Premal Kumar Khanal
Trade unions were established with the basic mantra that unity is strength, unity is success, division is failure. When Karl Marx issued the Communist Manifesto in 1848, calling for workers to unite to fight capitalist exploitation, he said on the first page, “Workers of the world, unite.” In fact, the strength of workers is their unity.
Lenin told the workers – ‘The organization of the workers is the trade union, not the state. The workers should not trust the state, but the trade union, the organization of their own class. Trade unions should not operate on the orders of the state, but on the advice and feelings of their own class of workers.’
However, during the development of the labor movement, ideological polarization appeared in the trade unions. When the workers started to struggle together, the capitalists, who became exhausted, started forming separate trade unions to protect their own interests. The unions formed in this way worked in accordance with the interests of the owners. Such unions play a class coordination role instead of a class-based struggle. These were called ‘yellow unions’. Yellow unions work for the bourgeoisie rather than for the interests of the entire workers and do not allow the workers’ movement to advance.
Looking at the world trade union movement, there was only one international center at the beginning. From the first days of the capitalist production system, the resistance of the workers against capitalist exploitation developed. At first, it was a spontaneous resistance of the workers against exploitation. However, the unity among the workers spread very quickly. Marx put forward the issue of the unity of the working class worldwide to fight against the common enemy ‘capitalism’ and to defend themselves. Under the leadership of Marx, the First International was held in London in 1864. The First International brought the workers together. And, the International Working Men’s Association (IWA) was formed. However, this First Working Men’s International was short-lived, due to the bitter internal conflict between the two trends of revolution and reformism, this international center existed only until 1876. Then in 1909, another international trade union center was formed, the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU). However, it was not a revolutionary international, but only a social, democratic trade union federation. However, the socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 shook the world. It was a workers’ revolution that established the world’s first workers’ state. This was followed by the founding of the Red Trade Union International in Moscow in 1921. It was an international based on the philosophy of class struggle between the capitalist and working classes, as it sought to spread revolutionary ideology within the trade union movement.
This international also existed until 1937. During this period, the two streams of the trade union movement, revolutionary trade unionism represented by the Red International and reformist trade unionism, began to compete with each other. Meanwhile, a third force developed in the form of the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions (IFCT) from 1920. This third force was not only reformist in character, but also religiously oriented, and this center and the IFCTU, which was formed by separating from the WCL, became the ITUC, the international center of social democrats of another capitalist stream, in 2006. In fact, this center is new wine in old bottles. It does not lead the movement, but rather focuses on the class struggle of the working class. This center has adopted a class coordination policy of cooperating with capitalist governments, the World Bank, and the IMF. It runs dollar-based projects in collaboration with governments and international organizations of capitalist countries. It organizes seminars, gatherings, and trainings in star hotels. It has worked to support the capitalists in various ways by demonizing the struggle of the working class.
.Along with the imperialist capitalist world, another world has also emerged, that is the socialist world. Therefore, they started the Cold War against Soviet Russia and the specter of communism haunted them everywhere. Against this background, in 1949, when the British Trade Union Congress, the American trade union CIO and some other trade unions along with them left the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) founded in 1945, there was a big blow to the workers’ outlook. This blow was not unexpected. While the fierce ideological struggle was going on in the world in the form of a socialist camp, the imperialists and the trade unions under their ideological control also saw the specter of communism in the policies of the WFTU and separated from the WFTU and formed the ICFTU (present-day ITUC.
After the end of World War II, the rapid development and expansion of the leftist movement in various countries, including Europe, was unacceptable to the United States, which was leading the capitalist current. The United States had implemented the Marshall Plan (currently known as the MCC) in the name of reconstruction in Europe and other countries, costing billions of dollars. Its main purpose was to weaken the emerging leftist movement. Not only this, after the start of the leftist movement worldwide, the capitalists formed the Socialist International in 1951. The Nepali Congress from Nepal has been affiliated with this center since the beginning.
Thus, there are two streams and two international centers in the world trade union movement. The progressive and socialist stream is led by the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), while the bourgeois capitalist social democrat stream is led by the International Federation of Trade Unions (ITUC). Since its establishment, the WFTU has been expressing solidarity with the movements against the wars, murders, violence and terror waged by world imperialism and for the protection of the sovereignty of the country, leading a class struggle-centered movement and opposing the capitalist exploitation of workers. However, the ITUC does not oppose the wars, murders, violence and terror waged by imperialism worldwide. Even on the issue of workers, instead of vigorously advancing the class struggle, it has been leading the class coordination stream by adopting a policy of social dialogue.
The trade union movement in Nepal is said to have started from Biratnagar Jute Mill. On 3rd March 1946, a union was formed under the name of Mazdoor Sabha. The strike was called by this Mazdoor Sabha under the leadership of the then leaders Manmohan Adhikari and Girija Prasad Koirala. The movement made the Rana regime nervous under the influence of the Rana regime. The government sent 200 soldiers from Kathmandu to Biratnagar to suppress the movement. During the Biratnagar labor movement, Manmohan Adhikari, Girija Prasad Koirala and other leaders were arrested and brought to Kathmandu. The heat and fury of the Biratnagar labor movement spread throughout the country via Kathmandu. Under its influence, the revolution of 1949 achieved success. With the changes of 1949 the labor movement of 1946 progressed as the All Nepal Trade Union Congress ( ANTUC)in the following days in the course of the expansion of trade unions. After the ban on the Communist Party in 1947 , the All Nepal Trade Union Congress was the most active component of the ‘Jatiya Janatantrik Morcha’, a united front of political forces and mass organizations formed on 3rd July 1947. After the 1947 movement, the labor movement split into one union and another assembly. Girija Prasad Koirala used to say, “The Trade Union Congress is ours, while the Workers’ Assembly is Manmohan Adhikari’s.”
After the change of 1947 , rather than developing a strong trade union movement, it sharply polarized into leftist and non-leftist trade union movements in accordance with the different politics between the then leftists and social democrats. Labor politics, rather than influencing political parties through working class issues, remained limited to the competition of who would receive more recognition from the state and workers under the direction of the party they were affiliated with. Another reason for the division in the trade union movement of Nepal is the division in the Indian trade union movement and its impact, which also seems to be the main reason for the situation at that time. After 1960 , after the ban on political parties and unions, trade union activities did not take place openly. After the restoration of the multi-party system in 1989, political parties also became open and new political parties were established one after another. With the establishment, mobility and division of political parties, this movement itself became weak due to the competition to advance trade unions as fraternal organizations of their respective parties.
The issues of teachers, employees and workers are being discussed so much, but since the trade unions are divided and there is no strong movement, the state is ignoring the trade union issue. As a result, when the constitution was made, a cluster of workers could not be formed under proportional representation under political rights. Similarly, the National Labor Commission could not be formed as a constitutional body. Due to the bargaining between the then trade union leadership and the leaders of political parties, the political rights of workers were ignored.
The trade union movement was divided into two streams from the beginning, the left and the social democrats. As the communist parties themselves split among themselves and grew to more than a dozen, the trade unions also split and formed trade unions after the party. This has divided the power of the workers and weakened the trade union movement. In a situation where the increasing distortion, inconsistency and politicization in the public sector due to the activism of the trade unions after the party is being criticized by the public, it is now necessary to pay attention to building a structure that will accommodate the trade unions in a progressive and socialist ideological way.
Ideological polarization in the trade union movement means that there is a possibility of polarization and unity among trade unions that have similar ideas and actions. A united front can be formed by trade unions that have progressive and socialist ideas. Trade union federations including the Public Sector CONEP Nepal , ANTUC, NTUF are members of the World Federation of Trade Unions- WFTU.
However, individuals affiliated with these federations may be close to or affiliated with certain parties. In such a case, the campaign to make trade unions common will have a positive impact on the public sector. Initially, polarization and unity should be developed only within the federation’s core. This will take some time or years. Until then, the national federations of each federation and the enterprise-level trade unions should operate on their own behalf and, over time, a policy of polarization should be adopted among them. When GEFONT and ANTUF, which represent hotels, factories, and the unorganized sector, can also carry out similar polarization and unity work, trade unions in that sector can become stronger.
(Khanal is the President of CONEP Nepal and Presidential Council Member of WFTU)
