CCOO IS NO LONGER A CLASS- CONSCIOUS TRADE UNION
For many readers, this statement may seem a very strong one, but it is also unfortunately so true that it is already difficult that this trade union could recover its former condition. Let’s not go into when CCOO ceased to be a class-conscious organization; let’s just remember that this trade union, founded 50 years ago, does no longer comply with the “necessary requirements for a class-conscious trade union” which were stated in its foundational documents.
This text’s approximately 4,000 characters which I have been told to limit myself to, won´t allow me to go into a detailed explanation. I will do that in future articles if I am given the chance to. But I want to review now, point by point, what CCOO was in its origins (when it was an important reference in Spain and abroad), and not what it has become today, making it clear, however, that I am talking about the trade union as a whole, and, especially, about its current leaders, and not about specific cases or about important sectors of the trade union’s base, which is honest and struggle-oriented (but whose voice is heard less and less by the leadership).
CCOO is no longer a class-conscious trade union, as it doesn´t defend the working class, the exploited, from the real attacks of its enemy, the ruling, bourgeois capitalist class. It denies the existence of class struggle by simply not talking about it (contrary to what it did in the past) in any of its documents, neither in its congress documents nor in its main resolutions. Moreover, it has acquired, in its “official language”, the terms used by the enemies of the working class; for instance, using “social agent” instead of social class.
CCOO is no longer an independent trade union capable of helping workers to realize that they are exploited and that the added value of what they produce is taken away from them. Its training courses depend not only on EU and bourgeois governments’ subsidies, but its contents do not include anything that may contradict the capitalist concepts about society.
CCOO is no longer a democratic union, as its leaders, through their decisions, do not respect their workers´ opinions. In most cases, the affected workers´ claims are not even taken into account (the recent conflict at PANRICO is, among many others, one of the most recent and painful examples), and, even if workers are consulted, their opinions are put aside if they don´t agree with those of the leaders.
CCOO is no longer a trade union that represents the working class after having signed many Social Pacts whose execution follows the employers’ claims. One of the most outrageous and recent ones has been the acceptance of the new cutbacks in pensions, especially bearing in mind the fact that there´s enough money for them.
CCOO is no longer an assembly-style organization. It continuously takes its decisions without calling the necessary assemblies in which to discuss and develop the much needed debates as the only way to reach true agreements based on workers´ points of view and demands. Its last assembly-style decision was taken during the 1980s in Catalonia, when assemblies were called in all its regions to decide whether or not the Social Pact was accepted. Most of the workers voted “NO” to the agreement, while, at the end, the leadership voted “YES” at the Spanish national meeting.
CCOO is no longer a participatory trade union, as its leaders draft in their offices their proposals for the negotiations, trying afterwards to present them as the best possible proposal for the workers. In reality, the current CCOO leadership does not hold any consultations with their affiliates prior to signing major agreements with the governments (headed by PP or PSOE) and the employers.
CCOO is no longer an unitary trade union because it doesn´t strive for the union among the various trade unions, while, at the same time, accepts the division imposed to the working class by the employers. At this point I want to mention different agreements signed by CCOO, as the one at Pirelli, signed at the end of the XX century, in which it accepted different payment and working conditions based on seniority in the company and on other criteria.
CCOO is no longer a struggling trade union. It never calls to actions really useful in order to force the employers to yield to the just claims of the workers. During the last years, it has just called actions (strikes and demonstrations) only to justify its own existence, but not as a useful tool in the hands of the working class.
CCOO is no longer a socio-political trade union, as it doesn´t take part –only once in a while and always following other organizations’ steps– in neighborhood struggles or in any other conflicts connected with solidarity, housing or environmental claims that used to be part of its agenda in the past.
CCOO is no longer an internationalist trade union, as it doesn´t stand for unity of the working class beyond the national borders established by the bourgeoisie in order to keep the world capitalist system, and no longer criticizes (as it used to do) imperialism imposed by capitalism in order to steal raw materials from the peoples of the world, as the colonists did in the past. The most outrageous recent example of this attitude lies in the support given by CCOO (through its partnership at the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) to military actions during the invasion of Libya by NATO.
I don´t want to analyze the sad and numerous cases of corruption in which several member of CCOO are involved, or to make any further comment on the fact that the two general secretaries following Marcelino Camacho, Antonio Gutierrez Vegara and José María Fidalgo, have respectively ended at the ranks of PSOE and PP. This is the logical outcome of the abandonment of the class-conscious positions.
Quim Boix Lluch, founder member and former national leader of CCOO, and current leader of the WFTU (CP, Presidential Council), General Secretary of TUI of Pensioners and Retirees (P&R); http://www.wftucentral.org/?language=en; http://www.pensionistas.info/web/en; Tlf : 0034 609547814
