Labour and the WTO

Asbjørn Wahl

I have been allotted some few minutes to elaborate on the role of the trade union movement in the struggle against the World Trade Organisation. I will therefore limit myself to draw up a context in which I will make three short points.

The context
The era of neoliberal globalisation of the last twenty years has resulted in the development of a new diverse and loosely organised movement, including NGOs and, increasingly, social movements with a broader base. This movement of movements has been decisive in analysing and uncovering the true face of neoliberal economic policies and in mobilising resistance. Its main methods have been campaigning, lobbying and the organisation of demonstrations at world and regional summits of the political and economic elite of the new world order, including its main institutional instruments.

This new global movement or alliance had its formal birth at the battle of Seattle. For some time those of us who took part in this battle, took much of the honour for having caused the breakdown of the WTO summit. However, after having established some time distance to the battle, as well as studied developments after Seattle, a factual and sober analysis of the event tells us that our mobilisation in the streets was only one of more contributing causes of the breakdown of the summit. The conflict between the US and the EU as well as the strong resistance from a group of developing countries were most probably more important than the popular mobilisation in the streets, even though the three elements worked together and reinforced each other. It is important to celebrate our victories, but it is also important to be realistic about our strengths and weaknesses.

After Seattle, the impressive mobilisation of about 250.000 people in the streets of Genova at the G7-meeting of last July proved that this kind of popular resistance is still growing and can be enormous in size.

In spite of this growing popular resistance, however, the power elites were able to restore the WTO at the Doha summit last November. We were in other words defeated, and the defeat took place at a time when the popular resistance, as proved in Genova, was stronger than ever since the battle of Seattle, and the developing countries were better prepared.

In order to go further in this struggle, we have to realise that the power elites were taken by surprise in Seattle, and that they immediately realised what kind of threat a growing popular resistance could represent to their economic and political interests. They therefore reconsidered their strategies and reorganised their counter-attack. The behaviour of the police in Gothenburg and Genova formed part of that counter-attack. One of their aims is obviously to frighten a broader audience, in particular the trade union movement, from joining the global alliance against neoliberalism, because they know pretty well, and maybe better than ourselves, that this resistance will change character and bring the struggle to a qualitative higher level, the day the trade union movement, or the working class, join in.

This takes me to the three short points that I want to make.

First point
Why is labour important in the struggle against the WTO?

The existing world order is an order in which the power is based on the ownership and control of the economy. Campaigning, lobbying and demonstrations at summits are important, but will not be sufficient in transforming this system into a democratic society with the aim of satisfying the needs of its people. In the last resort this struggle will turn into a confrontation on the control of the economy.

This is exactly what gives labour, or the trade union movement, its decisive role in social struggles. Its strategic position is based on the fact that the trade union movement organises those who, through their work, produce the economic values of society. The current economic system is dependent of wage labour. The involvement of labour in the kind of social struggles which we are aiming at, is therefore unavoidable – and there is no shortcut. There is a lack of recognition of this in many NGOs and among many members of the new movement.

The potential power of the workers, or the trade union movement, can only be used when the workers themselves are conscious about their role and are willing to use their power. This is currently not the situation in great parts of the trade union movement – and some of us are working with this problem. This fact does not, however, reduce the strategic role of labour in society or the necessity to involve labour if we are going to win the struggle against the neoliberal orthodoxy, it only makes our efforts more difficult and more demanding.

Second point
Which consequences does this have for the way we campaign?

What unify labour in relation to capital is the fight linked to the distribution of the economic growth, working and living conditions. In other words, the struggle is interest-based. It is therefore difficult to launch a general campaign against the WTO in the trade union movement. The campaigns and struggles of the trade union movement must be based on the immediate interest of the workers, for example wage conflicts, or struggles against privatisation, job losses, the deterioration of working conditions, etc. In these struggles, however, it is increasingly important to politicise the conflict, that is to put it into a context, to identify causes and driving forces.

Here is where the WTO comes in, as one of the most important and effective driving forces behind the neoliberal policies that attack the interests of workers – both directly at the workplace and indirectly through the undermining of social welfare and the decimating of influence and power in society as well as in the work process. The WTO is itself an interest-based structure, serving the interests of multinational companies and financial capital, and will therefore have to be met by an interest-based struggle from the workers’ side.

In short, in the trade union movement we mobilise against privatisation and end up campaigning against the WTO because it is being identified as one of the driving forces behind the privatisation process. This differs from the way of campaigning in many NGOs and will have to be taken seriously if we want to involve labour more strongly in the movement against neoliberal policies. This is particularly important in relation to a depoliticised and deradicalised trade union movement, which we have in great parts of Europe today – of certain historical reasons.

Third point
How do we unify the new and the old movements?

The importance and necessity to involve labour in the struggle against WTO’s neoliberal policies, do not mean that trade unions should take over the movement. The development of the new and radical global movement which have taken place over the last few years, has been decisive in revitalising popular resistance and has given us hope and inspiration. Nothing should therefore be done which could hamper the further development of this movement – its dynamic, its insistence on independence and democratic control from below, its radicalism and its militancy. On the contrary, many of these characteristics could contribute constructively to the revitalisation of many old-fashioned and bureaucratic trade unions, and I know a lot about that after 20 years in the trade union movement.

This process is going on. Many trade unions have joined the new movement against corporate globalisation and the struggle against WTO and in particular its services’ agreement, the GATS. At the international level, the role of the Public Service International has been decisive. The majority of trade unions are, however, still not involved in this struggle, and there are important tensions between the old and new movements. These are partly the results of political disagreement, partly the results of different backgrounds, experiences and a lack of mutual contact and understanding. The trade union movement blames many NGOs for being undemocratic and non-representative organisations, and many NGOs blame the trade union movement for beiing bureaucratic mastodonts, and both are probably right.

On the other hand, if the new, loosely organised, global movement is going to play an important role in the social struggle over a long period of time, and this struggle will have to have a long-term perspective, it will have to consolidate and establish more permanent and solid structures. This could exactly be achieved as a consequence of closer co-operation with the trade union movement. Handled correctly, the two could reinforce each other and bring the struggle to a higher level.

I know that this can work, because I have tried. Over the last couple of years, I have been in charge of building a broad social alliance in Norway, fighting privatisation and the undermining of the social welfare system. This alliance is mostly trade union based, but also include organisations of a number of other social groups, like small farmers, pensioners, students, women, users of social welfare services, unemployed, etc. We started from the fight against privatisation and gradually politicised the question and put it in a wider perspective. Today the alliance has joined the Our World Is Not For Sale-coalition by signing up to the WTO as well as the GATS statement which form the political basis of this network.

Over the last few years we have identified as a general tendency that the trade union movement moves slowly, but in the right direction. This is promising as well as exciting. Now we have to put more energy into our work to get labour and other social movements completely on board. This is exactly what can contribute to closing down the next WTO summit in Mexico.  The future is bright, my friends, it only needs some hard work, good analyses and correct working methods – and the trade union movement on board.