Spring’s Labour Caucus is a key site of activity for members in trade unions and/or involved in decent work campaigns. The Caucus meets on a semi-regular basis, depending on the pace of activity, to discuss issues facing the labour and decent work movements and to organize activity around particular workers’ struggles.
In recent months, the Caucus has organized support for a number of strikes and other labour disputes, mostly in Ontario, but also in eastern Canada and elsewhere. This support has built on past interventions and contributions by the Caucus to other strikes and disputes.
Socialism from below
Our method is based on the politics of “socialism from below,” which informs what is often referred to as the “rank-and-file strategy.”
Socialism from below is a practice that emphasizes the self-activity of workers themselves—in their workplaces, primarily, but also in wider movements and in their communities—instead of focusing attention on the official, elected trade union leadership. It aims at building the confidence of workers to act in their own interests by involving them in easy, accessible, and effective activity. In particular, it seeks to involve workers in all aspects of organizing—from identifying key issues and demands to taking on the tasks of organizing their own activity.
Self-activity
This approach is in direct contrast to how much of the trade union leadership views and treats rank-and-file union members or the wider working class: at best, as playing a supportive role, but only when needed or called upon to do so. The rank-and-file approach puts workers themselves in the driver’s seat—as their own leaders who, when necessary, act independently of the trade union leadership and sometimes against the leadership’s wishes.
At the heart of this strategy are two important facts, which inform the politics of socialism from below. The first is the recognition that the working class—in all its richness and diversity around the world—is the source of all wealth and profit under capitalism. It is therefore the agent that can halt the production of profit, even if only temporarily, and open up the potential for radically different forms of economic production and social organization.
In other words, they have the potential to initiate, lead, and complete a revolutionary transformation of the system based on their economic power in their workplaces.
The second important fact is the reality that workers learn by doing and by being active in their own struggles, even if they have contradictory ideas or limited class consciousness.
By being active in struggles, and by being forced to make decisions that maximize their chances of defeating the boss or management, workers are confronted with the real-life consequences of division and exposed to the potential power of solidarity.
From theory to practice
They also acquire skills, insights, and analysis based on their own experiences, which can then be generalized to other workers in the form of lessons. This is where “theory” comes from—it is the distilled experiences of workers in past struggles. Other workers then try to learn from those lessons as they apply it to their own struggles.
It is undeniable that we are seeing an increase in work disruptions and strikes. This is due to the increased frustration with employers and the government with wages that have not kept up with inflation and the continued cut back in public services.
Over the last five years, Spring comrades have been developing our own rank-and-file strategy for trade union and decent work struggles, applying and refining this method. On June 2, 2024, the Labour caucus hosted the “Strike Solidarity School.” The school focused on what to expect, best practices, and successful strategies from the picket lines.
But we also test these ideas in practice. In the last year, Spring has made it a priority to build solidarity with workers in a range of strikes, most notably LCBO workers, TTC workers, Pete’s Frootique workers, Metro grocery store workers, and NPF workers, and others. Much of this work has been alongside like-minded activists in the wider decent work movement across Canada, where union and non-union workers fight together to win fair wages and working conditions for everyone.
Among its own members, the Labour Caucus hosted a successful reading group of Farrell Dobbs’ Teamster Rebellion in January. Caucus members also support Labour for Palestine, the leading rank-and-file Palestine solidarity network in the trade union movement in English Canada, which led the defence of Fred Hahn in October 2023 and this August.
The Labour Caucus is open to anyone interested in building rank-and-file power. To get involved, email info@springmag.ca.
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