Why we Need Combative Unions

The last forty years have been a relentless attack on the working class after the rebellions of the 1960s and the incredible gains made from the labor movement in the 1930s. It seems that many have forgotten most of the important lessons to be gleaned from these movements as the trade union numbers fall into single digits. In this blog I will attempt to deconstruct some of the myths in the traditional trade union.

Myth #1: Unions need money 

This first myth has hampered many successful movements in the labor arena for a long time. Union representatives, often divorced from rank and file workers, argue that dues are required of all workers without explaining the necessity of dues. Many workers simply pay their dues without any understanding of how their union functions or the purpose of a union. Bureaucratic unions are often irresponsible to their members and spend more of their time analyzing corporate trends than internal education. How often do we see trade unions go on solidarity strikes which aim to benefit the entirety of the union? In the US, m
any unions were opposed to fighting for a higher wage because then "people wouldn't need the unions."

While movements do require funds and resources, most importantly movements require people. Considering that the 1% controls 42% of the wealth in the US (and an even greater share globally), the idea that we can beat them in the economic realm is shear fantasy. The power of the working class does not derive from our ability to pay dues but to stop the capitalist machine. Strikes and direct actions have been the main tactics of militant labor movements, anti-racist movement, feminist movements and environmental movements for the sole reason that the working class has actual power here. An uncompromising strike is more likely to lead to a victory for the working class than polite negotiations with bosses. As rank and file workers, we need to remember our fighting history and bring back rank and file militancy.

Myth #2: Unions should fight for their members

One of the biggest problems with contemporary unions is that they solely represent their membership. Collective bargaining does not bargain for the unemployed, underpaid or exploited. Workers that do not have work or work for a different company are excluded from participating in union activity. Sometimes, mainstream unions even cross picket lines of other unions. This needs to stop! We need to remember the old adage, an injury to one is an injury to all. When we breach solidarity with other sectors of the working class we are undermining our own power to fight back.

Rural Rebellion Anthology

Fellow rural comrades

I have contacted you to ask if you would like to write a piece to be included in an anthology on rural organizing and rural radicalism. As a fellow rural organizer, I believe that many important stories about radical politics have been lost in history. So much about what we conceive as revolutionary/insurrectionary politics has been ascribed to the cities. Country folk are generally seen as backwards or conservative and are generally ignored in radical history.  Rural organizers have been at the forefront of social justice throughout the history of the US, but their stories are generally overlooked in radical history. I think it is time to change this. I think it is time for a beautiful anthology to document the wonderful courage of rural revolutionaries.

I know personally that growing up in a small, working class town has had profound implications on my political perspective. Growing up in the woods lent me a deep appreciation of the natural world and small town democracy. In the country, climate change has never been abstract. Rural people are currently being forced off of their land bases into crowded cities because of the inability to make a decent living farming. Many of our home towns have seen increased flooding, draught and extreme weather patterns due to climate change. It is important that these stories are told so that the people who come after us can know what this time period meant to us.

Finally, I hope this anthology offers a new perspective of hope and radicalism. How have we, as rural organizers, been fighting back? I am excited to hear from voices of revolutionaries outside of the city as our stories have too often been overlooked, despite the numerous contribution rural organizers have made to social justice. Where would the environmental movement be without Earth First! And organizers like Judy Bari? The workers center in Vermont, a rural state of 600,000, has been leading the country by winning the battle for a single payer system. These are the stories that need to be told.

If you would like to submit a story, please consider the following questions. How is rural organizing distinct from city organizing? How does the country setting impact your perspective on politics, democracy and social justice? What struggles have you participated in rural setting? Which strategies worked? Which didn’t? Feel free to included essays on any of these topics or on any other particularly poignant memories of rural organizing.

I hope to have this anthology published with a radical press such as AK Press and use any profits to support rural organizations or rural organizers to continue their important work. I hope you will contribute a piece and stay in touch.

In solidarity,

Emily Reynolds

emily.reynolds@uvm.edu

Fighting the Man Box

 

 In the last few weeks, there has been resurgence of feminist dialogue in radical circles in response to actions and comments surrounding Deep Green Resistance.  As a radical feminist environmentalist, I am glad to see this conversation coming into the environmental movement because far too often privileged young, white men dominate the conversation. Would it be possible to have a constructive conceptual feminist analysis of gender that includes the experiences women, trans people and even men under patriarchy? I believe that this is not only possible but necessary in the struggle to end patriarchal oppression. In my opinion, under patriarchy anyone who deviates from the “man box” is punished. For the purposes of this article I will define the “man box” as an upper middle class, white, middle aged, monogamous, heterosexual, tall and muscular male bodied individual. Any deviation from the “man box” is punished by escalating levels of force. If you are poor, female bodied, a person of color, gender queer, LGBTQ, young or old, non-monogamous you will never fit into the box. This excludes the vast majority of the population and the vast majority of people have something to gain by fighting patriarchal oppression.

Under patriarchy, female bodied people are automatically excluded from the “man box” and are punished for the “offense” by harassment, lower wages, rape and even domestic homicide. Women’s role in a patriarchal society is to assure that men have easy access to reproduction, orgasms, children and cheap labor. Many of the ways in which women have fought patriarchy include gaining access to higher wages, birth control and abortion. By fighting for reproductive rights and higher wages (as well as the abolition of capitalism), feminists have organized to strike at the root of patriarchy. Women have great potential to destroy patriarchy, which ultimately affects people of all genders, due to their lived experiences of oppression. The lived experiences of oppression give women deeper insight to the roots of patriarchy than most male-bodied people, which can help activists identify crucial goals for a feminist struggle such as increasing access to abortion, maternal health care and contraception.

Women though, are not the only people who have lived experience of oppression under patriarchy. Trans people and genderqueer people also understand the escalating force used to keep people in the “man box”. Transwomen are routinely harassed, sexually assaulted and subject to police brutality for deviating from the “man box”. Transpeople also have insight into the ways in which patriarchy replicates due to their lived experiences of deviated from the gender binary. The gender binary is the societal framework which contends that people are either male or female and that their gender should appropriately match their assigned gender. For example, men are forbidden from wearing dresses and women are expected to wear dresses. By violating the gender binary, transpeople have insight into the escalation of force used to keep people into their designated box. The experiences of transpeople can greatly add to the depth of feminist analysis by adding an understanding of how people are treated on various sides of the binary. Some of the problems more common in trans communities such as safe access to health care, ending work discrimination and ending police brutality against trans people could be fought with trans activists leading the struggle and with women and men standing in solidarity with trans movements. The same could be said for problems more common in women’s communities such as access to reproductive rights, sexual and domestic violence and wage inequality should be fought with women leading the struggle with men and transpeople fighting in solidairity. 

Even men have a lot to gain by agitating for a feminist revolution. Men who deviate from the “man box” could be severely punished. Examples of this include gay men who have been murdered or boys who are harassed for acting femininely. Men suffer a rigid binary in which they will face similar levels of violence against them as women do when they express what society has deemed “feminine”. As most women and trans people have already learned, the greater the deviation from the “man box” the greater level of force used against you. Under patriarchy, men are not allowed to express emotion and suffer high levels of violence in their lives due to homicide, war and gang violence.

The capitalist class has been using patriarchy against the working class for a long time. An example of this is dividing work into “men’s work” and “women’s work” so that men and women rarely unite. While women are certainly more oppressed under patriarchy than men, under capitalism both suffer from the division of men and women. This does not mean though that women’s issues or trans issues can be seen as “distractions” or “divisions” from fighting capitalism. While patriarchy and capitalism are not the same institutions, they are linked and a fight against patriarchy is intrinsically linked to a fight against capitalism and vice versa. Globally, women have the lowest wages and little access to the means of production. Working class men have a lot to gain by joining in solidarity in a fight against patriarchy because we might finally be able to end the brutal system of oppression that is capitalism. Working class men need to listen to their sisters when they call them out for oppressive behavior because it will strengthen their movement and ability to fight capitalism. Even more importantly, it is the right thing to do.

Horizontal hostility is incredibly common within social movements. It is so much easier to take all our anger out at the working man who said an oppressive comment than eliminate the advertising industry which dictates what male desires should be. It is easier to throw a clueless comrade out of a meeting than to educate him on why his comments are inappropriate. Unfortunately, as the ruling class begins a relentless attack on the working class, it is imperative that we begin to fight together. 2011 was a time of working class revolt throughout the world. It is time we get organized and finally face our collective enemy as women, transmen and transwomen and men: the ruling class.