Labour
Of All, Russian Unions Begin to Lose Members
By Kester Kenn Klomegah, IS 30/4/07
May 3, 2007, 08:54

Russia was the fountainhead of a worldwide workers movement for long, following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.Experts blame politicians who are warning workers against active involvement in politics.

"The political shift is taking its toll on our efforts towards a membership drive," Valery Kravchov, spokesman for the Federation of Independent Trade Unions told IPS. "People are afraid to participate in public rallies and demonstrations these days.

"We face serious challenges after the Soviet collapse of promoting regional integration and working out a common strategy centred on such values as decent work, human rights, social dialogue and adequate social security schemes...it seems that an era is gradually closing the chapter on trade unions throughout the world."

The Moscow city hall expects only between 45,000 and 50,000 people to participate in this year's May Day activities to mark what was once a major holiday for working people.

In the 1990s the Federation of Independent Trade Unions boasted a fluid membership of 30 to 35 million, down from 70 million at the start of the Bolshevik revolution. "Our society has significantly changed with a reduction of such massive social movements," Kravchov said.

The Russian leadership now talks a different language.

"I urge trade unions to carry out stable and balanced work which is not timed to political events in the country," President Vladimir Putin told union activists at their annual congress.

Putin said trade unions should cooperate with authorities and businessmen. "But it (cooperation) should not be politicised, and tactical goals should not be given priority over strategic issues."

Putin said trade unions should protect the interests of workers properly. "Trade unions sometimes fail to take responsibility for resolving specific work problems and disputes, remain passive and play a purely formal role in protecting the interests of workers and staff teams," Putin said.

Academics say labour unions need to adopt new strategies.

"Labour unions have little chance in a fast-changing society. What has to be recognised is that Russia has emerged from its old centralised system and many institutions' management are unprepared to see such bodies standing in opposition to their capitalist policies," director for the Institute for Global Studies Boris Kargalitsky told IPS.

"This working ideology is widespread that labour committees are not involved in decision- making processes in many workplaces," he said. "Most of them subordinate the working class interests to capitalist interests. Those that exist are for window-dressing, and they are neither instrumental in implementing any policy nor effecting any change in employers decisions. That's why many workplace trade unions have almost disappeared both in the private and public sectors."

But the rise of Russian industry is clearly a precondition for new labour struggles. "Unions have to become political because they have to fight anti-workers' laws, but it will only work if they become an independent political force fighting against the current political class which is reactionary in its totality," Kargalitsky said.

Trade union leaders say they are not insensitive to new problems of workers.

"In some cases, building unity among members depends largely on the common interest and the nature of the struggle," Igor Kotlobovskiy, general secretary of the teachers union at Moscow State University told IPS. "It's easier among teachers and industrial workers to get together for a common cause. The unity of the working class of teachers is built from below, and it succeeded to a great extent in our collective demand for wages.

Kotlobovskiy said that people should pursue purely democratic issues like the right to public demonstration, and if properly conducted and propagated, that unity can be established for massive and successful workers' protests to support economic demands from the government.

"It's equally important for union leaders to penetrate into the ranks and to properly explain issues affecting them, and in the process get themselves politically educated to defend democracy," he said. Unions must have their political rights and get involved in national and international issues, he said. "There is no way you can alienate or exclude people from the political mainstream."