A UNITED There is a long and glorious tradition of international working class trade uni solidarity. This solidarity has frequently had an important and direc •in the late 1850s and carly 1860s, British trade unions reached agreeinent with French workers against the importation of foreign blacklegs. It was the development of this pollaboration which was one of the key events Jeading to the formation of the First International led by Kari Mark.
•In 1889 the dock strike, which more than any other struggle was responsible for the foundation of the modern trade union move ment in Britain, was almost crushed through the prolonged resistance of the employers and their attempt to starve the dockers into subIsion. The final victory of the strike was Largely due to the very large sums of money around £30,000 (a colossal sum in those days)sent by Australian workers.
@in 1926 Russian trade unionists cullected over E1 million in voluntary contribations to send to the support of the British miners strike. This was one of the main reasons why the miners were able to hold out for a further six months after the defeat of the General Strike. And the length of this strike in turn, while it was defeated, was a real deterrent painst the launching of subsequent atlacas un FEDERATION lut as well as the effect of acts of solidarity with individual struppies, the working class also discovered very curly long before international • class organisations such as the EEC were even thooght of the need for permanent intertional trade union orgunisation. The Interonal Metal Workers Federation was estabad in 1893, when metal workers in several ropean countries decided to join their its in the fight for an eight hour day'. Then 1907 the International Federation of Chemiand General Workers was founded.
Despite toes long history of international soldarity, it has been the rapid internationalisation of capital since the Second World War, and in particular the rapid development of multinatiomal firms, which has really sparked off the beginnings of regular trade union collaboration on an international scale. Since the late 1960s, in particular, we have seen a number of examples of the beginnings of a working class sesponse to the development of international •in May 1969 the Turkisi Chemical Workers Federation called a strike against the local subsidiary of the Hoechst company. The German union IG Chemie-Papier-Kerami, which repre sented workers in the Hocchst parent company, supported this struggle and a vice-president of the German union flew out to help the Turkish union in the negotiations. Tbe combined pres sure of the two unions resulted in a victory for the Turkish workers.
@ In 1969 the Norwegian Berregeard chenecal and paper company set up a subsidiary in Brazil: The Norwegian unions attempted to apply direct pressure to the fien in Norway over the appalling conditions of the Brazilian workers. Not much success wus achieved, largely because of the inilitary regune in Brazil. but it was important as a real example of cooperation between workers in an imperialist country and those in a semi colonial country.
•At the beginning of 1968 a 53-day sirike by workers in the firm of FESCO at Tokyo and Kobe in Japan took place. The international trust, whose headquarters are in Geneva, attempted to replace the lost production by increased work in its Canadian plants. This was answered by the workers in Vancouver who refused to allow any increase in production for the duration of the strike.
- In 1971 workers of the Air-Liquide trust in France were on strike. Workers in Belginen, Holland, West Germany and Italy refused to increase their production to replace that lost in France. This came alter a similar experience a year carlier, in which action had been taken in solidarity with eight Air-Liquide factories in France on strike.
• In May 1971 workers at the Kodak factory in Vincennes, France, were on strike. British transport workers, and German and United States workers of Kodak were contacted and acted to prevent the transfer of goods.
•Just ten days ago, strikers at the Standard Telephones and Cables factory in Fast Kilbride -a subsidiary of ITT returned to work after winning wage increases of E7 lo £10.50 a week.
An important factor in their victory was the international solidarity of other I'FT workers in Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Northern Ireland, who refused to do any work that would nomally have been done at East Kilbride.
ST. GOBAIN
While most of these examples were simple solidarity acts, there has been one notable case in Burope of u real plan of action against a multi-national company. This was the struggle orcanised is 1969 by the International FederaTen of Chemical Workers against the St. Gobain firm. This multinational, employing 140,000 workers, virtually controls the European glass industry along with two other multinationals. BSN and Pilkington.
The planning of the campaign againse St Gobain involved a meeting of trade union reprosentatives from France, Italy, Germany, the United States, Belgiums, Norway, Sweden and Swizerland, who established a standing com mittee to coordinate the wage negotiations un France, Germany, Italy and the United States, The conference which establistied this standing committee agreed that no negotiations should be concluded in any country without the approval of the standing committee; that if there was a strike in any cuntry, international financial asistance would be provided: that it the at other St. Gobain plants, and that if the company tried to move production from one country to another in order to break or weaken a strike, then this move would be stopped.
The value of this international struggle rapidly proved itself. The German subsidiary of St. Gobain offered large wage increases and job security provisions. This agreement was uccepted but with lie warning What The German union would still participate in the international struggle In Italy and the United States the company took a hard line. The workers in buth countries therefore decided to coordinate their strike no ton. At this point the Italian part of the company gave in and conceded virtuaily all the union's wage and recognition demands. In the How to fight the multi-nationals - Belgian also workers at alaveroet ainy wanner an international struggle against B5N United States St. Gobain's atterupted to bold out by saying that its American subsidiary had made no profits for three ycars. The international standing committee intervened to give the American workers the figures on St Gobain's rocketing world-wide profits and the delails of the German and Italian agreements. Armed with these facts, the US unions led a 26-day strike and won a substantial pay increase.
Only in France did the internationa campaign fail to bring any real results. Here the Cornun ist-controlled CCT union federation refused to participate in the overall plan, deserted the other umons. and settled for a 3k wage increase only a third of what most oi the But it St. Gabain and other strugeles show clearly what is possible through united international working class action, too many otner exumples show how consistently the bureaucrats refuse to organise an international strugpic. This is despite the fact tbat in many cases the international organisations have considerable resource - for example the International Federation of Chemical Workers has a membership of three million und computer facilities with the available financial information on all tre main chemical companies in the world.
Probably the most notorious failure of the bureaucrals is the case of the Ford motor car pany. This firm is continually threatening to ove production from one country to anotler, to close down plants, redirect investinent, sack worken in one country and not another, and so on, but not one single really effective inter malional campaign against this company has been launched.
Other similar examples are the manocuvres of the Goodyear Tyre Company, which in 1966 67 built up huge stocks in Sweden which it useL to threaten first its United States and then its German workers with defeat, and the Canadian Massey-Ferguson company, which in 1968 threatened to run down its operations in Canada completely when its Canadian workers demande equal pay with those in the United States In none of these hig examples, let alone hundreds smaller ones, did the national union bureaucrat launch any significant international campuign. For every one St. Gobain there are a handred Goodycars NATIONALISM The failure of the reformist burceucrats in the strupale aguinst the international firmas is not just a result of inactivity or conscicus sabo tagc-although thar does play a role The basic reason is the narrow nationalism of the reformists and their failure to pursue the international struggle of the working class. This is shown most obviously in their support for such openly reactionary policies as import restricCLAMONAET"
CS COMMUNAUX 90060 fiors, immigration controls and so on. How can international solidarity conceivably he develoged when the bureaucrats continually fight for policies which divide the workers?
What is possible against the international trusts, including on a Europcan level, is enorm ous Demands for action by the existing incernational orpanisations must continually be made. The traditional demand for a European Congress of Labour is got at all empty words.
But what the bureaucrats will do is a mition miles from what is possible and necessary. The Immediate tasks of international working class solidarity will continue to Tall mainly on the shoulders of the rank and file workers and the
UPPO &2 TOWE Italy in 1969 reached such a high level that the Fiat boss Agnelli considered shifting the produc tion of engines and machine tools to SEAT. The leaders of the Italian Communist-controlled union federation, the CGIL, went to Spain, to their credit, to discuss this with the workers.
However, when struggles started to break
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NO A UNITED