10-28-06, 2:55 pm
The First Steps of the Workers' Movement In Bosnia And Herzegovina
The destruction of Yugoslavia and its socialist values caused great disappointment and disorientation among workers. Soon after the formal dissolution of the communist regime, civil war began and workers became involved in national armies. They were entangled by nationalist sentiments. Everything that was happening in the country not only during the war, but also following it and up to the present moment, strongly influenced the working class in a negative sense, so that it became incapable of playing an independent role in social struggles. It could even be said that an organized workers' movement does not yet exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina have very little experience in the class struggle. Most of them have spent half their working lives in enterprises where they were highly protected and even had the right to elect their own managers. After that, they fought a war, and many of them lost their workplaces as a consequence of that war and the privatization that occurred following it. Those who remain with jobs do not have many rights as employees, and they are under the constant threat of job losses, not only because of business bankruptcies but also because of employer tyranny.
In such a situation, it is more important than ever to develop an organized struggle for workers' rights. But the situation is difficult. Official trade unions quickly re-established their infrastructure after the war, with the appearance of two organizations created along ethnic lines. The Alliance of Trade Unions of the Republic of Srpska [Ed: the Serbian communal enclave in Bosnia-Herzegovina) is a bureaucratic association acting in the Republic of Srpska, while the Alliance of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a similar association in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both were formed from remnants of the former Alliance of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina that existed until the outbreak of war.
Still, even though the bureaucratic structures were renewed relatively quickly, this did not mean that vitally functioning organizations were established. Although workers in state-owned enterprises continued to be formal members of trade unions, they basically just renewed their pre-war membership status. Trade unions do not really exist as serious, functioning organizations. Basic trade union organizations in enterprises do not hold regular meetings. Workers gather only in order to formally elect their union board, which is not really responsible to its members and in most cases does not engage in many union activities. The trade union leaderships do not submit reports about their activities. The higher-level trade union leadership is elected in a totally bureaucratic manner, without any real possibility for militant workers to successfully run for office. The usual way in which workers pay their union membership fees is that accounting officials at the enterprises where they are employed seize 1% of their gross salary and transfer it to the account of the trade unions. Also, several years ago it was reliably reported that the Alliance of Trade Unions of the Republic of Srpska received a substantial financial grant from the government of the Republic of Srpska.
A few years ago, opposition trade unions appeared. They came into being as the result of factional struggle in the framework of the union bureaucracy. These trade unions don't have a different program or methods of activity from the official ones, and are themselves mostly composed of people from the union bureaucracy. Rank-and-file members of trade unions had almost no role in the decisions that led to the split with the official trade unions. Right now, two official trade union organizations cooperate through the Confederation of Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is not a new trade union organization, but rather a loose coalition of the two official trade unions. This Confederation, as well as its individual components, is attached to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
It is very difficult to state the exact number of trade union members. On the one hand, it is true to say that practically all workers in state-owned enterprises are automatically union members. On the other hand, rank-and-file unions do not exist in privately owned enterprises, except in formerly state-owned enterprises that have been privatized recently. To understand how important this fact is, one has to keep in mind that the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina is now composed mostly of small and medium-sized enterprises, following the destruction of the large systems built during the socialist regime. In each of these enterprises, a small number of workers is employed and they do not have even basic social rights. The official trade unions have done nothing in order to organize them and improve their working conditions. Some sources have claimed that 40% of the workforce is employed in what is known as the 'black sector.' Even if we don't know for certain if this data is exact, it can't be far from true, given the following facts: The official rate of unemployment is 44%, although different estimations of real unemployment vary from 21-31%. This contrast between the official and the real rate of unemployment is a result of the method of figuring unemployment. Official agencies register all people who are searching for a job and who do not have regular employment, which includes not only those with part-time jobs but also those with full-time jobs who work in black sector, and therefore are not registered anywhere as part of the workforce. Workers in the private sector are totally without labor protections. Very often they work 12 or even 14 hours a day, although there are strict legal norms about an 8-hour day and a 40-hour work week. Thus, the problem of protecting the working class in the already dominant private sector has now become a very significant one.
Official trade unions have claimed that workers in the private sector have not shown an interest in union organizing. But this is only half true. Namely, it is not correct that workers have not shown an interest, but they are frightened to organize through unions. Keeping in mind that unemployment is very high and that workers are totally unprotected in the workforce, those who presume to protest by organizing unions very easily lose their jobs. Also, those workers who are exploited the most usually work in small enterprises or stores, where it is almost impossible to organize a strike or similar action if workers from other shops are not linked with them in solidarity. Until now we have not seen readiness for such actions. Moreover, workers who work in these enterprises are mostly young and do not believe in the possibility of struggle. Most of them are frightened and inexperienced and also, which is a very big problem, have a provincial state of mind. It is absolutely true that the official trade unions have not tried to organize these workers in alternative forms of organization or given them any help in doing so.
A few years ago, the Alliance of Trade Unions of the Republic of Srpska organized a one-day general strike, which totally failed. It was organized without any clear aims or concrete demands, and workers, who had already lost confidence in the union leadership, in many cases refused to participate. In 2002, the same trade union alliance organized a day of protest all across the Republic of Srpska. Workers and pensioners gathered at city forums to present their demands, but these protests were poorly attended. In the city of Bijeljina, for example, where 50,000 people live, there were only about 400 workers and pensioners who gathered to protest. The Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in this rally on its own, and distributed leaflets with concrete demands that workers should raise. We also demanded from the organizers to be allowed to formally participate in the rally. Since they rejected our proposal, we sent a comrade to address the protesters as a representative of the 'independent pensioners.'
At the beginning of this year, the Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina proposed to the local leadership of the trade unions and the pensioners' association in the city of Bijeljina the organization of a joint action to protest against the decision by the municipal parliament to increase the mayor's monthly salary to 1,600 euros (seven times bigger than the average salary!), but they refused to participate on the pretext the issue is 'not in their competence,' and that they do not want to be part of any party's action. In fact, trade unions refuse to cooperate with political parties and do their best to display a non-partisan character. However, a few years ago opposition trade unions in the Republic of Srpska did participate in a protest action organized by the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, while the leadership of the Alliance of Independent Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina held a meeting with a delegation from the Social Democratic Party in 2002.
In many cases, rank-and-file unions organize actions which are not approved or supported by the trade union central leadership. Strikes are mainly organized in the areas of health care and education. They are often led by trade union officials who belong to the central trade union leaderships, and they are sometimes quite successful. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the actions of trade union officials in other sectors, especially in those of trade and industry, which are the most economically devastated and where workers are the most exploited. When rank-and-file unionists or workers in such enterprises organize strikes and demand help from their leaders, they are often told it is too late for a strike, and they are not even ready to provide strikers with technical or legal support. On the other hand, strikers in some cases have a strong will to strike, but they do not have any strike experience. Sometimes they are compelled to create rank-and-file organizations anew or create their own strike committees where a trade union organization has not existed at all. At times, they think it is necessary to have more than half of the workers involved in the strike, and if this condition is not met they sometimes quit the idea of a strike.
In some cases, activists of the Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina have helped militant trade unionists with legal or organizational advice. Such assistance has been rendered in the cities of Modrica, Banja Luka, and Bijeljina. In Banja Luka, during a meeting of 600 workers in a large industrial enterprise, the President of the Workers' Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina addressed those who attended. In the city of Bihac during a 100-day hunger strike, the Communist magazine, Voice of Freedom, wrote about the workers' struggle, and the party magazine was circulated by the strikers themselves. In the city of Zenica, workers from one factory included parts of the Workers' Communist Party platform in the list of their demands, while in Sarajevo workers who blocked traffic read our telegram of support.
Generally, militant workers are more numerous at the rank-and-file level. Thus, even if one cannot yet speak about an organized workers' movement in the country, it can be said that its first contours are appearing in the form of mutually unconnected militants without sufficient experience, and with a very unclear vision of what to do and how to do it. Most of them are clearly left-wingers although non-partisans, with a respect for Yugoslav revolutionary traditions but without a revolutionary outlook. Most of them respect the Workers' Communist Party's wish for its cooperation and assistance, but they are frightened that any connection with communists would make their struggle more difficult. However, dozens of them have accepted our idea of organizing a conference of militant trade unionists and the creation of a Coordinating Committee of Workers' Trade Unions. This conference was supposed to be hosted by our Party. Unfortunately, neither we nor our trade union comrades have had enough money to organize it. And although they expressed a readiness to meet each other and even to participate in this new Committee, they are still not ready to make a break with the trade unions to which they formally belong.
The official trade unions have accepted the dominant neoliberal ideology and give full support to the process of privatization. Although they stress the necessity of the implementation of social programs, they never say how this can be achieved. Developed programs with economic and social measures that governments can apply have never been presented by the trade unions. Therefore, it can be said that the official unions really have neither programs, basic principles, nor any idea about the appropriate means for achieving any of their aims. In 2002, the trade union leaders had a meeting with the High Representative [Ed: a UN official in Bosnia and Herzegovina] and accepted the necessity of a policy of economic bankruptcy. Their official position is as follows: Transition to a market economy based on private ownership is necessary and even useful, although this should be enriched with social programs to support those who will lose their jobs in the process of privatization and bankruptcy.
Militant trade unionists take a different position, although they think that anything but struggle for immediate and very modest demands would be purely utopian. In many cases, however, they have demanded revisions in the privatization of their enterprises, and sometimes they have actually been quite successful (for instance, at the 'Alhos' enterprise in Sarajevo or 'Zitoprerada' in Bihac), while in others the process of revision is ongoing (two cases in Bijeljina and in some other cities). Militant trade unionists, without any impetus or support from their leaders at the higher levels of the trade union structure, have utilized radical methods of struggle in order to achieve the aim of revision of privatization. Some of them have organized hunger strikes, while the others have blocked traffic or the operation of government institutions. In these actions they have been supported by workers from other cities, and in a few cases the Workers' Communist Party has organized symbolic solidarity actions. In a big enterprise called 'Cajavec' in Banja Luka, the independent trade union launched a demand that has been one of the most radical until now. It demanded from the government the cancellation of the privatizing of 35% of the state capital in the enterprise and granting the trade union a say in management. We strongly supported this demand. In an enterprise in the big industrial center of Zenica, workers bought shares and became the majority owners. Despite these positive examples, workers in most enterprises don't have a clear picture what to do after there is a revision of the privatization process. We try to convince them not to stop at this basic demand, because after a revision of privatization there may follow new revisions which will not improve their position at all.
In conclusion, it can be said that a workers' movement in Bosnia and Herzegovina exists in its elementary contours. Workers understand quite well who their enemies are and where their problems come from. They also understand that the ethnic division of the working class will lead them nowhere but to new and profound defeats. Most trade unionists belong to an older generation of workers, but younger workers are included in the struggle in negligible proportions. Our workers need help from their trade union comrades from abroad in order to learn how to fight and act in concrete situations, as well as the necessary assistance to facilitate the establishment of class-oriented trade unions.
--Goran Marcovic is the leader of the Workers’ Communist Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
