gests ES Bie oN eee Rs ia ee “: - : woe Sa Arts/Review Assault on unions: sign of major change? THE ASSAULT ON TRADE UNION FREEDOMS. By Leo Panitch and Donald Swartz. Garamond Press, Toronto, 1988. 133 pages. Available at the People’s Co-op Bookstore. When Bill 19 struck down the Labour Code of B.C. and replaced it with the Indus- trial Relations Act of 1987, it marked a qualitative change in the attitude of the cap- italist state to trade union rights in the post- war period. Since the 1944 legalization of union security, through federal Order-in-Council P.C. 1003 and the province’s first provincial labour relations regulations adopted the same year, legislation has been used to con- trol the labour-capital conflict. Henceforth, those conflicts were waged within a legisla- tive framework that, although often excep- tionally repressive, still facilitated the existence and growth of trade unions. The post-war institutionalization of labour into bourgeois democracy reached its pinnacle with the NDP’s 1972 Labour Code, crafted by Paul Weiler. Weiler’s book, Reconcilable Differences, which recounts the story of the Labour Code and its legal and political basis, is the textbook version of the so-called “social contract.” The increasing attacks on trade union rights since the return of the Socred coali- tion in 1975 culminated in the Industrial Relations Act, which reversed the premise of all previous labour law since 1944. The new law is a framework inspired by neo- conservatism and the restructuring of capi- -- tal which sets out to diminish’ trade unionism as an economic and social force. Faced with this premise, the labour movement has taken the unprecedented step of declaring official defiance of the law, through its boycott of the Industrial Rela- tions Council. Leo Panitch and Donald Swartz in their new book, The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms, describe this process as the pass- ing of an era of “consent” and the consoli- dation in the 1980s of a new era of * “coercion” in labour relations. This book deepens and adds considera- bly to the analysis of the attack on labour by showing that the changing role of the state in labour relations is a Canada-wide phe- nomenon affecting all jurisdictions. Panitch and Swartz have woven into their analysis the record of the federal government and the Supreme Court in labour relations in each province. What emerges is the full pic- ture which verifies the assertion that we are now at “the end of the era of free collective bargaining in Canada.” The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms is the first serious and comprehensive study of the changing character of state intervention in labour and capital relations, and it will be warmly received in the labour movement and referred to often. The primary features of the new era are . described as a “permanent exceptionalism” which excludes a constantly growing section -of workers from basic rights — primarily the right to strike — and a “new ideology” which seeks to impose the priority of capi- tal’s needs over labour in all aspects of labour relations and law. Part I of this book is a revised edition of a previously published monograph, “From Consent to Coercion,” published in 1985. It traces the end of free collective bargaining to the federal wage control programs in the 1970s introduced by the Trudeau govern- ment. These were followed by mandatory public sector restraint programs in almost every province, and the 1982-1984 federal “6 and 5” program. In Part II, Panitch and Swartz describe the consolidation of the attack on collective bargaining which culminated in the Supreme Court decision of 1987 that the right of free 10 « Pacific Tribune, June 15, 1988 SS ee association guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights does not provide trade unionists with the right to strike. The detailed description of the court ruling and its implications, together with excerpts from the dissenting minority views of two judges, are particularly valuable to an appreciation of trade union rights in Canada today. Since that Supreme Court decision, the record shows that the courts and govern- ments have acted in tandem. And Panitch and Swartz bring the record remarkably up to date. The federal government’s attempt to bust the strike of the postal workers with scabs, the new and more coercive terms of federal back-to-work legislation against railway workers, longshoremen and postal workers, and new provincial legislation such as B.C.’s Bill 19, are surveyed. The categories of “consent” and “coer- cion” used by Panitch and Swartz to des- cribe the evolution of relations between the state and the organized working class are quite useful, but also tend to limit the analy- sis of state-monopoly policy. The authors repeat several times that neither the era of consent or coercion are exclusive, and that just as the coercive pow- ers of the state have been used against labour in past decades, labour retains cer- tain institutionalized rights today. But we must also ask: is it only that the emphasis has shifted from consent to coer- cion, or has the premise of labour law and state interference in labour relations under- gone fundamental change? The authors clearly argue that there is a fundamentally new situation facing labour, but they give only scant attention to the objective bases for the policy. shifts in monopoly-capital. A fuller treatment of the important changes in the capitalist econ- omy and the present economic and political objectives of monopoly-capital would add new dimensions to Panitch’s and Swartz’s analysis, and drive home the answer to what has changed. A case in point would be the trend to de-unionization and the attacks on union security. These are mentioned in The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms, but ‘Panitch’s and Swartz’s main concern is the use of coercion in labour disputes as it affects the right to strike. They show this main concern ina full and detailed description of controls on public sector unions and the government’s ven- _ detta against the Canadian Union of Postal Workers in particular. A similarly full assessment of the de-unionization of the construction industry in western Canada would have complemented and added to their analysis, and perhaps posed some further far reaching questions about the nature of the new era facing labour. In the final chapter, Panitch and Swartz examine the ability of the labour movement to respond to the new challenges and they reach conclusions that could, and should, be the subject of many books. The first is the need to break with the restrictions of “legalism,” the framework of institutionalized business unionism which has kept the labour movement within strict limits for 40 years and has dissipated ‘its class consciousness. The second conclusion is that labour should advance political strategies, parlia- mentary and extra-parliamentary, to assert its rights and achieve what cannot be won through collective bargaining alone. The last is that the labour movement adapt to the new era by strengthening its ties to the membership through more demo- cratic unions, enhancement of the role of women, and education to imbue the move- ment with socialist principles. : — Fred Wilson ——— labour. | RCMP at Building Trades strike in B.C., 1986 ... new era of state suppression of Women’s fight in S. Africa An internationally acclaimed play set to debut in British Columbia in July adds for Canadian audiences a fairly unique perspective on the struggle for an apartheid-free South Africa. You Strike the Woman, You Strike the Rock utilizes songs, mime and dance to put across the message that to be both black and a woman in the racist state is to be doubly oppressed. The play is named for an Aug. 9, 1954 uprising in which the largest gathering of women at the time protested the inclu- Rambo III ‘embarrassment’ Rambo producers, who use Soviet bashing and war mongering panic to make big bucks, are themselves in a panic about the Soviet troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, just when Sylvester Stallone is “invading” that country in Rambo III. As a result, according to Reuters, the producers have told their’ employees to avoid any mention of Afghanistan in relation to the film, which at US $63 million is the most expensive movie ever made. Reuters also reported that the Rambo III coming attractions Soviet covers primaries We’re used to typical U.S. treatment of things Soviet, and the Soviet media in particular. But with the spirit of glasnost prevailing, some American media outlets are lightening up, and now the Public Broadcasting System offers a new, good- natured look at the trials and successes of a Soviet journalist in the United States. KCTS Channel 9 will present ’Dear Comrades’, an installment of the PBS Good Morning America series in which the exploits of Vladimir Dounaev, Washington correspondent for Vremya magazine, are covered as he in turn cov- ers the presidential primaries in Iowa. Promising to show both humour and sion of women in the country’s notorious pass laws. : The play’s Canadian debut is at Hartl- son Festival for the Arts, July 9-10, fol- lowed by an appearance at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival at Jericho Beach Park July 15-17. From there it goes to the Vancouver East Cultural Centre for 4 three-week run, July 19-Aug. 7. Tickets for that venue are $10 Tuesday to Thurs- day and Sunday, and $12 Friday and Saturday. Phone the VECC, 254-9578, or VTC, 280-4444, have been booed and jeered in theatres around the country. ; Stallone, whose movie champions the “cause” of the Afghan reactionary CIA- backed feudal contra tribes, had no such qualms about filming Rambo III in Israel, where soldiers routinely massacre Palestinians. “I got off the plane and said, ‘Yeah, this is it,” mused Stallone. “Tt feels like the kind of place where you should make Rambo.” — People’s Daily World unique insights into “the changing nature of Soviet media,” the 30-minute show airs Thursday, June 23, 7:30 p.m. and again on Sunday, June 26, 3 p.m. It’s closed-captioned for the hearing im- paired. Pablo Neruda KCTS features an award-winning tribute to Chile’s greatest poet, Pablo Neruda, on International TV: Burning Issues. Made by exiled Chilean director Antonio Skarmeta, it airs Tuesday, July 5, 11 p.m. PHOTO — HOWIE SMITH