Towards radical political unionism?

The purpose of this chapter is to rehearse the theoretical basis for the concept and practice of radical political unionism. In The Crisis (of Social Democratic Trade Unionism) we outlined the limits and possibilities of trade union action by analysing the relationship between trade unions, workers’ parties and the state. We stressed that ‘social democratic’ trade unions under capitalism exhibit a contradictory relationship with capital – they bargain within the system, but are unable to transform it because of a passive acceptance of the legitimacy of capitalist property relations. This relationship places constraints on unions’ ability to act as agents of transformative change, and leaves the trade union leaders in a special social position as mediators between capital and labour. ‘Social democratic’ unions are also constrained, albeit consciously and willingly, by the divorce of politics (left to the Party) and economics (the remit of the Union). Richard Hyman (1996: 66) has described this form of trade unionism as ‘political economism’ whereby a complex process of institution building occurred associated with ‘political exchange’ or ‘neo-corporatism’. The resulting institutions articulated a reciprocal relationship between Labour (seen as trade union leaderships), Capital and the State and involved the exchange of union restraint over wage militancy for labour friendly or labour neutral government policies. These relationships displayed marked national specificities alongside functional similarities and convergence.