There has long been a view held among some trade unionists that a union’s only role is to agitate for better working conditions – more wages, with a bit of work-place health thrown in, in other words to be a money negotiator between the membership and those to whom we sell our labour and/or what we produce.
In opposition to this recipe for narrow, single-track activity are those who are aware of history and the leading role trade unionists have played in establishing just about everything that’s become our generation’s responsibility to defend and extend – our collective social wage, whether it’s the NHS, social housing, the concept of state pension, unemployment insurance, universal education… where does one end the list?
What’s important is not what we are against, but what we are in favour of. Our economic wellbeing today means insuring the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Western Asia, stopping the American bombing of Somalia, ending US military activity in the Philippines, no invasion of Iran – in other words, self determination for all.
To those who demean the struggle to bring unions into this world, I say: you are actively and effectively insuring the marginalisation of the trade union movement. Many trade unionists, perhaps the majority, always knew that our social and economic wellbeing is thoroughly determined by the world in which we live.
From a trade union stance it is essential for Media Workers Against the War to organise among media workers in opposition to war. MWAW is answering questions like: how do unions defend members’ right to freely and independently gather material in war zones? How do we protect our sources? How can the union protect journalists who refuse to handle racist and/or sexist material?
Some in the trade union movement blithely argue that all the unions should do is to “agitate for £50 more”. We, who struggle to be “citizens of our time”, who struggle to define what’s happening in today’s world and to place unions at the very heart of world events, understand that the “war on terror” is terrifying because it sweeps up anyone at any time, from the recent killings in Najaf to the raid and shooting in Forest Gate in east London. In the twelve months ending in April 2004 (latest publicly available figures) slightly more than half-a-million New Yorkers were stopped and searched by various police bodies on city streets. There are 7.5 million people living in that city.
Media Workers Against the War asked to have a stall at the forthcoming NUJ photographer’s conference at Sadlers Wells (Feb 27) and were informed by the NUJ freelance office that no stalls are being allowed because of “lack of room” in the theatre and lobbies. This backward (perhaps, even historically, backward for a trade union meeting) position is regrettable. MWAW will of course, abide by this fiat and our supporters will only distribute a leaflet instead.
We crave unity, but do those who want a trade union movement, only active around economic issues, actually want the same? They argue for the proverbial unity of the graveyard and the acquiescence of the slave, because if their views were successful that’s where their neutered trade union movement would end up – glibly, even smugly, talking to itself.
We, on the other side, will confidently continue to build and establish a vibrant, relevant and militant union movement, as many generations have done before us, based upon the reality of world conditions and human solidarity. A trade union movement that will become the place where people go to defend all their interests.
Larry Herman, photo-journalist
