9-29-06, 9:26 am

This discussion document is the product of a four day 'Think Tank' organized by the Economics and Labor Commissions of the Communist Party USA, in Chicago, in early February 2006. Several papers were presented and debated each day on a range of issues connected with capitalist globalization and the response of the working class and organized labor. There is no way that a single pamphlet could completely summarize those four days of intense discussion. But we hope that this document will provoke discussion and debates on what we think are some of the most burning challenges of our times for labor and for the working class. A qualitatively new form of transnational capital has clearly emerged. Its features include enormous new concentrations of finance capital, new forms of transnational monopoly, huge changes in the technology of mass production and manufacturing, a new global division of labor, and increasing poverty and decline for workers of the world in a global race to the bottom. Some individuals now own wealth greater than that of smaller countries. World capitalism continues to develop, reaching new levels of concentration and more advanced forms of global economic integration. Some see it as a new phase of what Lenin described as 'Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.' Others think of it as an even more qualitative change and see it as a whole new stage of monopoly capitalism. Regardless of your view, it is clear that capitalism has not reached its final stage and stopped developing. Changing Strategy for Changing Times Near the turn of the last century Lenin spoke of 'fortresses of the working class' referring to the large industrial factories that were the flagships of the unfolding industrial revolution. He saw the strategic and social importance of these fortresses to the working class struggle. These large concentrations of workers resulted in new levels of cohesion and socialization and gave workers a new kind of economic leverage. In the same time frame and later, Eugene Debs, William Z. Foster and many others were developing concepts of industrial unionism. They were also responding to the impact of the industrial revolution, but in the context of the labor movement in the US. Soon after the Communist Party USA, and other communist and workers parties in other industrialized countries began to focus their efforts on establishing their influence and their memberships in these 'fortresses.' Here in the US the Communist party called its policy 'industrial concentration.' This was not a simple linear development but a complex many sided process of the working class responding and adapting to the new realities of the class struggle of those times. But, taken as a whole, it was a dynamic response to the vast qualitative and quantitative changes in the capitalism of those times. It is beyond the scope of this discussion to try and present an all round picture of the qualitative changes in the global economy. However, as mentioned above, many factors are self-evident, including: qualitative advances in science and technology, in telecommunications, in systems and methods of mass production, in high speed transportation, in global concentrations of finance capital and in the incredible growth of transnational monopolies. It is not necessary to fully document and quantify the changes in capitalism for this discussion. It is enough for now to see the many new and thorny problems the labor movement and the broader working class movements face with capitalist globalization. However, it is necessary that we continue to study the underlying economic and structural changes taking place all around us. It is also necessary to note that the pace of change and development of capitalism is steadily accelerating. The problems for the working class created by the new developments in capitalist globalization are not narrow trade union questions. They are not questions of concern only to the left and communists. They are very basic strategic questions of how to defend and advance the interests of the whole working class under new conditions. They are very much the concern of the broader progressive movements and of all world wide who struggle for economic and social justice. As we try and figure out strategy we must also consider changes in the world working class and the world economy. Changes in the US working class and economy are inextricably tied to global changes in capitalism. Not Enough to Unite in Slogans We have to consider that the power of the working class, more than ever, must be realized in new forms of working class internationalism. It is not enough for workers and oppressed peoples of the world to unite in theory and in slogans. Today's transnational capitalism demands that the world's workers and oppressed peoples organize and unite in new practical ways. 'Workers of the World Unite' has to be transformed from a slogan into a concrete strategy. The Main Power Workers Have Historically every new stage and phase of development of the productive forces of capitalism has required a new strategy from labor. The bottom line for trade unions is the economic struggle. While it is true that unions are most powerful when they can combine political and social strategy in their arsenal of struggle. The bottom line is unions come into being in the first place, in order that workers can collectively exercise the main economic power they have; that is their power to withhold their labor. In the early days of capitalism, guilds and then craft unions were the forms that worked. At that stage, the economic struggle was mostly fought by workers on a local level. And early capitalism was characterized by local ownership. With the dawn of the industrial revolution, capitalism became mostly national in scope, then concentrating even more into monopoly. Thus a broader organization was needed by workers in order to use the threat of withholding their labor effectively. Out of this development came the prolonged period of developing and perfecting wall-to-wall industrial unionism. Today labor is confronted with transnational capital where ownership is more concentrated in global corporations and global financial institutions. Learning from history it should be clear that, like every other new stage of capitalist development, what is needed is bigger and broader concepts of trade unionism. We are now experiencing the difficult beginnings of figuring out and building new forms and strategies to exercise labor's economic muscle and leverage globally. Labor unity and organization must take new international forms. Again this is not a question only for the unions. It is a question that requires the best thinking of communists and the left, of labor and of all progressives. Unions, of necessity focused on their immediate and pressing struggles, do not automatically bring a well rounded class analysis to these problems. For example, let's take a look at the current situation facing the autoworkers at GM and Delphi. GM and Wall Street paint a picture of a struggling corporation caught in a fierce global competition to build and sell cars. They want the union to believe that the healthcare and the pensions GM owes its US workers make it impossible for the company to compete. They argue that GM/Delphi must renege on their union obligations to workers and slash wages or go bankrupt. GM and Wall Street say the company must close plants and destroy communities to stay competitive in the global auto market. Unfortunately GM and Wall Street have been able to convince large sections of both the union leadership and membership that these are the limits of the debate, that only concessions and cuts will save their jobs; that therefore workers have a stake in capitalist competition for profits. They threaten bankruptcy in the US as if GM wasn't a giant transnational corporation with investments and profits all around the world. In fact GM has manufacturing operations in 32 countries. It is one of the largest US investors in China and Asia. Here are huge markets opening up and huge profits being made. But if autoworkers reject the automaker's partnership ideology, where is the economic leverage for workers in the US in this situation? Where is the leverage for the working class in a fight like this? Even as we do our best on the ground to fight every battle for every job and every pension, don't we have to recognize the need to help build a movement that unites GM workers around the world? Isn't the only real solution to this fight for autoworkers to organize and unite GM and all autoworkers around the world? To have any chance of success, any plan to fight for the future of US autoworkers must also include autoworkers in China. The big three auto monopolies, GM, Ford and Chrysler have dominated and called the shots in the US for almost as long as the UAW has been around. In order to have leverage, the UAW had to organize all of them. The union had to put a 'floor' under wages and working conditions for the big three nationwide in order to secure a decent standard of living for autoworkers. And remember, after the battle for industrial unionism raised standards of auto and other industrial workers, the result was higher standards for millions of other workers, including non-union workers in the US. The industrial unions dramatically raised the standards for the whole class. Isn't that ultimately what has to happen now on a global basis? There is no way to know now what organizational form that will take, but the idea of global union standards like industrial unionism in earlier times has to be part of the solution. Don't we have to help figure out how that will happen even as we fight the day to day battles? The auto industry is central to the world economy. There are about ten major auto conglomerates in the world today that operate on all continents and in almost every region. Raising the standards worldwide for workers in this critical section of the global economy is vital to raising the standard of living for hundreds of millions of workers globally. The same can be said for other key global sectors such as steel, energy, petrochemical, food processing, and transportation. It's important to note that important sections of the US labor movement do see the need to move in this direction. The experience of the United Steelworkers with Bridgestone/Firestone, Ravenswood Aluminum and most recently ASARCO, taught the union invaluable lessons in internationalism. USW agreements with metal and rubber unions around the world are not just to exchange information, but are beginning to get at how to hold the biggest transnationals to global standards. The experience of the locked out West Coast longshore workers a few years ago with longshore workers the world over refusing to handle cargo bound for the US led to important new global agreements among longshore unions the world over. Are there practical steps to move things along in labor that we can raise? Here's one idea. In the CIO days, the communists and the left in labor recognized that fighting against racism and for equality and unity were essential to the development of industrial unionism. We campaigned to initiate civil rights and fair employment practices committees in the unions. Shouldn't we now be thinking about how to set up international solidarity committees in locals as well as international unions? Today's workers in the US have a higher cultural and educational level than ever before. Modern communications have helped workers develop a global view and to recognize the global challenges they face. Let's help turn that recognition into practical forms, which can further the process of 'workers of the world unite.' Union international committees could promote international solidarity campaigns around strikes and global union campaigns. They can be concrete forms for the kind of work the unions have done around opposing Apartheid in South Africa and Coke in Colombia. They can serve to inform and educate and bring the grassroots membership more fully into these fights. Another couple of ideas we should think about. Worker-to-worker exchanges with their counterparts in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and South America would be of tremendous benefit to US workers. And we need to take a look at what communist parties can do to help overcome the split in the world labor movement as well as what we can continue to do to heal the split in labor here at home. You Gotta Make the Political Fight Too Now, of course, Delphi workers are fighting for their lives against wage cuts and theft of benefits. And we can't for a minute neglect our responsibility to help in this immediate fight. Not only is there a fight to be waged against the cuts and take-away-demands of GM/Delphi, there is also an important political fight. Bankruptcy laws have become weapons in the hands of corporate lawyers to abrogate union contracts and steal pensions and healthcare benefits. All progressives need to embrace the struggle to reform these laws. And the fight for national health care, protection of pensions and strengthening Social Security are critical political struggles for workers facing plant closings and bankruptcies. The political policies of the global capitalist powers, particularly in the US, are critical. So-called free trade agreements, monetary, tax and investment policy greatly affect workers around the world. The rise of anti-globalization movements against the policies of the World Bank and the WTO show the powerful potential of political struggle. Demonstrations around the world, including in Seattle and Miami have slowed down and derailed transnational capital's plans. The scuttling of the infamous Multinational Agreement on Investments was very much the result of political struggle in many countries. While both the Democrats and Republicans have favored policies that enhance the reach of transnational capital, the ascendancy of the ultra right Republicans in Congress and Bush in the White House has accelerated the process. Defeating the ultra right in Congress this year and defeating any Bush-like Republican clone in 2008 are vital to any movements to put the brakes on transnational capital. Linking Today's Struggles to 'Another World is Possible' New forms of international working class unity and organization must be pursued on many levels. The world communist movement must find new forms of solidarity that go beyond fraternal exchanges and theoretical discussions. Effective struggle against this stage of transnational capital requires communist and left parties to explore joint practical initiatives. The left and communist parties have a contribution to make to this global challenge in coalition with many other world working class and allied forces. Our aim is not simply communist and left unity, though that is important. Our aim is strengthening the global working class and its allies in struggle. The world communist perspective is that socialism as the other world that humanity needs. This uniquely links immediate struggles with a long range view. A long range view is not just a dream about the future, but a direction in which we seek to move the struggle today. A new stage of struggle requires the world communist movement to shake off old problems and hangovers from the past. We don't have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for things to develop. We have to leave behind old attitudes and sectarian habits and jump in to try new forms of organization and unity. We must be much more pro-active. Other Forms of the Global Class Struggle Globally the communist movement must struggle to involve unions and workers in the larger and broader class struggle. The World Social Forums movement, the fight for international environment treaties, the fight for peace, the fight against poverty, and the fight against AIDs have all taken on greater international form and shape drawing workers and oppressed people around the world together in ever bigger numbers. 100 Million Forced to Migrate Transnational capital development today has radically increased the number of workers moving around the globe in search of work. The UN says that more than a hundred million workers have left their homelands. This incredible migration, for the most part forced, is directly the result of accelerating capitalist globalization. This incredible disruption of human lives is closely tied to the almost complete freedom of capital to move freely around the world. Transnational capital's growing ability to control and manipulate the economies of whole countries and run roughshod over their national sovereignties has destroyed rural life in many countries. Transnational conglomerates in food processing, farming and animal husbandry are driving millions off the land. Anti-immigrant racism has become a critical tool in the growth of far right movements around the world as well. On the other hand immigrant workers in every corner of the world are playing an important part in challenging capitalist globalization and transnational capital. We have had the thrill of experiencing this first hand in the massive demonstrations and new organization here in the US. Marxist ideas arrived on our shores in large part from immigrant workers. So too, today, immigrant workers bring a critical cross fertilization of experience and ideas to the new countries where they live and work. The demonstrations here captured the imagination of labor. They have already had a profound affect in rousing unions on many fronts even beyond immigration issues. China Looms Large In the global context, China looms large. For the US working class and for our party, relations with China are of great strategic importance. A significant and growing percentage of US owned or controlled mass production capacity is located in China. An ever growing percentage of this production is for export. US based transnational capital has major investment in critical sectors of mass production manufacturing in China including auto, chemical, electronics and aerospace. More than 100 U.S.-based transnationals have projects in China. Cumulative U.S. investment in China reached an estimated $54 billion by the end of 2005, making our country the second-largest foreign investor in China. China now ranks third in the world in industrial manufacturing output. Solidarity between the working classes of China and the US is critical to progress. China bashing, with its blatant anti-communism and anti-Chinese racism, has become an important tool for capital in blunting working class internationalism in the US, not only in labor but in other important movements like the environmental and anti-globalization movements. It is critically important that we continue to improve and build on our relations with the Chinese Communist party. And we must promote all manner of union to union, worker to worker and people to people exchanges. For many of the same reasons India too must command more of our international attention. US transnational investment is high. And while anti-communism does not play the same role, anti-Indian and anti-Asian racism and chauvinism also retard the development of working class internationalism. There are different but no less powerful arguments to be made also for our greater attention to Africa. The extremes of poverty and the imperialist plunder of natural resources and destruction and destabilization of entire nations and regions in Africa are burning questions for the world's working class. As we all know, anti-African and anti-African American racism has played a special role in blunting class consciousness and internationalism in the US. Just as the working class at home cannot truly rise without raising the poorest sections of the working class out of poverty, so too the world working class has a vital interest in putting a floor under poverty and underdevelopment globally. New World Division of Labor Global conglomerates and transnational investors are creating a new world division of labor that increasingly relocates much mass production capacity in extremely poor regions and countries. It is not only a question of lower wages but they also move production to flee health and safety and environmental regulation costs. It is obvious that much of this relocation is in countries with overwhelming majorities of Black, Brown and Asian peoples. The racism and national chauvinism is obvious. The role of the transnationals in Haiti and American Samoa, illustrate this point close to home. Women workers are naturally found in the forefront of struggle against capitalist globalization. Women are special victims of this new stage of transnational capital. Many of the world's worst sweatshops employ large percentages of women; many in slave-like conditions as was the case during the rise of industrial capitalism. Today women are increasingly concentrated in large numbers in manufacturing and production globally. The global race to the bottom for workers in manufacturing has undermined health and safety and other working conditions around the world including in the industrial countries and the US. War Dangers and Inter-Imperialist Rivalry Today the US stands as the lone superpower recklessly willing to use military power to secure its economic and political objectives around the world. This power is clearly exercised in the narrow interests of US based transnational capital. The Iraq war and the growing US military presence in Colombia are but two current examples.

However, it would be a mistake to conclude that rivalry between imperial powers is a thing of the past, or that the danger of war between these rivals has decreased. In fact, while the Iraq war serves the interests of many US transnationals, including oil and construction interests, it also sends a warning to rivals that the US intends to dominate the region. And while direct wars between imperialist blocks of nations may not be likely anytime soon, all kinds of little 'proxy wars' and destabilizing military actions threaten peace and kill and maim thousands every year. Trade issues Trade issues loom large for the world's working class. While it is true that global economic integration is inevitable, the terms of globalization for the working class are subject to struggle. We must carefully separate what benefits workers and their communities from what benefits transnational capital in so called free trade. Karl Marx nailed the question succinctly in a quote from his speech 'On the question of free trade.' He said, 'To sum up, what is free trade, what is free trade under the present condition of society? It is freedom of capital. When you have overthrown the few national barriers which still restrict the progress of capital, you will merely have given it complete freedom of action. So long as you let the relation of wage labor to capital exist, it does not matter how favorable the conditions under which the exchange of commodities takes place, there will always be a class which will exploit and a class which will be exploited.' Workers have no choice but to fight for their jobs and against their ruination at all times. We cannot and should not be asked to watch as jobs are lost and our communities destroyed in the name of some abstract greater global good or on the promise that other jobs will appear in the long run. The US working class and concentration for today This new stage of transnational capital has had a profound affect on the US working class, on its composition, and on its ability to fight back. Today there are very few factory fortresses left. Automation, science and technology have all profoundly changed the productive process. Today telecommunications, computers, and many so called service occupations are much more integral to the productive process than they ever were before. Privatization, and the increasing integration finance capital into the state apparatus, has profoundly changed the role of government and other public workers in the economy. The working class has grown significantly world wide and domestically with these changes. Globally the number of workers directly involved in the mass production industries has increased. Global manufacturing output has expanded 34 per cent in the last ten years. But domestically, industrial workers, in what we used to call the basic industries, have been put in a much weaker position. Most of these industries are still basic to the global economy, but global production means a tremendous loss of leverage for these workers and their unions domestically. Again the US auto industry illustrates the point. Today industrial unions are changing. Although mass production industries are still central to the domestic economy, the lack of leverage, the harsh anti-labor environment, and corporate and government attacks on organized labor have pushed the industrial unions in the direction of becoming general industrial unions though still centered on their old specific industries. For many of these unions it's a question of survival. In many ways the recent split in labor is more about not being able to find a way to deal with capitalist globalization than anything else. The crying need for the left and communists to help find a way to deal with these problems is part of our historic responsibility. This key question of how the working class can organize for power and leverage cannot be reduced to schemes to organize only workers whose jobs can't be outsourced. Rather to effectively organize for power and leverage here at home we have to take on the challenging task of finding ways to build union and working class organization and action on a global scale. We cannot just stand on the sidelines and throw stones, even at wrong ideas. Simply complaining about the loss of focus on a single industry or sector of the economy will not change much. We have to dig into the situation as it is and figure out how to move things from there. And we have to embrace the idea of bigger and different kinds of industrial unionism for today. Just as the CIO promoted an idea of unionism that was much bigger than craft unionism, today's labor movement needs to provide new union forms that can engage both domestically and internationally. These new forms must lead to bigger and bolder ideas about organization. Our communist piece also has to reflect the new and changing global picture. Industrial concentration policy has to morph into a much bigger and broader idea. Yes we need to focus on building the party and its influence in strategic sectors of the working class, but those strategic sectors cannot be a simple recounting of what we used to call the basic industries. We, like the rest of the working class, have to adjust to today's global realities. We must, of course, continue to focus on critical industries that still drive the global economy like, auto, steel and mass production workers. The transportation industry has to be moved to the top of the list. Transportation has become one of the most significant leverage points against transnational capitalism. And it bears repeating, this kind of strategic concentration has to be fully linked to the fight against transnational capital. In today's world, steel, auto and transportation workers may have their greatest strategic leverage and power in the international arena. As manufacturing has declined in the US, finance capital is greatly expanding. One giant steel company, from the merger of Mittal and Arcelor the two largest steel companies in the world, will soon account for more than 10% of global steel productions. It will own steel mills on every continent and employ over 300,000 steelworkers. Steelworkers that work for Mittal in Indiana or even all the Mittal workers in the US will not be able to go it alone. We also have to take a look at important concentrations of workers in areas like health care, food processing, telecommunications, and energy and utilities, and public workers; sectors of our economy that are increasingly strategic areas of struggle for the working class. As the struggle of the Sky Chef airline catering workers at London's Heathrow airport showed, even in what seemed to be a domestic service, international solidarity was the main leverage for workers in stopping company attacks on jobs, wages and benefits. The Communist party labor commission has begun building ongoing working subcommittees to develop our strategic concentration work in steel, auto, telecommunications, Longshore/transportation, food processing and health care. This is not a complete list of sectors that are critical to our economy. Instead, we believe we just might have the initial resources and ties that can allow these committees to develop. Our goal is to have these sub-committees track development in these sectors. We hope they will help develop articles for our publications, and reports on labor and global developments in these sectors. In this way we will help draw the party's attention to work in these industries. We must also renew our concepts of strategic neighborhood concentrations. Workers who work in a particular sector of the economy or industry no longer live together in the same neighborhoods. The fragmentation and decentralization of mass production has resulted in fragmentation and loss of cohesion in neighborhoods. Never the less, many in working class neighborhoods are acutely aware of the fragmentation and loss of community and cohesion. Many are searching for new forms of community. Neighborhood concentration is a critical tool for building the party and our influence. Focusing our community clubs on working class neighborhoods with special attention to African American, Latino, Asian American and American Indian neighborhoods needs to be renewed. How to focus on mass campaigns, build coalitions, and fight for multiracial, multinational working class unity are critical questions in this work. In conclusion: our task is not a narrow one. The working class response to the industrial revolution and the imperialist stage of capitalism at the turn of the last century was a many sided, long range struggle of the working class. It was also a time of the most impressive growth of communist and workers parties and movements, of the growth of industrial unionism, of the broadening of the working class struggle. So too our response to a new stage of transnational capital today must take on the difficult task of helping to figure out bold new approaches to building international working class solidarity, to new forms of unionism and workers organization, and to building the party and to building our ties to the international communist and workers movements.



--Scott Marshall is Labor Secretary and Vice Chair Communist Party, USA.. For more information see .