Unions and Democracy

Trade unions are strongly connected with both political and industrial democracy. Trade union activists have often fought for the democratization of the political regimes in their respective countries. At the same time, they have sought to extend industrial democracy either at the workplace through representative institutions of workers working in a particular factory or company, or through liberal corporatist arrangements at national, regional or transnational level in which unions were incorporated.

Austria: Resisting Fascism

Illegal trade union newspapers, 1934-1938. © ÖGB

On February 16, 1934, it was clear that the workers' struggle for democracy and freedom was lost. Immediately the victorious fascists showed their ugly face: the imposition of martial law, shootings and waves of arrests as well as the banning of the free trade unions. Works councillors belonging to the social democratic or communist camp lost their mandate and thus the workers and employees lost their right of co-determination in the factories. The situation seemed hopeless and the Austrofascists overpowering. Their means were repression, surveillance, fear, suspension of the rule of law and mass arrests.

Boycott, strike, illegal newspapers

The response of the now illegal free trade unionists was resistance. They met secretly in flats, in cellars or in the back rooms of coffee houses, founded illegal trade unions and planned actions. They resorted to well-tried but now forbidden means: Boycotts, strikes and their own newspapers. For some time, the workers boycotted membership in the fascist united union. But only until they were given the choice: Membership or loss of job. In times of economic crisis, high unemployment rates and a lack of unemployment benefits as well as rising prices, this was a tried and tested means of exerting pressure.

The official newspapers did not report anything about illegal strikes or workers' revolts against bad working conditions in individual factories. Only the illegal trade union papers reported them. “Out with the stolen freedom rights of the workers! Away with the fascist swindle trade union!” (Der Lebensmittelarbeiter, No. 3, March 1937, 4th ed.)

"Freedom for the imprisoned anti-fascists"

Often they were only single, closely printed pages with hastily typed texts on a typewriter or poorly typeset booklets in A6 format. In their articles, anonymous editors painted the picture of the times, namely the destruction of all the trade union achievements of the First Republic: the abolition of collective agreements, the eight-hour day and the payment of public holidays, as well as further wage theft and deteriorations in social security and increases in mass taxes and rents.

However, the illegal newspapers were also fighting material and carriers of demands. Slogans were issued: "Out with the stolen liberties of the workers!", "Away with the fascist swindle trade union!" (Note: This refers to the fascist single trade union), "Our struggle is a struggle for human dignity, justice and freedom!", "Restore the free trade unions! Freedom of the press and freedom of speech!", "Freedom for the imprisoned anti-fascists."

“The most important weapon of the banned free trade unions was the illegal newspaper.” (Der Lebensmittelarbeiter, 1937.)

Time and again, resistance fighters were betrayed and arrested by informers. © ÖGB

Warning against informers

One of these illegal newspapers was Der Lebensmittelarbeiter. In 1937, it said: "The most important weapon of the banned free trade unions is the illegal newspaper." Only the writing, printing and distribution of the newspapers were dangerous. Manuscripts, matrices and finished newspapers were smuggled across borders, hidden in coal trucks or under clothing. There was always the danger that the couriers would be betrayed or stopped by the police on the street. If they were caught, they faced long prison sentences. Therefore, the illegal newspapers always warned against informers, warned to exercise extreme caution when talking to strangers and gave instructions on how to distribute the papers: the newspapers should only be passed on with the utmost caution. No one should keep an illegal newspaper or leaflet after reading it. Newspapers could, for example, be put in sealed envelopes, placed by a letterbox or door, or posted at the post office. After all, "passing on the illegal newspaper is a form of supporting illegal work." Only in this way did readers learn what organised labour had already achieved against all odds.

"We don't vote Nazi!"

In 1936, the illegal work paid off. Since 1934, there had no longer been works councils, but factory communities. Due to pressure from the illegal trade unions, there were no really free elections to the factory communities. But they were the only ones in the years of fascism between 1934 and 1945. The illegal newspapers took a clear position in their election advertising: "We don't vote Nazi! We do not vote for “Heimarbeit”-fascists! (...) We vote for those who have remained true to their free trade unionism and have proved their firmness."

The fascists showed what they understood by elections: Mass arrests, raids in factories, house searches and threats. Nevertheless, many former free trade union men and women were elected to the factory committees. They were not able to achieve much, however, as the struggle for freedom and democracy had to be waged not only against the Austrofascists but also against the steadily strengthening National Socialists.

New resistance

For the first time in 1938, the fascist united trade union announced elections. Nothing came of it, just as nothing came of the referendum on Austrian independence announced by Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg. It turned out to be a forced vote on the so-called "Anschluss" to Nazi Germany. Now slogans, illegal strikes and newspapers were of no use against expulsion, persecution and murder. Nevertheless, resistance continued to form.

Source (in German): https://www.oegb.at/themen/geschichte/der-blutige-februar-und-seine-folgen-

Germany: Industrial Democracy

Die andere Demokratie (tr. The Other Democracy: Corporate interest representation in Germany, 1848-2008) by Werner Milert and Rudolf Tschirbs

Work councils, which offer employees advice and protection in everyday working life, are now part of normal working life in large companies. This book traces the development of workplace interest representation over a century and a half and makes it clear that the emergence of the other democracy was by no means a matter of course.

After the democratic impulses in the revolution of 1848-49, a deep gulf opened up in the German Empire between the status of free citizen and enslaved working citizen. Only the alliance of convenience between the military and trade unions during the First World War led to binding company representation structures, which resulted in the Works Councils Act of 1920. The progressive Weimar works constitution was brutally destroyed under National Socialism, but after the Second World War, a new democratic beginning emerged precisely from the workplaces. In the Federal Republic of Germany, company co-determination became an important foundation of industrial relations, whereas in the GDR, works councils were sacrificed to emulate Soviet models. After reunification, the institution of the works council remained a central component of a laboratory of democracy in the world of work.

kenya: changing the constitution

COTU-Kenya was among the first pressure groups to push for a new constitution. It was one of the organizations that constituted the Constitutional Review Committee that Kibaki appointed under the chairmanship of Professor Yash Pal Ghai to draft a new constitution. After months of meeting at the Bomas of Kenya Centre in Nairobi, Ghai’s team came up with a draft that was to be put to a national referendum. But to COTU’s and many Kenyans’ dismay, Kibaki had the document altered before it went to the referendum. The consolation for COTU and other supporters of the Bomas draft was that the public ended up voting against Kibaki’s draft when it was put before a referendum in 2005.

Despite the 2005 Bomas draft debacle, COTU remained steadfast in its fight for a new constitutional dispensation in Kenya. It was the first national organization in 2007 to warn the government that there would be skirmishes and violence if Kenyans went to that year’s general election under the existing laws. COTU’s fears would turn out to be well-founded when more than 1,000 people lost their lives and half a million were rendered homeless by the violence that followed the declaration of Kibaki as the winner of the 2007 presidential election against the protests of supporters of his main opponent, Raila Odinga. The 2007/2008 post-election violence ended in much soul-searching on the part of Kenyan leaders. Through the mediation of former United Nations secretary general Kofi Anna, they were able to agree on a peace formula that led to the setting up of a grand coalition government in which Kibaki retained the presidency and Odinga became Prime Minister. The leaders also agreed on a four-point agenda aimed at eliminating the conditions that gave rise to the post-election violence. By far the most important goal of the agenda was a new constitution.

Again, COTU would be among the earliest campaigners for the draft constitution once it had been drawn up by a committee of experts (headed by Nzamba Kitonga) that Kibaki, in consultation with Prime Minister Odinga, had appointed. The draft would not go to a national referendum until 2010, but by October 2009, Atwoli was leading a COTU campaign in different parts of the country, drumming up support amongst workers for the new constitution. COTU had very good reason for supporting the new constitution: it decreed the creation of a specialised court with the status of a high court to deal with employment and labour relations, which would guarantee the rights of employers, employees and regulators. The first 12 judges of the court were sworn in by President Kibaki in 2011, barely a year after the constitution had been approved by an overwhelming majority in a national referendum.

International Trade Union History and Memory Network