Trade union strategy on globalisation

Asbjørn Wahl

Brothers and sisters. Globalising Solidarity is an excellent document, and so are a number of very constructive, challenging and ambitious motions on different aspects of the same subject.  However, in order to avoid that this part of the Congress only ends up in congratulations and self-exaltation, I will try to raise a discussion on one particular problem in the trade union strategy on globalisation – namely the struggle for labour standards in international institutions like the World Trade Organisation, the IMF and the World Bank.

The struggle for trade union and labour rights is, of course, decisive if we are to develop a civilised society. However, in order to achieve better labour standards, we must analyse why trade union rights are being undermined in most parts of the world today. There are causes and there are effects, and we must identify and attack the causes if we are going to improve working conditions and by that, the quality of life for working people. It is in this perspective that I find that there is a tendency in parts of the trade union movement to develop a very narrow perspective on the campaign for labour standards.

Violations of trade union and labour rights have been increasing over the last 10-15 years. Also in my own country, in Norway, trade union and labour rights are being weakened and undermined these days – and this is not happening first and foremost because there is a lack of formal labour standards. It is happening in spite of relatively strict labour laws and regulations. Formal rules are, in other words, not enough.

We can learn a lot from our own history in this regard. Let us go 100 years or so back in history. That was the time when workers started to organise. By means of trade union and political struggle, labour and trade union rights were gradually improved and formally institutionalised through labour laws and through agreements between trade unions and employers. What took place was a gradual shift of the balance of forces between labour and capital – in favour of labour. Labour market regulation was introduced and enforced as a result of the increasing power of organised labour.

However, the strength of labour was not only reflected in labour laws and regulations. Probably more important was the general taming of market forces. The power of capital was reduced in favour of politically elected bodies. Competition was dampened through political interventions in the market. Capital control was introduced and financial capital became strictly regulated. Through a strong expansion of the public sector and the welfare state, a great part of the economy was taken out of the market altogether and made subject to political decisions. It was this fundamental shift of power in society which made it possible to improve working conditions and trade union rights.

This development culminated in the 1970s. Then, market forces went on the offensive and the current era of neoliberalism started. What we have been facing over the last twenty years, is a reversing of the policies mentioned above. An immense shift in the balance of forces between labour and capital has again taken place, but this time in favour of capital. This is the main reason for the brutalisation of work and the undermining of trade union and labour rights that we are now facing in the developed as well as in the developing world. It is first and foremost a question of power, and it cannot be changed only by formally introducing labour standards.

I often use the following picture to illustrate this problem. To liberalise and deregulate the markets and then think that you can protect the workers by introducing formal labour standards, is like opening the floodgates of the regulated waterfall and then forbid the water to fall. Truly, it is not a very productive exercise.

I often hear colleagues say that they cannot accept further liberalisation of this or that unless they get labour standards included. This is an illusion. Formal rules cannot balance the forces of increased marked power. The result will be a further deterioration of working conditions. Good intentions represent very little power when they crash against the economic iron laws of market liberalism.

In this perspective, our first priority must be to fight further deregulation and liberalisation of the world economy, and having labour standards included in for example WTO agreements can only be a part of this broader struggle. To a large degree, the priorities of the international trade union movement have so far been the other way round.

To conclude, the struggle for labour standards, for trade union and labour rights is of course important – not only important, it is decisive – but only as part of a real struggle – a struggle to empower workers and to strengthen trade unions, a struggle which is aimed at shifting the balance of forces between labour and capital. That means fighting neoliberal policies, not accepting them in exchange for formal minimum labour standards.

We can achieve this only by limiting the power of the multinational companies, by regaining and strengthening democratic control of financial capital, by fighting the neoliberal policies of the World Trade Organisation, the IMF, the World Bank and our own governments.

(Speech at the ITF Congress, Vancouver, 14-21 August 2002.)