
school (fr, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
How to get wage earners to act here and now, and act in a perspective of social
transformation? Crucial issue for those (AL and elsewhere) who claim to revolutionary
syndicalism. Two complementary approaches exist for this: the practice of collective
struggles on the one hand, the other union training. ------------ "The trade union
movement is the movement of the working class that wants to achieve full possession of his
rights in the plant and on the workshop; he says that this conquest to achieve the
emancipation of labor is the product of personal and direct effort exerted by the worker.
A trust in the priest of God, trust in the power of politicians instilled modern
proletarian syndicalism replaces self-confidence; labeled in the protective action of God
and Power, it substitutes direct action - oriented in the direction of a social revolution
- those concerned, that is to say employees. "[1]. With these beautiful lines in 1909 the
former secretary of the CGT, Victor Griffuelhes, began an outreach brochure unionism. The
spirit of popular education is obvious.
Immigrant workers in the front line
The collective struggles, which allow intimately experience the confrontation with the
established order, are of primary importance for emancipation vectors.
Among many others, and without idealizing it can evoke in this regard by two lively fights
SUD unions in recent years: the strike of Man-BTP undocumented in 2008-2009 in Paris 20th
and the struggle of workers and cleaning workers SNCF in 2013[2].
Undocumented migrants often have a keen awareness of the relations of domination and
exploitation. The struggle of Man-BTP, relatively self-organized, allowed hundreds of
workers out of the shadows and conquer their residence cards and dignity.
As for cleaning the strike at the SNCF in 2013, it has generated acts of solidarity
between workers in the private and railway workers. Migrant workers in the front line,
have won the fight and no longer afraid to get involved in trade unions!
In both cases, the experience was spectacular, structuring for individuals and for the group.
In training, we can not however expect any collective struggles. In the current period,
they are unfortunately not so many, and affect only very unevenly across sectors of the
proletariat. Before and after social conflicts, it is necessary to disseminate all useful
knowledge and tools to better fight.
On the benches of Cefi-Solidaires
Like other unions, the Solidarity union founded a union training institute, the Centre for
Study and interprofessional education (Cefi-Solidaires), which works in partnership with
community education networks.
The challenge is to transmit values, ethics, legal tools, a spirit of "class struggle" and
the self-management practices to thousands of Activist transiting each year. Welcoming
mainly facilitators of trade unions in the private as in public, delegates of personnel,
elected officials at the health committee safety working conditions (CHSCT) and the works
council, the training is provided, mostly, by teams of Solidarity with field experience.
Training booklets complete the package.
Transmission of values and know-how: this issue is particularly important for its
development Solidarity - 110,000 members today - is done with generations of workers and
workers who have not been marked by the effervescence debates and struggles of the 1970s,
contrary to the founding generation.
The experience of collective struggle, a self-management training: the future of the labor
movement is played there.
Marcos Vega (AL northeast Paris)
[1] Victor Griffuelhes, Revolutionary Unionism, 1909
[2] "Workers without papers BTP Man: A victory hard won", Alternative Libertaire, June
2009; "Subcontractors SNCF: Strike in the clean copy", Alternative Libertaire, in
September 2013.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Lutte-des-classes-quand-le
