«FOR LABOUR RIGHTS! – Trans-National Solidarity, Commons and Perspectives on Organising» – was the programmatic title of a conference held in Belgrade, organised from 27-29 October by the Belgrade office of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. It brought together trade unionists, members of left civil society organisations, social researchers and leftist activists from Europe, Asia and USA to discuss labour struggles and strategies within the wider context of «Global Social Rights». In doing so, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Southeast Europe opened up an opportunity for the exchanging of experiences of organising in times of large-scale precarisation and the fragmentation of the working class across the globe. The focal points of the conference particularly included the possibilities and difficulties in organising un- and under-organised workers, campaigning, local community organising and international labour solidarity.

At the very beginning of the conference on 27 October, the broader public audience that gathered at the trade-union building «Dom Sindikata» was introduced to the concept of «Global Social Rights» (GSR). The idea behind the concept was presented by Professor Christof Scherrer from Kassel University, Germany. In his lecture, Professor Scherrer gave a brief historical overview of the labour gains made within this protective international legal framework as well as details on the conventions and international organising of labour. He also underlined that today, despite the fact that labour rights are enshrined in international law (ILO, UN conventions), there are substantial violations, with about 40% of workers in the factories of the world market working in inhumane conditions. This is why the GSR-concept, empowered by international actors such as the World Workers’ Councils, Global Union Federation Networks, Global Labor University, and also grassroots and research networks, should advocate for the equal treatment of collective and individual rights within international law. Boris Kanzleiter, the director of the Berlin based «Centre for International Dialogue and Cooperation» of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, added that GSR is supposed to serve as a framework for finding common ground between different, often isolated, social struggles, and he underlined the importance of building alliances amongst different social actors such as trade unions, student and social movements, as well as feminist, ecological and other progressive organisations, in order to tackle issues concerning social infrastructure.

The economic strategy of «Foreign Direct Investments» (FDI) was the focus of the second public event that took place on 28 October, again in the union-building. Although this was not the main focus of the conference, it did give an overview of the context in which organising is discussed, including the especially distinctive features of Southeast Europe. Ivan Radenković, author of a research paper on FDI influences on the Serbian economy and Toni Prug, a socio-economic analyst from Croatia, spoke about the repercussions of an FDI driven economy for the Balkans and the rest of the European periphery. Both lecturers argued that FDI cannot constitute the development factor, and that peripheral countries will never reach the GDP levels of the core countries, regardless of the fact that GDP can be treated as a real indicator of neither development nor living standards. On the other hand, Stefanie Hürtgen from Salzburg University proposed that the focus of research and political analysis should also be turned towards global production chains, not only remaining focused on FDI. She underlined that there is a structural heterogeneity within the borders of each national state, no matter whether they are core or peripheral.

The main conference programme was reserved for lectures, workshops and panel-discussions. The economic and ideological reasons for the crises of trade unions were explained by Florian Wilde (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Berlin). Besides mapping the internal and external causes surrounding the downfall of trade union power, he proposed several counter-strategies: an orientation toward social movement unionism, local community organising, challenging the domination of the ideology of social partnership, and pushing for clearer transnational cooperation among the working class. This could be described as a multi-level approach for fomenting the renewal of trade unions and the power of workers’ movements. Most of the participants noted that, as the working class has become increasingly fragmented, more workers are based in workplaces with no union representation whatsoever. This is why proposing new strategies and approaches for working class organising is essential. Nevertheless, it was pointed out that organisational innovation is an inherent reason for trade unions’ existence, and in that sense, it is not so much a new development, as suppressed due to acceptance of self-explanatory practices of the ideology of social partnership and dialogue in the post-welfare era. And this reality is what makes it much harder for many trade unions to reach workers and to retain continuity around organising, bearing in mind the increased fluctuations affecting the precarious workforce. Referring to this, Anannya Bhattacharjee (a trade unionist and social movement activist of the Asia Floor Wage Alliance - AFWA) underlined the need for the development of a new model of unionism. Coming from the north of India where there is an abundant fluctuating migrant workforce, Bhattacharjee insisted that trade unions must address wider issue, outside of the workplace. In that sense, the goal should be to build up a dense form of power which would transcend the trade union form of power.  And that is exactly the form of power which social movement trade unionism promotes, connecting trade unions with other social groups and progressive actors. An approach to social movement unionism which focuses on the workplaces, but which also targets wider aspects of everyday life, ought to be rooted partly in local community, whilst also covering a wide range of social and labour issues on a national and regional level.

David Condliffe, a community coordinator from the biggest UK trade union «Unite», explained that «Unite» has changed their own organisational form in order to include those who are outside of «formal employment» and the labour market – including for example the unemployed, pensioners and students. This shift has turned out to be an absolutely correct one, and has made «Unite» a much more powerful and community-based trade union. The enhanced mobilizing power of «Unite» was visible in the campaign for the support of Sports Direct workers where lot of them work on zero hours contracts. One of several actions taken within this campaign was the protesting and public shaming of the company in front of their retail shops, where only «Unite» activists protested, because the workers themselves were not in a position to protest. In addition to this example where the trade union form was altered, there is also an approach wherein civil society organisations are established by trade unions, as is the case with «Jobs with Justice» (JWJ) from the USA, which was presented by Sam Nelson. As he explained, JWJ emerged from a trade union because the legislative framework in Washington was restrictive in a way that did not allow trade unions to tackle wider questions, such as the intersection of working conditions with gender, racial and minority issues. The importance of including local communities within labour struggles is visible in the example of «ITAS» from Croatia, where active support by the local community kept the factory working, and ensured that jobs were not lost during the process of a factory takeover by the workers themselves. As concerns ITAS, it is interesting that the local community got involved in the moment when the factory was about to be privatised. Dragutin Varga and Siniša Miličić, trade unionists and ITAS factory workers, explained that the factory workers engaged the local community by raising questions of job losses and of consequential deprivation in the very small town of Ivanec that is organically linked to the factory. Actions such as blocking public traffic and gathering people to block the entrance to the factory were just the beginning of the struggle that resulted in the workers coming to own shares in the factory.

Local communities can play a very important role within campaigns for the improvement of working conditions if the demands of workers are articulated in such a way as to also garner the interest of a broader public. This is especially necessary for public sector workers when it comes to mobilising support. For example, demands for higher wages must address the quality and accessibility of public services. When articulating the message has taken this trajectory, we have seen successful gains within workers struggles. Good examples of garnering local and broader public interest in campaigning for better working conditions were discussed in two case studies from Zagreb, Croatia – the nursery school workers’ struggle for better working conditions (Iskra Mandarić, «Trade Union of Education, Media and Culture») and the struggle against the privatisation of the «Institute of Immunology» (Ana Vračar, «Organisation for Workers Initiative and Democratisation» (BRID)) – as well as several cases of German hospital workers’ struggles against layoffs and pushing for better working conditions (Win Windisch trade union activists and Meike Saerbeck, Asklepios Hospital, St. George, Hamburg). Campaigning oriented towards the interests of a wider public is a valuable tool in bringing together different social actors and broadening the struggle in defence of commons. A successful example of one such campaign is the struggle against the concession of motorways in Croatia. Marina Ivandić from BRID and Mijat Stanić from the «Independent Motorway Union» presented this campaign, grounded in a coalition building process. The campaign managed to stop the concession from occurring by mobilising the wider public and calling for a referendum on the issue. They organised a very successful referendum campaign in which they educated people on the huge advantages of publicly owned motorways. This campaign established a long-standing connection between the trade unions, NGOs and other social actors participating in the struggle. 

Nevertheless, when speaking about coalition building and solidarity, we should not only address it within the framework of national borders. New forms of international labour division have made it more difficult to develop internationally oriented working class struggles. Given the global market competition amongst workers and real experiences of losing jobs in this competing game, how can we achieve a higher level of international solidarity and find areas of common interest? Most of the conference participants agreed that international solidarity should be oriented towards transnational organising along the global capitalist chains of production, but in order to do so, there must be effective models of organising on the local and national level. The «Clean Clothes Campaign» (CCC) is one good example of such a practice. Bettina Musiolek, the CCC-coordinator for Eastern and Southeastern Europe, explained that this campaign is actually an international coalition consisting mostly of trade unions and NGOs supporting struggles for better working conditions in the garment industry worldwide. The regional Balkan representatives of the CCC - Tomislav Kiš (New Trade Union, Croatia) and Bojana Tamindžija (web-portal Mašina, Serbia) spoke about particular local struggles and how the CCC operates on such terrain. Other examples of transnational labour organising were offered by Stefanie Kron (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Berlin) who spoke about labour struggles alongside logistics chains. In addition to the transnational protest actions by Amazon workers in Europe, she explained the achievements of the International Transport Federation (ITF) in more detail. The ITF negotiated an agreement in 2013 with international shipping company associations. The agreement ensured, among other things, a minimum wage for seafarers. In order to put pressure on the shipping companies to fulfil their terms of the agreement, the ITF has created a network of inspectors who operate in the most important ports around the world, with the support of local dockers.

There is an understanding that left organisations should play a bigger role in strengthening resistance to neoliberal politics. Roland Kulke (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Brussels) argued that the «Stop TTIP» campaign is one excellent illustration of such a practice. This international effort included many different actors, from trade unions and city governments, to activist groups and NGOs worldwide. However, these forms of joint actions are not always easy to organise, especially because of international labour competition and the various concurrent interests of the workforce. In referring to this problem, Peter Scherrer (ETUC) mentioned that in the process of discussing joint actions against the TTIP, different European trade unions took different positions. Nevertheless, the trade unions are not the only actors who experience difficulties when it comes to international support and cooperation. As Goran Lukic (Workers’ Information Center, Slovenia) pointed out, many NGOs, at least in the Balkan Region, don’t know enough about international cooperation in the sphere of labour organising, and are not well informed about international labour conventions and protections. In order for NGOs to become more useful tools in the struggle for labour rights, they have to be able to initiate change themselves, and not to just expect this from the trade unions. This can be achieved through the joint efforts of trade unions and NGOs on topics relating to concrete labour problems, on either the local or national level. The «Center for Social Research» (CEDRA) from Slovenia, an NGO which practices joint research and educational efforts with trade unions, and with unorganised and under organised workers, was presented by Andraž Mali, and it could serve as a role model. CEDRA puts two main approaches into practice. On one level, they work with unorganised workers and undertake individual interviews where they receive particular information on the company they work for and their working conditions, while simultaneously educating them about the possibilities of organising. In addition, they organise meetings with workers from other companies, and act as a link between workers and trade unions. On the other hand, they directly educate the shop stewards of weaker trade unions; stewards who are willing to organise but lack the know-how and a broader perspective on the socio-economic context.

Throughout the two days of the conference it became clear that actors coming from different backgrounds and different socio-economic contexts: the trade unionists, members of civil society organisations, social researchers and leftist activists, are all involved in the process of finding ways to reinvent the organisational capacities of left-wing forces. There is a strong belief that social movement unionism is a possible framework in which left actors should try to build new capacities, both nationally and internationally. As for the national level, it seems that focusing the struggle on the centres of local communities or cities is of the utmost importance. In that sense, trade unions and civil society organisations should not only develop a long-standing cooperation, but also make a joint effort that is not exclusively connected to working conditions, but which tackles broader aspects of everyday life. In other words, the quality and availability of social services and infrastructure should be the common denominator linking the employed, unemployed, organised and unorganised. In parallel, international cooperation should become more intensified, more concrete, and try to avoid the obstacles of the logic of the competitive world market. This is not an easy task, but changing the market narrative and proposing alternative models of production is nevertheless the most important task for the left.     

Author: Miloš Baković Jadžić