THE DOWNFALL OF WCL (part 2)

Wim Spit (left), vice-president of the FNV and president of the NKV received in march 1979 a delegation of Latin American women of CLAT. Here you see him talking with Maritza Chireno of the Dominican Republic with the help of Leo Sijbes (left of Maritza) from CLAT-Nederland. Wim Spit deceased last month at the age of 89.

The following story is a personal testimony and not a historical record of what happened at the end of the last century and the beginning of the new millennium in the international trade union movement, in particular in CLAT and the WCL.

I do not know if during the WCL Congress where the French CFDT decided to leave the WCL, there was already some talking about a possible merger between WCL and ICFTU but during the merger between NKV and NVV in the Netherlands it was the case. Remarkable if you take in consideration that this happened just after a few years that the so-called "bible of Maspero' with the strategic options of WCL was approved.

During the Confederal Board meeting of WCL in Montreal (March 1980) NKV President Wim Spit (recently deceased) declared that his confederation only will stay in the WCL if the WCL will declare as its political intention to merge with the ICFTU into a new democratic world organization. The continental organizations of WCL in Asia (BATU), Africa (ODSTA) and Latin America (CLAT) strongly opposed the proposal. The Dutch CNV therefore proposed a resolution that advocated for cooperation between ICFTU and WCL but no merger at all between the two world organizations. This was accepted by all participants, except the NKV delegates. (Circular No. 846 of April 29, 1980 by J.M.W. van Greunsven, secretary of the FNV Federation Board addressed to the members of the Federation Council.)

The result was that in the above referred circular the FNV Federation Council was proposed to choose alternative b, which reads as follows: "…..there are no longer sufficient grounds to remain a member of the WCL. From this point of view, the NKV can come to no other conclusion, after having postponed on several occasions its decision taking or not to implement decisions already taken, then to terminate its membership of the WCL per December 31, 1980 in compliance with the time limit according to the statutes, ie by September 30, 1980.

– At this point the NKV must conclude, after having spend for so many years its best efforts for the strengthening and renewal of the international democratic trade union movement, to have failed in the intensive efforts to achieve an acceptable political decision on unification between ICFTU and WCL.

– This failure is mainly due to the unwillingness of the WCL to cooperate in providing acceptable solutions for the ICFTU, but also for NKV. The strengthening of the international trade union movement is by termination of membership in fact not at risk, because also in maintaining the NKV membership there is no prospect for a unified world trade union movement.

– The situation that only the NKV as a confederation will be a member of the WCL and little or none of its unions member of the WCL International Professional Federations – insofar as they still are functioning - is politically highly undesirable, although this possibly could be bridged for the short term. Confederal and professional action should be aligned and coordinated. Issues such as international restructuring, control of multinational companies and solidarity actions demand strong Confederations together with strong Professional Federations.”

What exactly is meant by strengthening and renewing the international trade union movement is not entirely clear. The emphasis is on strengthening by increasing the power by numbers in this case that of the ICFTU. The issue of relations between industrial action and ideas about the future of mankind, society and state do not arise. In the quote we read about what indeed would become a weak part of the WCL, the weakness of the professional action through its International Trade Federations. This subject will therefore certainly come back further in the story.

For now we can conclude that with the departure of first the French CFDT and later the Dutch NKV, the Belgian Christian Trade Union Confederation ACV as the strongest confederation in the WCL, had great responsabilities in maintaining the WCL, followed at a distance by the Dutch Christian Trade Union Confederation CNV. Fortunately both confederations mentioned posessed well equipped and financially strong NGO's to continue to support international solidarity activities for the development of the WCL affiliated trade unions.

The departure of the two federations meant not only a financial weakening of the WCL. The WCL got the image of an organization that is losing slowly its members. The Dutch merger also brought new ideological tensions between the international trade union organizations. It was considered by opponents of the WCL as a proof that Christian trade unionism is outdated. Many believed that soon the WCL will disappear.

This believe was not new. Indeed in 1973, the year of the WCL Congress in Evian, the European organizations of the WCL and the ICFTU agreed on the foundation of the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC. Obviously in the new ETUC, the unions affiliated to the ICFTU had the majority. Part of the deal was, however, that the confederations could remain its membership to their respective world organizations. It was also agreed that trade unions, belonging to those confederations affiliated to the ETUC, could become a member of to the European Trade Federations without leaving the WCL International Trade Federations.

The ETUC had to be a unified trade union organisation without some kind of internal organized pluralism. Was it lack of understanding by the WCL or excessive confidence that they did not agree on for example the formation of a social-Christian group within the ETUC ? Remarkable because it was a well-known phenomenon in some European confederations. The Austrian Confederation ÖGB has formally structured fractions based on internal elections. Within the German Confederation DGB exists a group of Christian Democratic oriented members.

To be continued

THE DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 1)

Published in "CLAT Nieuws", july/august 1973. 

The following story is a personal testimony and not a historical record of what happened at the end of the last century and the beginning of the new millennium in the international trade union movement, in particular in CLAT and the WCL.

The formal merger in 1982 (in the years from 1976 until 1982 both confederations worked together very closely) of the Dutch Catholic Confederation NKV with the former social democratic NVV meant in a certain sense the beginning of the end of the international labour confederation WCL, the Christian-oriented World Confederation of Labour, the oldest world federation, founded in 1929 in Luxembourg by the NKV, the Dutch Christian trade union federation CNV and other European trade union confederations. During the merger between NKV and NVV it was agreed to join the international social democratic trade union confederation ICFTU, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The departure of NKV meant a considerable financial loss for the WCL.

The NKV was not the first confederation to leave the WCL under the influence of the shift to the left brought by the sixties. That honor belongs to Christian French Trade Union Confederation CFTD, then headed by general secretary Edmond Maire. I happened to be at the WCL Congress in Evian (1973) where this was happening. It was my first appearance in the world of the international labour movement, in this case as an observer on behalf of CLAT Netherlands, a Dutch NGO linked to the former Latin American Workers' Confederation CLAT. In those years CLAT Netherlands was one of the larger and well organized NGO's in the Netherlands.

As an observer, I was not involved in the WCL internal debates on the decision of the French CFDT to leave but I noticed that there was a lot of hassle. European trade union leaders, but also Latin America represented by CLAT general secretary Emilio Maspero, attempted to convince CFDT secretary general Edmond Maire during nocturnal conversations to stay within the WCL. For Maspero the departure of the French CFTD was an extra blow now he had to present for the first time in history of the WCL a new strategic document called "Towards the Liberation of the workers by the Solidarity Struggle".

Maspero had written this strategic document for the WCL with the intention to give a place to the Third World unions in the international labour movement. The document was a mix of Social-Christian beliefs linked to a certain kind of class analysis with the goal 'to liberate' the poor by way of a social struggle. It was a mix of social-Christian and Marxist thought from what was then called Third World option against capitalism and especially the North American capitalist imperialism, against the multinational companies as the so-called vanguard of that imperialist capitalism and a class analysis that would would bring real worker's democracy and social justice instead of communist dictatorship. The kind of thinking we already knew from the Colombian guerrillero Camilo Torres (1929-1969) and what later has become known as the Catholic Liberation Theology.

Published in "CLAT Nieuws"; september/october 1973

I remember that some NKV leaders did not agree with what they called a crypto- communist manifesto, remember that the Cold War was still in full operation, while others from the same NKV embraced the manifesto as a new combative beginning that the WCL would give a new start and new members. Although the document was adopted by a majority (almost 70%), a lot of Dutch, Swiss and Austrian delegates saw little merit in the new course. The Belgian ACV welcomed the document but had made some reservations. However, for the French CFDT the document came too late. They left the WCL. Moreover, the shift to the left of the French federation CFTD led to a separation of a more conservative part of it - the CFTC, which stayed affiliated to the WCL.

After the French CFDT in 1973 had departed, it was now in the late 70's that the NKV left the WCL. A federation with about 400,000 members which as already observed, meant a considerable financial loss for the WCL. Despite the new Third World course the WCL, which is now graced with the title of World Confederation of the Poor, had not affiliated new financially strong members.

The NKV had stipulated during the merger with the NVV a transition period for international solidarity. Although now affiliated to the ICFTU, the new FNV would stay involved in WCL unions in the Third World under the flag of the former NKV solidarity organization "Us and Them". The story was that the Third World unions were not to be allowed to become victims of the new relations in the Netherlands. This agreement was not always warmly welcomed by everyone in the FNV. So it appeared that "Us and Them" and the new FNV had great difficulty in the 80's with the political choices of CLAT during the political conflicts in Latin America, mainly in Central America.

As a fundamentally democratic organization CLAT was against any kind of leftist dictatorship. She was only willing to go in armed conflict as there was broad public support for it but even then CLAT remained cautious, not to say suspicious. The lesson was learned in Cuba. Who has the weapons, has the power and when the new rulers are not clearly democrats this would ultimately lead to the loss of trade union independence and pluralism. Hence CLAT was very critical on the armed Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the leftist guerrilleros in El Salvador and Guatemala. Thanks to former contacts between NKV leaders within the FNV leadership and the Dutch NGO CLAT Netherlands it was possible to discuss the matter on the highest levels of CLAT and FNV. The result was that FNV and CLAT stayed on speaking terms.

To be continued