"TRADE UNION PLURALISM, REALITY OR DREAM?"

All participants in the seminar on the photo.

Is Trade Union pluralism just a dream or is it reality in the trade union world? Particpants from many different countries of Europe debated on this question based on analysis of the reality in their countries during the seminar “Trade Union pluralism, reality or a dream”, held last week in Berlin, Germany (25-26 September 2013). The seminar was organized by the Danish trade union confederation KRIFA and the European Centre for Workers' Questions EZA in cooperation with the European Organization of the World Organization of Workers (EO/WOW) and financially supported by the European Commission.

Guenther Trausnitz, EO/WOW President and FCG GPA secretary general, was one of the speakers at the opening of the seminar. The others were WOW board member Adelbert Ewen and Matthias Homey of EZA.

During the workshop the participants exchanged experiences on trade union pluralism in their country. You will be surprised to hear that in a country like Germany the trade union of metalworkers, the biggest, the richest and most powerfull union IGM uses courts to harass and make life difficult to the Christian Metal Workers trade union CGM. The result is that CGM had to use a big part of its membership contributions for paying the costs of these legal proceedings. The IGM accused the CGM not being a real trade union. In Gemany this is a legal question. Without being recognized as a real trade union one cannot sign collective agreements and without collective agreements a trade union risks to lose its reason to exist.

Ms.Isabella Biletta from EUROFOND started the seminar with a bird-eye view on " 'Trade Union Pluralism on European level".

More or less the same happened in Spain, another memberstate of the European Union. For 12 years it was impossible for the Spanish CIC (Confederacion Intersindical de Cajas) to sign collective agreements because the two big Confederations UGT (General Union of Workers) and CCOO (Workers Committees) did not accept the CIC as a partner, while the CIC had enough votes of the workers for being a legal negotiating partner. I was told that the presidency of the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC nowadays is in hands of a member of CCOO (you cannot find confirmation on the ETUC website).

Ms. Anne Kiesow from the Christian Metal Trade Union CGM spoke on "Trade Union Pluralism in Germany".

Even worse is the situation in Denmark. Some time ago about 200 workers of the dominant Confederation LO went on strike in a Carlsberg brewery as a collective protest against one of their collegues because he had chosen to be a member of the Danish Christian trade union confederation KRIFA. Carlsberg fired the worker because it did not want to have problems with LO. In trade union history this is called “deprivation of livelihood”. To make it impossible for trade unions to become active in their company, employers fired workers who were members of a trade union. So today there are unions who use the same weapon against workers who belong to an other union just because they are afraid losing their dominance instead of looking for ways to work together for the benefit of all employees in the company. This is not the only case. It's happened many times before. I wonder what these Carlsberg workers would do if in Denmark only one brand of beer – not Carlsberg – could be sold?

Mr. Wolfgang Pischinger, President of FCG GPA and WOW Board member, spoke about "Pluralism in the Austrian Trade Union work.

However, the worst cases we got from Ukraina from our friends of VOST. In Ukraina the transition to democracy and an open market economy has been slowed down by post-communist forces with the result that Government and employers - many times so-called oligarchs – cooperate together with the aim to create confusion. Employers create their own company unions (so called yellow unions) with our without the help of people from outside the company. The Government recognizes trade unions that exists only on paper. Workers have to become member of the union if they want to keep their job. This is the dark side of pluralism that should be attacked by all democratic forces in Ukraina.

Ms.Dragana Petkovic-Gajic, PhD Political Sciences and Project Manager Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia -CATUS, spoke about "What consequences does Trade Union Pluralism have? Positive and negative aspects of pluralism in South-Eastern Europe.

Another case is Serbia where Western European Banks are buying local banks but do not respect the trade union rights. President Marja Erdelj of the Serbian Union BOFOS informed that for example the French Bank Credit Agricole forced its employees to sign a letter in which they promise not to become a member of a trade union. She hopes to reestablish the rights of the employees during a meeting to which she has been invited by the Management.

Mr. Piet Hazenbosch, Adviser to the board of the Dutch confederation CNV, spoke about "The Dutch case of trade union pluralism".

Fortunately, there are also countries where trade union pluralism has been accepted by all trade unions and where it works reasonably well as for example in Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Malta and post-communist Lithuania. Netherlands has an already long history of trade union pluralism consisting of a social-democratic, christian and liberal-conservative confederation and some national branch unions. Until World War II there was also a Catholic oriented confederation which merged with the social-democratic confederation in the seventies of the past century. All confederations participate in the national social dialogue and all unions are involved in collective agreements.

Mr.Mattheus Homey of EZA spoke on "The importance of Trade Union pluralism from the perspective of EZA".

In Austria, after World War II the Allied Forces together with the forces of Russia forced the trade unions to become one unified confederation called the Austrian Trade Union Confederation ÖGB. Within the ÖGB there are different fractions. The 2 most important fractions are the Socialist fraction FSG ÖGB and the Christian Fraction FCG ÖGB. This system of fractions exists also in the seven branche unions of the ÖGB. In most of these branche unions the Socialist fraction has the majority. In the Branch Trade Union for Private Employed and Print, Journalists and Paper GPA the Christian fraction is a significant minority. In the public services union GÖD, the Christian fraction has the majority.

Mr. Soren Fibiger Olesen, President of KRIFA Denmark, presented his topic " I have a dream that one day all unions can work together to promote the interest of the workers!" 

The seminar topic was introduced by Md. Isabella Biletta, Research Manager of EUROFOND, a tri-partite European Union Agency, that provides knowledge to assist in the development of social and work-related policies. One of the tasks of EUROFOND was to establish criteria for the selection of representative trade unions that could participate in the branch social dialogue commissions of the European Union. She presented also the results of a long term research project that shows that trade union membership continues declining with exceptions in some countries like for example Belgium. It seems that the trade unions don't have yet the right answers to this loss of members. Can it be that the trade unions have become more of an institution than of a social movement? 

The presentation of the results of the working groups. From left to right: Adalbert Ewen (President CMG Germany) as the president of the day, Jolien Dekker from CNV Dienstenbond, Henning Röders from DVV Germany and Jelena Soms from LWU Lithuania.

The participants agreed with the proposal to send a letter to the European Social Economic Committee EESC in which the right of trade union pluralism will be formulated as a fundamental workers right. Workers should have a choice between trade unions free of any discrimination to them as well the trade union to which they belong. In the letter also the cases of the violation of this right on trade union pluralism will be mentioned. The letter will therefore include the cases of violations of trade union pluralism as cited above.

THE DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 8)

Under this picture in my scrapbook I wrote "A visit to the headquarters of CMOT Moscow where was also present CMOT Petersburg. There was in that apartment a kind of a brooding, conspiratorial atmosphere. CMOT Moscow and Petersburg seemed a hodgepodge from which you could make neither head nor tail and had little to do with unions.” The photo of Marilyn Monroe on the wall together with a framed picture of some major Russian person gave me the feeling of being lost in time and place. On the right side of the photo Krisztoff Dowgiallo, vice-president of WCL and head of our delegation.The 2 on the left are from CMOT Moscow.(photo Petrus)

We visited a group of CMOT in one of those typical apartment blocks in the suburbs of Moscow. The conversation was disappointing. Maybe they were courageous dissidents but they had little or no contact with real trade unions. Back in our hotel we also spoke to Matvienko of CMOT in Minsk, Belarus. 3 years later I organized a mission to Belarus together with the ICFTU, but that's a different story. We also met Massalowitsj, one of the leaders of miners in Vorkuta. He insisted that we would immediately travel to Vorkuta, about 2000 kilometers north of Moscow and 150 kilometer above the Arctic Circle. He told us that there were thousands of miners on strike for months because they had not received wages any more. The non-payment of wages would become a growing problem in Russia over the next years. Sometimes workers had to survive months without any payments. The trip to Vorkuta, we did not make. Subsequent attempts afterwards to get in contact with him unfortunately failed.

A picture of the WCL delegates Amrita Sietaram and myself (in the centre) together with Vorkuta miners' representative  Massalovitsj (third from right) on the Red Square.  First on the right side is the leader of the new party who wanted to introduce in Russia the politics of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The others were from some other unions.(photo Petrus) 

The history of the striking miners in Vorkuta is the story of  Russian Communism in a nutshell. In the '30s of the last century in Vorkuta was built one of the largest prison camps of the Gulag Archipelago. The occasion was the discovery of coal stocks. Thousands of forced laborers, including many supporters of the famous communist Trotsky (murdered in Mexico City), had to work under extremely difficult conditions in mines and build roads. In 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, for the third time a rebellion among the forced laborers broke out. The uprising was beaten down by the Red Army and the security forces. Thousands of them were executed without any kind of trial. In the time of Nikita Khrushchev some Gulag camps were closed. After the fall of the Soviet Union, many coal mines were closed because they were not profitable anymore.

An Orthodox priest also Member of Parliament, his name I can not remember, had organized a press conference in the Parliament building. After we had presented our delegation and had held a brief introduction about the WCL, one could ask questions. But how do you explain what a civil society is to people who are only familiar with state, party and government institutions? How do you explain people who have never experienced free elections what are free and independent trade unions. How do you explain what is a social dialogue, collective bargaining and collective agreements in a country without employers except the state?

We organized meetings in a corner of the hotel. Here you see on the right side of the picture Christophe Jussac from the French Confederation CFDT who speaks russian.In the centre of the picture you see Matvienko from CMOT Belarus. On his right side Alexandre Ivanchenko from the Ukrainian VOST confederation. Left from him Amrita Sietaram from CNV Netherlands. You see the backside of our translator Alexandre Volkov.(photo Petrus)

We were invited by some members of a new democratic party to eat at home of the leader of the party. A disconcerting experience. There was no beginning of any party structure. His political manifesto was overwhelmingly simple: apply the policy of the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Russia. How great the confusion was turned out during a meeting with a group of men of which we were told that they wanted to cooperate with the international trade union movement. However, after some time we discovered that we were talking with businessmen who thought that we as Western trade unions could help them to do international business. We left the building as soon as possible leaving behind the Russian businessmen even more confused than before.

In our relatively expensive hotel it was a corrupt mess. I could only make an international call after giving a big US dollar tip to the operator. Breakfast was not there unless you gave a big mouth to the waiters or gave some extra US dollars. In and outside the elevator I was constantly harassed by prostitutes. In the hall a driver was beaten by a dozen of other drivers because he did not adhere to their code, as explained our translator. We were glad we could leave. We realized that the free and democratic trade union movement in Russia had to go a quite long way.

As regular readers know, I was not only confederal secretary of the WCL but also executive secretary of some International Trade Federations: the World Federation of Clerical Workers (WFCW) and the World Federation of Industrial Workers (WFIW). WFCW chairman Jaap Kos I learned to know during a kind of job interview at the headquarters of the Dienstenbond CNV in Amsterdam. Ivo Psenner, President of the European Organization of WFCW and Richard Paiha, secretary of the Christian Group in the Austrian GPA in Vienna, were present during this interview. WFIW Chairman Leo Dusoleil, also chairman of ACV Industry, I learned to know very well during our tour along the trade federations of Solidarnosc (The Downfall of the WCL, part 4)

From left to right: Doekle Terpstra, the new president of the Dutch trade federation Industry and Food IVB member of the confederation CNV. Wim van de Jagt, the treasurer of the trade union. Frits Hanko the leaving president of the same union. In the background you see some metal workers in one of the factories we were visiting during our stay in Paraguay.

The WFIW had organized together with FLATI, the regional organization of the WFIW in Latin America, a seminar in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Prior to the seminar, I traveled as an interpreter and expert of Latin America along with a delegation of the Dutch CNV Industry and Food Union to Paraguay. We visited the confederation CNT, member of WCL and CLAT. Pedro Parra of the CNT Board was our guide during our visit to a farmers' union, a metal factory, a sugar factory, a judge of the Supreme Court, the Bishop of Asuncion, slum dwellers, the newspaper ABC, a radio station and the Minister of Justice.

You can't miss it. In the centre of the picture you see Paraguayan Dictator General Alfredo Stroessner enjoying his birthday party on the 3 of november 1987. Behind him in white military uniforms his loyal generals. (photo Petrus)

Three years after the fall of dictator General Alfredo Stroessner (in 1989 Stroessner was overthrown by another general) there was not much changed in the country. Of course, that was not possible in such a short period. Stroessner had been in power for 35 years (1954-1989) thanks to his generals, the Colorado Party and years of U.S. support. It was the longest dictatorship of an individual ruler in Latin America and the world's longest-serving non-Communist head of state. During a visit to Paraguay in 1987, because of the One Day Wage Campaign of CLAT Netherlands ( Campaña Un Dia de Salario), I had been invited along with a TV team from the Netherlands at the birthday party of the dictator. With our own eyes we could see a Latin American dictator according to the known cliches: he himself surrounded by generals in immaculate white uniforms full of medals, a court of faithful authorities who benefited from his dictatorship, singers and poets who sang for him and children handing over bouquets of flowers.

At that time the unions had to work semi-clandestinely. Their leaders were arrested constantly like politicians such as Domingo Laino, a leader of the liberal opposition against the dictator. It was a country with the silence of a graveyard. Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, was no bigger than a provincial city with little activity while most of the population lived in poverty in rural areas. The difference now is that the trade unions can do their work openly without being threatened to be prosecuted or imprisoned immediately. Paraguay has come back to life, thanks to the work of trade unions, the Catholic Church and other social organizations but far enthusiasm and time will be needed before the pernicious legacy of Stroessner will have disappeared to make way for new economic and political dynamics that will bring progress and prosperity.

Te be continued


The above story is a personal testimony 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 DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 7)

I took this picture in March 1992 in one of the streets of the historical centre of Vilnius. As you can see the houses are completely neglected. The same you could see in other cities like for example Budapest, Bucarest, Sofia and others. I believe this is due to the Marxist arrogance to history and as a consequence to historic buildings. Communists believed that when they came to power, real history had started. A misconception that is also known of the French Revolution and much later of the Cuban revolution.

During my visits to Central and Eastern Europe, I gradually discovered that no communist regime had been able to provide decent shelter to its people. By Western standards or should I say capitalist standards, the huge and ugly buildings in the suburbs of the cities are people unworthy. They have been build without enough space in between, there are often no trees or lawns around. The vast, dimly lit hallways of apartment buildings resemble those of a prison. Everywhere you see peeling paint and makeshift repairs of rusting pipes. You can not control the temperature of the central heating system of one apartment, let alone of one room. It is on or off. If you find it too hot, you should open a window, whereby precious fired heat flies out the window. This is a sheer waste of energy.

Our first flat tire on the road from Vilnius to Riga. The highway between the 2 capitals was still empty. On the right Amrita Sietaram of CNV, in the middle the driver and on the left Kristoff Dowgiallo, vice-president of WCL.

We left Vilnius in the Moskwa to Riga, capital of Latvia. Between Vilnius and Riga lies a large, modern highway of about 300 kilometers. The motorway was as good as deserted. The first flat tire could still be easily changed thanks to a spare tire. At the 2nd flat tire, there was nothing else we could do than to repair it ourselves. It proved to be a primitive form of vulcanization with gasoline from the tank of the car to heat the mess. The third flat tire, there was nothing else to do than to look for a farm at the roadside. We were well received and helped.

Meanwhile Kristoff had explained to me the principles of the Communist industrial production of cars. First comes the army. Since the army always has enough money, costs do not matter. The Moskwa was built as a military vehicle and only then adapted for civilian traffic. Therefore it is a heavy car with thick metal plates that slurps to much gasoline and moves like a tank.

The second flat tire we had on the border between Lithuania and Latvia. On the right Kristoff, in the middle Daiva of the LWU and next to her myself.

Ford's invention of efficient, inexpensive and yet useful people's car (T-Ford) had remained nearly unknown in Russia. Of course, Western car models were copied, with or without help from the West, like for example Fiat in Russia (Lada) and Renault (Dacia) in Romania. But if you copy something that does not mean you understand completely why it is made that way. This requires insight and especially a lot of experience. The same principle also applies for democracy. You can copy it with candidates, parties and elections, but that does not mean that it works.

Democracy is a political lifestyle, requires mutual trust and tolerance, willingness to compromise, experience with working in coalition etc. It takes many years to develop this in a society. This means that a lot of patience is needed with the development in former communist Europe and Russia. The question is whether the coming decades the citizens of East and West will have enough patience with the transformation of their societies. For example in financial terms, expenses for the reunification of East and West Germany (1990) were about 75 billion Euro a year for more then 10 years. Until the present day Eastern Germany depends on funding from West Germany.

Over the years I saw that working conditions in former Communist countries were just as bad as most of the products. The factories were dangerous, very poorly lit with very unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. The word Medieval often came to my mind when I visited another hopelessly outdated factory, even though there were in the Middle Ages, of course, no factories. During such visits I was often asked if I could find investors so that the factory could remain and the workers keep their jobs. I had to disappoint them. Their products could never compete with Western products, not technologically nor with prices. The result was that over time many factories in the former communist countries were closed, resulting in a growing number of unemployed.

When we had a flat tire for the third time we needed the help of a farmer along the road.

By evening we arrived in Riga. We had been on the road all day long. Later in the evening we had a meeting with some union leaders in a caravan converted into a coffeehouse. We exchanged names and addresses and promised once again in Brussels to contact with proposals for further cooperation. That was our first and only contact we ever had in Latvia. Besides, also the LWU never joined the WCL, despite the good contacts with the help of Solidarnosc and Kristoff Dowgiallo. A few months later I would meet the president of a more Christian-oriented Lithuanian confederation at a seminar in Budapest, that became a member of the WCL.

The next morning we left for Moscow with a full schedule of appointments with new leaders and a member of parliament. I already knew Moscow from a visit as a student with a group of students of political science in the year 1969. At that time many students saw communism as a humane alternative to capitalism, not to mention imperialism. It were indeed the sixties of the student protests against the Vietnam War, for democratization of universities, sexual liberation, faith in the Cuban revolution and the so-called revolutionary liberation movements in Latin America, the Chinese cultural revolution etc.

In 1969, during our visit to Moscow we students  joked with a statue of Lenin in front of the House of the Union of Writers.

It was therefore hilarious to discover that communism meant in practice an old-fashioned conservative dictatorship without freedom of speech, no freedom of association, no right to strike or holding a demonstration. We saw how a young Georgian was discriminated. We were not allowed in some restaurants because we had no jacket and tie. Our Russian colleagues whined about records of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Women asked even for nylons. Many students wanted to swap clothes with us, so fond they were of our jeans and denim jackets. The black rate of the Russian ruble was four times lower than the official rate.

So I was wondering what it would be now under President Boris Yeltsin. At least we could freely walk in and out the Kremlin, that dark center of power in the times of Communism. A strange sensation, like the many new (Western) cars, the shops with luxury Western products, the new cosy western style restaurants and of course the free and open conversations. However, we quickly discovered that after 70 years of communism, post communist Russia was in a supreme state of confusion. We spoke union leaders from giant Soviet Factories with thousands of workers who produce tractors, aircraft parts, etc. and accused each other fiercely of betrayal, lies, working with the secret service (KGB) or the worst of all, being still a communist.

To be continued

The above story is a personal testimony 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 DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 6)

NKOS Secretary Pavel Matousek in his modest office in Prague (march 1992)

During the seminar in Sopot we were invited by the Lithuanian Workers' Union to visit Lithuania. Kristoff Dowgiałło had contacts with new Russian trade unions leaders we could visit in Moscow. We could also contact VOST chairman Olexander Ivanchenko from Ukraine as he had said in Sopot. Travelling by train from Kiev to Moscow was not expensive. Antony Meeuws, who volunteered for the WCL as a translator of Russian documents and letters, advised us to visit the so-called alternative union CMOT in Moscow that was already active under the Communist regime. Antony knew about CMOT and other dissidents from his volunteer work for Amnesty International. We planned to leave at the end of March; first to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania and then to Moscow.

But first we went to the Europe Forum in Prague, organized by the ETUC. It was my first experience with the ETUC. I do not remember much of the meeting except that we stayed in a brand new and luxurious hotel (because of EU financing?). The role of the ETUC in former communist Europe was not yet clear because the future of Europe was still unclear. Of course, since the fall of communism in Europe, there was optimism but there was also a lot of uncertainty. The optimism was that it was now possible to establish free, democratic and independent trade unions in former Communist Europe and Russia and to support them as had happened with Solidarnosc. Probably in the near future Europe would become united within the European Union, but nobody had any idea how and when.

For the citizens of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia the downfall of the communist regimes brought not only freedom but also a lot of uncertainty. After 50 years of communist dictatorship (in Russia more than 70 years), few had any memory of what meant freedom or democracy. No one had experience anymore with the union as a free association of workers without any interference from the state, with its own democratic structure and its own program. Private enterprises were unknown. Nobody had experience with negotiating wages and other labor conditions. Even more difficult was the question what to do with your freedom and how to survive when the state does no longer take care of everything? Some dreamed of Western prosperity but had no idea how this could be realised. There existed also the not unreasonable fear that the Russians would try to recover their empire again after some time. For the new post-communist governments therefore the protective umbrellas of the U.S. and NATO were more important than creating a free market, privatise state enterprises or to get the membership of the European Union.

Within the ETUC all this stood not on the agenda. One was more concerned about the new grants from the European Union from the Phare Tacis program than to develop a political vision on the future of Europe. The Phare Tacis program of the EU was indeed meant to support projects for the development of democracy and free elections, a free market economy with private companies and to build and strengthen a civil society. Obviously the EU did have already some policy toward the former Communist countries, the ETUC did not.

Arrival of Amrita Sietaram from CNV (on the right) together with Daiva from the LWU ( on the left) and the driver of the Moskva, also a legacy from the old Communist trade union.(march 1992)

It was generally accepted that the WCL and the ICFTU would support the new founded trade unions as wel as the reformed post-communist trade unions. I was told by WCL secretary general Carlos Custer that both international organisations had agreed not to proceed immediately to the affiliation of these unions. They would get time to get acquainted with the international trade union environment. But according to Carlos this gentlemen's agreement had been violated already by the ICFTU, by affiliating the Bulgarian Confederation Podkrepa. Later on, Podkrepa President Konstatin Trenchev himself acknowledged that he would have preferred to become a member of the WCL but that the ICFTU had offered more financial support. Such practices should not occur in the trade union movement but often politics based on financial power wins from policy based on principles and values, a phenomenon as old as humanity itself.

My stay in Prague gave me the opportunity to meet Pavel Matousek and Alois Anton of the new Christian trade union federation NKOS. They had good contacts with the Christian trade union group FCG in Austria. NKOS was a nascent trade union: small and inexperienced. Maybe NKOS - with the support of the WCL – could become a confederation of national significance. However, its national future was uncertain because at the highest political level one was negotiating about the division of the country. Therefore, later that year we would submit a joint appeal not to split the country. But it was too late. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two countries: the Czech and Slovak Republics. From then on each Republic had its own Christian oriented confederation. Some years later it would penetrate the European consciousness that the liberation of Communism also had freed nationalist forces, which were difficult or nearly impossible to control as was demonstrated during the civil wars in Yugoslavia.

LWU President Aldona Balsiene talking seriously with WCL Vice-President Kristoff Dowgiallo (march 1992)

Immediately after the Prague stop I went with Kristoff Dowgiałło and Amrita Sietaram of CNV to Lithuania where we were received by the board of the LWU in their office in the former Culture Building of the official Communist Confederation, near the center of the capital Vilnius. The new democratic unions including the LWU had occupied this building. At that time in Lithuania people were very curious about everything that came from Western Europe so Amrita and I were asked to participate together with LWU President Aldona Balsiene in a TV forum.

Lithuania had a tragic liberation struggle. After a landslide victory in elections to the Supreme Soviet, members of the anti-communist independence party Sąjūdis proclaimed Lithuania's independence on 11 March 1990, becoming the first Soviet republic to do so. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress the secession by imposing an economic blockade. Soviet troops attacked the Vilnius TV Tower, killing 14 Lithuanian civilians and wounding 600 others on the night of 13 January 1991 (January Events). On 31 July 1991 Soviet paramilitaries killed seven Lithuanian border guards on the Belarusian border in what Became known as the Massacre Medininkai.

Strolling through Vilnius it occurred to me how strongly this ancient and venerable city was neglected during the Communist regime. Everywhere I looked were neglected houses although there were still people living in it. Later I saw the same neglect of old beautiful buildings in many other cities in former Communist countries such as Bucharest, the capital of Romania (where dictator Ceaucescu teared down entire neighborhoods to build his megalomaniac People's Palace) and Budapest the capital of Hungary (you could still see the bullet holes in the walls from the 1956 uprising).

To be continued

The above story is a personal testimony 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 DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 5)

Waiting for our host. From right to left: WCL Vice-President Kristoff Dowgiallo, the translator, WCL secretary general Carlos Custer, Bundes-sekretär Karl Klein, myself and Kaszimirus Uoka from Lithuania.(23 march 1992)

Immediately after our Polish tour for the WCL International Trade Federations, I traveled to Vienna to participate for the first time in a meeting of the WCL Coordination Committee for Central and Eastern Europe (22th of march 1992). Like the meetings of the European section, the meetings of this Committee are informal. As vice president of the WCL for Central and Eastern Europe, Kristoff Dowgiallo was president of the meeting. I had never been before in Vienna. Before the fall of communism Vienna did not belong to the list of cities like Paris, London, Rome and Madrid. Vienna was the end of the world, enclosed between the Iron Curtain. Thanks to my work for WCL, I saw over the years Vienna changing into a vibrant European city.

The meeting was organized by Karl Klein, Confederal Secretary of the Christian Group FCG within the Austrian confederation ÖGB. Within the ÖGB the FCG is a significant minority. The Socialists have the majority in the confederation. Within the trade union of the private employees GPA (trade and banking sector), the Christian Group is a large minority. In the trade union of Public Servants GÖD the Christian group has the majority. The ÖGB is the only European confederation, in which trade union pluralism has been organized in a formal way. I believe that this model should have been the minimum basic model for organizing the ETUC and recently the ITUC. It is my conviction that without this model, that guarantees formal pluralism within unity, the WCL should not have merged with the ICFTU.

I was picked up from the airport by the official driver of Karl Klein. We drove to a meeting of Secretaries of the GPA where Karl Klein introduced me as the new Confederal Secretary of the WCL and Executive Secretary of the World Federation of Clerical Workers. Over the years, I learned to know Karl as a gentleman, sometimes more a diplomat than a trade unionist but nevertheless always very sensitive to the trade union movement. In 2003 he became chairman of the FCG and vice-chairman of the ÖGB. He died much to young at the end of 2007 on the age of 59.

The Prime Minister (lef centre) next to Karl Klein, held a kind of round table discussion with all the guests. In front of him Carlos Custer. On the right of Carlos you see Milan Katuninec, an important Slovakian trade union leader and professor on the University of Trnva. In front right Michel Rizzi from ACLI, Italy a member of WCL. In spite of many efforts it was not possible to get involved ACLI in the WCL activities in former Communist Europe.

With his invitation to the Coordination Committee to meet in Vienna, Karl Klein made it clear that he and the FCG wanted to play a role in the WCL regarding Central and Eastern Europe. Understandable, since the fall of Communism, geopolitics were changing fast and Vienna as the capital of Austria came to lie in the middle of Europe but now surrounded by countries looking for democracy and capitalist economy. At that time the participants in the meeting were still mainly Western European members deliberating on the future policy of the WCL in Central and Eastern Europe. Winning new WCL members was obviously our most important task . As new members arrived, the Coordination Committee grew into a platform where WCL unions from East and West learned to know each other.

At a certain moment, the Committee succeeded in arranging a regular annual budget with contributions from a number of Western European members. In addition, many confederations and International Trade Federations succeded in organizing activities from its own resources for new members in Central and Eastern Europe. The Belgium ACV and the Dutch CNV set up their own special fund for Central and Eastern Europe. Their international departments supported the activities in Central and Eastern Europe with knowhow and money. Despite its limitations, the WCL could therefore be very active in Central and Eastern Europe with special missions, seminars to be held in different former communist country like Rumania, Poland, Hungry, Ukraine, Lithuania and so on.

To forge closer ties between East and West and the new members to get acquainted with the European trade union movement and the ETUC, meetings of the Coordination Committee were later held prior to that of the European section in Brussels which in turn convened before the General Board meeting of the ETUC. That way within the WCL a dialogue at European level developed slowly but surely. It was an open dialogue because nobody had experience with the transition from communism to democracy and capitalism and nobody had any idea what the future would bring.

Richard Paiha was not so much a manager of his union, as well as somebody who, if necessary, did the job himself. He was a man with a great sense of social duty. Here you see him working on a typewriter finishing a text for the annual seminar that he and Toni Liedlbauer organized for leaders of trade unions in the services sector in Central and Eastern Europe. This picture was taken during the seminar held in Poprad, Slovakia in 1998.

For the next day Karl Klein had organized, together with the FCG Liaison Office for Central and Eastern Europe, a meeting with the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia in Bratislava. Also were invited leaders of the new Christian-oriented unions in the former communist countries. Bratislava is an hour's drive from Vienna in Slovakia, the eastern part of then still undivided Czechoslovakia. At the end of the year of 1992, Czechoslovakia split peacefully in two countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. From January 1, 1993 Bratislava was the capital of Slovakia and Prague the capital of the Czech Republic.

WCL general secretary Carlos Custer and vice-president Krzistoff Dowgiallo were also present. It was a meeting with on one side the formal protocol associated with the reception by a major high political host and on the other hand an almost informal meeting on which ideas on the future of the trade union movement and Europe were exchanged freely. It was an inspiring round table discussion, an example of what I hoped would be the future of a united Europe.

To me, West Germany had already given the example by the reunification of East and West Germany into one country (1990). However, at that moment such a development into a united Europe was not yet foreseen. In the case of the reunification of Germany, Great Britain with Prime Minister Thatcher even feared a united Germany while France was looking for some kind of accommodation. This attitude to Germany is best demonstrated by a much quoted pronunciation of the French writer Francois Mauriac: “ I love Germany so much, that I am glad that there are 2 Germanies to love.” For French President Mitterand the price for the unification of Germany was the agreement of Germany on the introduction of the Euro currency as a way to get some French control on the growing economic weight of Germany in the European Union.

Finally, I would like to note that, despite this initiative of Karl Klein, the FCG did after all not play a major role in the Coordination Committee. Repeatedly Karl Klein promised to strengthen ties with the WCL but in practice little or nothing happened. On the other side, the Christian Group of the GPA union under the guidance of Central Secretary Richard Paiha was from the outset very active in Central and Eastern Europe. For example Paiha organized together with his right hand and GPA Secretary for Trade Toni Liedlbauer every year a seminar for leaders of democratic and independent unions in the services sectors (trade and financial services) in different countries of Central and Eastern Europe, he participated in missions (for example to Croatia and Albania) and supported projects both financially and materially. Richard himself was personally very involved in this. He died in 2011 at the age of 72 years.

To be continued

The above story is a personal testimony 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 DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 4)

Visit to Gdansk during the seminar in Sopot.From right to left: Dan Mogadescu from Cartel alfa, WCL Vice-President Kristoff Dowgiallo, Tadek Oruba from Belgium ACV and Mihael also from Cartel alfa.

During the WCL Congress in Caracas (1989) I heard for the first time I was a candidate to become confederal secretary. The newly elected general secretary Carlos Custer even said he was counting on me. Some time later Jaap Kos, president of the WCL international trade federation WFCW (World Federation of Clerical Workers which is now WOW), invited me for an interview with him and two Austrian boardmembers. The WFCW wanted me to be their executive secretary. To convince the WCL they had decided to pay an additional contribution to the WCL. Some time later CNV chairman Henk Hofstede called me, asking if I wanted to work in Vienna instead of Brussels. There were plans to open a WCL liaison office in Vienna which is near to the former European communist countries and Russia. For me this was okay but finally it became nevertheless Brussels.

Finally in November 1991 in Gdansk, the decision was taken on my appointment as confederal secretary. Starting in Brussels in January 1992, it appeared that I was the successor of Emiel Vervliet, WCL confederal secretary and also executive secretary of the WFCW. An article by him in the Flemish journal 'Maatschappelijke Gids', in which he made ​​a plea for a merger between WCL and ICFTU, went too far for secretary general Carlos Custer. Much later I learned that opinions about my appointment at the WCL were divided. That was of course unfortunate but it did not affect my work.

It became a flying take-off. My first encounter with new union leaders from the former communist European countries and Russia was at a seminar organized by Solidarnosc in Sopot, Gdansk (29 February to 4 March 1992). There I met the Polish WCL Vice-President Kristoff Dowgiałło. I spoke with many new democratic leaders such as a delegation from Lithuania headed by Aldona Balsienne, chairman Olexander Iwanchenko of the UkrainianVOST, the miners' leader Victor Utkin from Russia and a delegation of Cartel alfa. The Romanian federation Cartel alfa had already joined the WCL prior to my arrival to the WCL.

The WCL European Section meeting presided by Vice-President Kristoff Dowgiallo. On the left Secretary General Carlos Custer. On the right Confederal Secretary Roger Denis.

So the WCL had a nice position for take-off. My WCL mission began with the support of two major trade confederations in former communist Europe, both known for their battles for an independent, free and democratic trade union movement. At the seminar in Sopot it became clear that for these new leaders Solidarnosc was an example that deserved to be followed. Therefore probably the WCL also would have a certain appeal to these new leaders. Moreover, I thought, the ideas on man and society of the WCL were in line with those of the new leaders. After the failure of communism they were looking for a renewal of their society and state, based on human and spiritual values others than communism. The WCL could offer these coming from its Christian and humanistic background that it cherishes since its foundation in 1929.

Just a few weeks after the seminar in Sopot I went along on tour in Poland with Leo Dusoleil, President of the World Federation of Industrial Workers Federation WFIW, and Roel Schepen of the CNV Wood and Construction Trade Union, to visit the Solidarnosc unions with the aim to affiliate them to the International Trade Federations (ITF's) of the WCL (14 they - March 21, 1992). Our interpreter was Tadek Oruba a Belgium trade unionist of Polish descent. During our visit to the miners union in Katowice we laid flowers at the monument to fallen miners in the fight against communism. In Krakow we visited the metal union. In Nova Huta we had a conversation with the President of the textile union. In Wroclav we spoke with board members of the energy and chemical union and so on.

Unfortunately, despite our efforts, no Solidarnosc trade union ever joined the WCL International Trade Federations. I know the WCL Textile Federation and the Building and Wood Federation have long taken pains to  the Solidarnosc textile and construction union to make join them but it never happened. It stayed with vague promises and commitments during visits to Ghent and Brussels. Despite the enormous efforts of the European Miners with many seminars and missions organized and financed, also the miners union of Solidarnosc never became a member of the WFIW.

Katowice. WFIW President Leo Dusoleil, surrounded by 4 board members of the Solidarnosc Miners Union and Tadek Oruba, ready to put flowers before the monument commemorating the miners who have fallen during strikes and opposition to the communist dictatorship

I never could figure out why the unions of Solidarnosc did not join the WCL International Trade Federations. It could not be money. The financial contributions were low, like those of Solidarnosc self to the WCL. In addition, there was an agreement to invest the contributions in seminars and other activities in the country itself. May be the ITF's were not so credible anymore because some ACV and CNV unions no longer were a member of an WCL International Trade Federation? They had joined the ICFTU oriented ITF's. Anyway, the many times I've asked, such as Solidarnosc President Krakliewski, Andrej Adamčik from international affairs and some regional presidents of Solidarnosc, I was assured that Solidarnosc was committed to the WCL but otherwise it remained quiet.

On the contrary, the Romanian trade federation Cartel alfa had the policy to their members to join as much as possible the WCL International Trade Federations, in many cases successfully. Therefore the relations between Cartel alfa and WCL became stronger than those between Solidarnosc and the WCL. I felt sorry, not only because the WCL became less stronger internationally than I had hoped but also because personally I felt involved in the fate of Poland and in particular that of Solidanosc.

Between the seminar in Sopot and the Polish tour I took part in a meeting of the European Section of the WCL for the first time on March 7, 1992. The European section meeting was a kind of informal meeting of all Western European trade union confederations of the WCL where European issues were discussed and views exchanged. In fact it was a meeting of the WCL fraction in the ETUC but it could never be named like that. The informal nature of the European Section meeting was strongly emphasized. It gave me the impression that we were doing something, we actually were not allowed to do because of the unity within ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation). Apparently, the international trade union movement became infected with a kind of enlightened Leninism (Lenin is the creator of the ban on factionalism in the Russian Communist Party, that later became known by the name of Democratic Centralism used by all communist parties). WCL members could never present themselves as a a group in the ETUC. The WCL had lost therefore its identity on European level. The question was if it could be maintained on international level. That is what still had to be figured out.

to be continued


The above story is a personal testimony 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 DOWNFALL OF THE WCL (part 3)

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.

On the 18th of June 1979 in Hotel Irazu, San José, Costa Rica, the so called Junta de Gobierno de Reconstruccion Nacaional de Nicaragua was presented by the Sandinist priest and poet Ernesto Cardenal. We see from left to right Alfonso Robelo, bussiness man and founder of the Nicaraguan Democratic Movement MDN. Violeta Chamorro wife of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro who was assasinated in 1978. Violeta Chamorro took over his newspaper La Prensa and continued his struggle against the Somoza dictatorship. Sergio Ramirez writer and leader of the so called group of 12, a group of leftist intellectuals that supported the Sandinistas. The other 2 memebers of the Junta, Daniel Ortega and Moises Hassan, both from the Sandinist Guerrilla Forces fighting in Nicaragua, were not present on the press conference. TheJunta took power in the city of Leon, Nicargua on the 18th of July 1979. The Junta was immediately recognized internationally. (photo Petrus Nelissen)

So far we have looked from a Dutch perspective to world history, but what was really going on in the big world? There was a lot of commotion in Latin America, North America and Western Europe and also the Netherlands because of a revolution in a small Central American country. I mean the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua (1979) that I witnessed more or less while I was living in Costa Rica, and to some extent even participated in it.

It was a leftist revolution that got broad support against the right-wing dictator Somoza (traditionally supported by the U.S.) after the Sandinistas had succeeded to unite its 3 fractions, there had been held much (international) political deliberations and a lot of international pressure for example of the Organization of American States (OAS) with a major role of US President Carter. After the victory (July 1979) the Sandinistas got most credits for the revolution and they considered themselves as the real owners of the revolution. Instead the Sandinistas established a democratic regime like for example in their neighbouring country Costa Rica, they started copying the Cuban model with the traditional support of Russia and Communist Europe. The recent elected, traditional anti-Communist U.S. President Reagan (1981) was firmly against it. The result was a civil war with the help of the U.S. between the Sandinista leaders and Contra's (including disappointed Sandinistas) with a high price paid by the population: new deaths and injuries, no peace and especially no economic recovery.

What astonished me was the ease with which European leftist intellectuals left their critical attitude towards the Sandinista leaders. Renowned journalists from leading newspapers and TV defended for example censureship of the Sandinistas against the newspaper La Prensa. The key issue for them was to be anti-North American and especially anti-Reagan, who was always called scornfully a former Hollywood B- actor. At that time communism was rather commonplace in circles of the European democratic left, to a certain extent tolerated by the Socialist International.

More surprising was what happened in almost the same period in Communist Europe. A trade union called Solidarnosc, supported by the Catholic Church and its Polish Pope Paul II challenged the supremacy of the Polish Communist party. No one ever could imagine that something like this would ever be possible. The world held its breath. Would the Soviet Union not retaliate?

Not so initially. The Polish Jaruzelski government (Jaruzelski was considered to be a moderate nationalist) signed an agreement with Solidarnosc that was led by the brilliant former electrician Lech Walesa surrounded by keen advisers. But the recognition of Solidarnosc did only last until december 1981. Moscow forced the government to announce martial law. Solidarity was banned to become illegal. Many members were arrested or went underground. The underground struggle was supported by US President Reagan, the North American union AFL-CIO (member of the world trade union ICFTU) and the WCL, that thanks to its general secretary Jan Kulakowski of Polish descent, had special relations with Solidarnosc.

European political leaders on the other hand did not know what to do. Of course, there was much sympathy for Solidarnosc but it was feared that it would end as did the Hungarian uprising (1956) and the Prague Spring (1968), that is to say beaten down by Russian tanks. In 1988 the Polish government was forced by strikes to start again negotiations with Solidarnosc. In 1989 Solidarnosc was legalized and participated in the first free elections held under a Communist regime in Europe. It was the beginning of the end of Communism in Europe and the Soviet Union.

The Latin American CLAT was downright enthusiastic about Solidarnosc. A union that was able to achieve a political revolution was for decades the dream of CLAT. CLAT also recognized in the anti-communist struggle of Solidarnosc its own anti-communism . This anti-Communism made that CLAT had a very critical attitude towards the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, the Marxist guerrilla groups in El Salvador and Guatemala and all other groups that used Marxist oriented violence as an instrument for change. For this reason in the Netherlands leftist progressive circles turned away from CLAT and the Dutch association CLAT Netherlands that supported CLAT in Latin America since 1969.

In September 1993 a delegation of the WCL led by General Secretary Carlos Custer visited the Polish President Lech Walesa, former leader of Solidarnosc. At the head of the table you see President Lech Walesa. Beside him a government interpreter. On her left WCL secretary general Carlos Custer. Next to him an interpreter of Solidarnosc and myself. On the back you see Kristoff Dowgiałło. At his left Teresa Szabza from the International Department of Solidarnosc.

CLAT sent in 1981 a message to the first legal Congress of Solidarnosc: "The Latin American Workers Central CLAT, together with all its member organizations, feels related from the outset with the values​​, interests and aspirations of the independent trade union movement Solidarnosc. Despite the different political circumstances in which both organizations find themselves, CLAT and Solidarnosc are inspired by the same ideas about man and society, labor and worker, dignity and freedom, justice and solidarity." In 1982 CLAT invited six leaders of Solidarnosc to a meeting on its training institute UTAL in Venezuela.

On the occasion of that meeting CLAT General Secretary Emilio Maspero wrote an introduction titled "The struggle of the free trade union movement in Poland and Latin America." Maspero signals that two irreconcilable models opposed. On the one hand, the totalitarian models advocated by fascist right (eg the Pinochet regime in Chile) and Marxist-Leninist left (eg the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro) and on the other hand, the democratic-humanistic model itself stands for. Maspero defined the relationship between CLAT and Solidarnosc as the common struggle for democratization: in Poland against communism in Latin America against capitalism.

How great the enthusiasm was for Solidarnosc could one see during the visit of Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa to the 22th WCL Congress, held in Caracas, Venezuela (november 1989). To confirm friendship between WCL and Solidarnosc, Kristoff Dowgiałło from Solidarnosc was elected vice-president of the WVA. Also for the first time in the history of the WCL a general secretary from Latin America was elected,  Carlos Custer from Argentine and a member of the CLAT board who previously had been already confederal secretary of the WCL. CLAT was now more than ever committed to the WCL. ACV President Willy Peirens was elected President of WCL. The future looked bright for the WCL.

To be continued...