Statement by Comité de Solidarité avec la Lutte du Peuple Egyptien (The Committee of Solidarity with the Egyptian People's Struggle) January 26 2011 The events of the Egyptians against the Mubarak dictatorship are violently repressed.
The crackdown against demonstrators in Cairo and in many cities across Egypt has left at least 6 dead, hundreds injured and arrested.
As in Tunisia when the dictatorship of Ben Ali has been shaken and the dictator ousted by the tremendous mobilization of the Tunisian people and especially its youth, the Egyptian people and its youth have gone to attack the Mubarak regime and shout their refusal dictatorship, nepotism, corruption and evil spirits.
This Wednesday, January 26, 2011, was launched a committee of solidarity with the struggle of the Egyptian people with the aim to gather in a hurry all the voices in solidarity to say:
DOWN WITH THE DICTATORSHIP OF MUBARAK
STOP THE CRACKDOWN, TORTURE, IMPRISONMENT
HALT STATE OF EMERGENCY AND CENSORSHIP
LONG LIVE THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE’S FIGHT AGAINST DICTATORSHIP
The Committee of Solidarity with the Egyptian People's Struggle
Committee of Solidarity with the Egyptian people's struggle: First signatories: (Egyptian Citizens of France - CEF); (Federation of Tunisian citizens on both banks - FTCR), Comité pour le Respect des Libertés et des Droits de l’ Homme en Tunisie (Committee for the Respect of Liberties and Human Rights in Tunisia – CRLDHT), Association des Travailleurs Maghrébins en France (Association of North African Workers - ATMF); Campagne Civile Internationale pour la Protection du Peuple Palestinien (International Civil Campaign for the Protection of the Palestinian People - CCIPPP); Union syndicale Solidaires (Trade Union Solidarity)
Olivier Besancenot, spokesperson for the Nouveau Parti Anti-Capitaliste was in Tunisia earlier this week to find out about the revolution happening there. Here are his impressions.
How did this trip to Tunisia come about?
It’s something I’ve never seen before. I’m part of that generation of revolutionaries which has never lived the experience. It’s the first time I’ve been through something like that in real life. I saw it with my own eyes. I love this collective enthusiasm, it’s contagious and intoxicating. As I’m speaking to you there are still thousands of citizens on the streets, in clusters, hundreds of people who are describing the events on Facebook and Twitter, trade unionists who are mobilised to demand the resignation of the “new” government. The revolution is continuing here. What is your feeling about this popular uprising?
Revolution is a complex process which moves ahead little by little and creates its own path. The revolution is continuing because it has only one goal: to get rid of this charade of a government. At the moment the Tunisian oligarchy still has the country in its grip; the police are also controlled by them as is every sector of the economy and that suits no one here. The opposition wants to convene a constituent assembly to change the institutions and move along a new road.
So, revolution isn’t a crazy dream? Does that give you any ideas?
Yes. I’m absolutely filled with hope (laughter). I know now that revolution is possible, it’s there, under my eyes. No revolution resembles another. There is no model. When people have tried to copy it has often ended badly. I’m here to learn and to understand. I’m noting things about organisation, the structure of the movement and it’s thrilling. We too really need a social-democratic revolution.
You’ve met some of the opposition. Do you think they are ready to take power?
I’m not there to speak in the name of the Tunisian people – it has proved that it does not need anyone for that – but one of the first things they said was “it’s our revolution and we don’t want anyone to steal it from us”. They didn’t expect that it would spread across borders.
And you?
I’d answer by quoting Ken Loach: “revolutions are always contagious.” What happened in Egypt yesterday and has been happening for a few days in Algeria is extremely important.
Do you hope to to go Egypt in the next few days?
I’m not a revolutionary tourist (laughter) and am not on a pilgrimage. I came to Tunisia at the request of my comrades whom I’ve been in touch with since the start of the movement. We had simply agreed that I would visit at an appropriate time. I’m in touch with people in Egypt of course. We’ll see what attitude we should take. However our job in France is to fight against our own government and our own imperialism. It’s obviously not the right that’s going to do that.
And the left?
The Socialist Party won’t do anything anymore. Let me remind you that a few days ago Ben Ali was part of the Socialist International and that it was the present government which covered his regime.
What do people in Tunisia think of France’s attitude?
They are very angry. Sarkozy’s excuses are waffle. No one here believes him. I’ve explained that not everyone in France supported the government and all its actions. I’ve heard the French media criticise the government’s hesitancy but it’s much worse than that – it is active, concrete, economic and financial complicity.
And are they asking anything from France?
They don’t have any intention of living in a dictatorship, that’s for sure. They are not expecting anything from the French government. They have been disappointed and will ask for nothing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Olivier Besancenot is the best-known spokesperson of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), formed in 2009 following a call by the Revolutionary Communist League (Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), French section of the Fourth International). As candidate for the LCR in the presidential elections in 2002 and 2007, he received 1.2 million votes (4.5%) and 1.5 million votes (4.2%) respectively.
The Statement of the National Administrative Commission of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) Published on MRZine on January 23 2011
1. The General Union of Tunisian Workers is a national organization necessarily interested in political affairs, given its history of struggle during the colonial epoch and the period of the construction of the modern state, considering the dialectical links among economy, society, politics, and culture in the process of development, but out task has become more urgent than ever. 2. The UGTT National Administrative Commission recalls that the withdrawal of UGTT ministers from the government is due to the government's failure to respond to the conditions set by the UGTT Executive Office in its 15 January 2011 statement, a position whose correctness has been proven and which corresponds to the demands of masses of demonstrators and the rest of the civil and political society.
3. In view of massive demonstrations across the country demanding the dissolution of the government and rejecting the participation of RCD representatives in it; also in view of numerous resignations in response to the rejection by various political parties and currents; and because of the urgent need to restore the confidence of all in order to proceed to the effective preparation for the reforms that have been announced; the members of the UGTT National Administrative Commission demand the dissolution of the government and the establishment of a "national salvation" coalition government which responds to the demands of demonstrators, political parties, associations, NGOs, and all the people.
4. The National Administrative Commission decides, with a view to effectively taking part in a commission for political reforms, to create trade union committees composed of experts and specialists to work out UGTT proposals on political, economic, and social reforms necessary for the establishment of democracy, as well as transparent elections to ensure the freedom of choice, to lay the foundations for a parliamentary government, and to permit dissemination of accurate information. Moreover, the UGTT demands that members of its National Administrative Commission be represented in the commission of inquiry on the killings of innocent citizens during demonstrations, to bring those responsible for them to justice, and be also represented in the commission of inquiry on corruption and other crimes.
5. The UGTT calls upon all workers to oppose all attempts to disrupt the normal functioning of institutions and to obstruct their return to normal activity, as well as to be on guard in defense of our achievements and to ensure the continuation of necessary mechanisms for the management and conduct of daily functions, in order to preserve the vital interests of the people and to avoid the vacuum that does lasting damage to workers and citizens.
6. The UGTT reaffirms its commitment to continue to wage the legitimate struggle, whether by striking or demonstrating peacefully, until the government is restructured according to the conditions set by the UGTT, which correspond to the demands of all segments of the political spectrum as well as of the people.
7. The UGTT demands that the 14th of January be proclaimed as national holiday, for the public and private sectors, for civil service, and for all the sectors of people.
8. The UGTT urgently appeals to all trade unionists and workers to preserve the unity of their organization in order to ensure the continuity of the struggle and achieve the workers' demands, in interaction with the demands of protesters and the general public, and to remain vigilant against all attempts to split our ranks and to divide the unity of our decisions at this sensitive stage in the history of our country.
Long live the struggle of our brave people on the path to dignity in Tunisia.
Tunis, 21 January 2011 Secretary General Abdulsalam Jarad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The original statement in Arabic was published on the UGTT Web site: . A summary French translation is available at , and a summary Spanish translation at .
The members of the National Administrative Commission of the Tunisian General Trade Union held an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday, 18 January 2011 in Gammarth, headed by the General Secretary comrade Abdessalem Jerad. They analyzed the rapid developments witnessed by the country and assessed the sacrifices made by the trade unionists, the workers, the population and the martyrs in the historical popular uprising to resist injustice, oppression and delinquency. Since the members of the Administrative Commission believe in the national and social role, which has long been played by the labor Organization in the struggle for freedom, justice and human rights, they: 1 - Stand in humility and homage for the martyrs who perished during the uprising of our people against oppression and tyranny, against the protection of the corrupt gang that lived in our country and for the resistance to an oppressive system based on abolishing public and individual freedoms and human rights.
2 - Remind that the Tunisian General Trade Union was the first organization that alerted the Government through its studies and memoirs, and its speech to the public, about the situation of tension and anger that has reached our youth and our people as a result of the clumsy development policies which led to unemployment and poverty and created a void in the social and cultural development.
3 - Stand in tribute and appreciation for the solidarity between all the social classes in order to maintain security and public property. They also stress the fact that the acts of vandalism and looting were carried out by groups who were paid by symbols of the presidential security and by spoilers from the family of former president as well as his followers and relatives. They consider that any attempts to divert the public opinion from the real perpetrators of these acts of vandalism and looting represent a kind of deception and obfuscation.
4 - Call for the immediate freezing of the accounts of the former president, his family and in-laws and the nationalization of their properties and to prevent all the suspects from leaving the Tunisian territory waiting for the outcome of the investigations that will be conducted by the committee formed for this purpose.
5 - Stress the need for the announced political reforms to be immediately effective, including the separation between Political Party and State, the passing of a general legislative amnesty, the revision of the Constitution and the Electoral Code and enabling all the political sensitivities of their right to get organized and to exercise their political activities freely, away from all the pressures and constraints.
6 - Call for the creation of representative structures with broad powers to monitor the implementation of the immediate measures that were announced as well as the political, economic and social reforms.
7- In order to reinforce the trade unionist rights, according to the international conventions and the local laws, the members of the Administrative Commission call for the immediate dissolution of the professional divisions and their federations since they are parallel structures that clearly damaged worker relations and the social climate within the institutions of production. They also stress the need to dissolve the structures of the Constitutional Democratic Party, a party that is still headed by former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
8 - Ask for reviewing the terms of the right to demonstrate peacefully in order to eliminate crippling strictures that limit people’s freedom to protest against the adopted policies that contradict with their interests and aspirations.
9 - Despite the fact that the Tunisian General Trade Union is keen to social and political reforms and to the need to strengthen them, it considers that the composition of the announced coalition government does not respond to the conditions set by the Executive Bureau in the statement issued on Saturday 15 January 2011 and does not correspond to the aspirations of the workers and the population concerning real renewal, breaking off with the old practices, and equilibriums. This is due to the number of representatives of the previous government and the ruling party in the coalition government as well as the marginalization of the role of the representatives of the Tunisian General Trade Union. The members of the Administrative Commission announce the withdrawal of their representatives from the coalition government, and the resignation of the union members from the House of Representatives, the Council of Advisers and the municipal councils as well as the freezing of the membership of the Tunisian General Trade Union in the Economic and Social Council as well its membership in the Supreme Councils.
10 - Reject all forms of external intervention to guide our people and to influence them because the population who managed to overthrow a President who suppressed all those who upheld the right to freedom of expression, is qualified to chart their own destiny away from guardianship.
11 - Call for working to form an elected constituent assembly, through free and democratic elections, which reflects the will of our people to build a better future.
12 - Decide to give an amnesty to the trade unionists whose activity was suspended in all sectors and regions.
The following are some statements by unions and international confederations regarding events in Tunisia. The statement by French confederations is a rough translation of the text published on Solidaires website.
1. ITUC Calls on Affiliates to Mobilise against Repression of Demonstrations 12 January 2011: The International Trade Union Confederation has called on its affiliated organisations around the globe to mobilise against the violent repression of demonstrators by the Tunisian security forces. According to trade union sources, over fifty people are thought to have died in clashes between the security forces and protestors, and many more have been injured.
The wave of demonstrations was unleashed when a young street vendor from Sidi Bouzid committed suicide on 17 December 2010 following the confiscation of his merchandise by the authorities. In four weeks, the protest movement has spread beyond Tunisia’s socio-economically disadvantaged central region, reaching the capital, Tunis, and other towns across the country.
On Monday 10 January, President Zine El Abidine pledged to create 300,000 jobs in 2011 and 2012 to curb unemployment, and described the protests as "terrorist acts". The ITUC is calling for concrete measures to fulfil the welcome jobs pledge as well as an immediate halt to the violent repression and the opening of a genuine dialogue with the Tunisian people, to promote more equitable development. The ITUC has joined with its Tunisian affiliate the UGTT in expressing solidarity with the people of Tunisia and supporting the call for a development model guaranteeing equal opportunities, the right to decent work, and job opportunities providing a stable income capable of meeting their needs.
"The opening of a genuine dialogue is urgently needed in Tunisia," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. "The demonstrators are desperate young people just looking to make ends meet. It is up to the Tunisian authorities to take every action to help them. It must also ensure that those detained be immediately released. The government must fulfil its obligations under international law to respect trade union rights and fundamental liberties such as freedom of expression."
The ITUC supports the general strike planned in the 3 regions by the UGTT and condemns the police blockades at the UGTT offices in several towns and the use of force to prevent trade unionists from organising peaceful protests.
2. Statement Thursday, January 13, 2011 at a meeting of the Labour Exchange in Paris
With the Tunisian central union UGTT, the French trade unions CGT, CFDT, FO, FSU, UNSA and Solidaires, denounce the repressive policy of the Tunisian government. They condemn the shoot to kill policy in Thala, Kasserine and Ar-Reqab and denounced the raid that destroyed the premises of the UGTT in Kasserine.
The wave of anger triggered three weeks ago in Sidi Bouzid by self-immolation of the youth Mohamed Bouazizi express in Tunisia a vast movement of demands for jobs and a decent life.
The regime responds by force and killing. According to a provisional report, some 50 people in the cities of Kasserine and Thala, died. , we must add those killed and injured in other regions, the exact count of victims is not yet clear.
The army was deployed yesterday to the capital and major cities and a curfew is introduced. Faced with such a policy we fear the worst.
With the UGTT, French unions call for immediate withdrawal of the military from towns, the end of the state of emergency affecting some areas and the release of all prisoners.
The six French organizations demand, with the Tunisian trade unionists that those who opened fire on demonstrators are prosecuted and punished. They support the request of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to the UN for a transparent and credible inquiry.
The current announcements of the regime are not credible. The Tunisian Government declares the freeing of all detained since the start of movement and proceeds at the same time to more arrests. Without significant action and concrete commitments, promises of job creation, vague recognition of corruption or changes of ministers are just manifestations of a helpless regime that this crisis has called into question.
French trade union organisations declare solidarity with the Tunisian central union in claiming that a country's development model should meet the basic needs of the population, based on regional balance and for which the state and the public sector must ensure their investment function.
Tunisian workers claim a right to a decent job providing a steady income allowing everyone to meet their needs and providing guarantees in the event of loss of employment. We therefore support the request of the Tunisian central union to create an unemployment fund.
The French unions say they are also supportive of the claims of unionists and the Tunisian people who aspire to democracy, respect for civil liberties, the press and media, independence of the judiciary and respect for union rights to demonstrate and strike. Many rights violated by a regime that takes breath, year after year has reinforced repression and authoritarianism.
The six French organizations also wish to express their indignation at the statements of some members of the French government supporting President Ben Ali denying the authoritarian nature of the Tunisian regime or opting for cooperation with the Tunisian authorities to maintain order.
Also, they ask the government to cease its support for the police regime of Ben Ali, who is now unable to receive the explicit or implicit guarantee of democratic governments.
They also call upon the EU to demand that the Tunisian government respects the clause on respect for democracy and human rights and fundamental freedoms of association in the Accord with Tunisia. It must be the same in the negotiations leading to a partnership of the European Union with this country.
They finally call on the French and European authorities to demand the release and amnesty of prisoners and those convicted following the social movements, including those of 2008 in the mining area of Gafsa.
3. Statement of the National Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor Union
The Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor Union held a meeting on Saturday, January 15, 2011, after examining the outcome of the social and political conditions in the country and the resulting struggles of workers, trade unionists and the general public, in addition to the confirmed ability of our comrades of the Tunisian General Labor Union to regulate the movement of strike and to make it succeed. The Executive Bureau:
1 - Greets the general public, for its struggle to oppose injustice, oppression, persecution and all forms of corruption and misconduct. It renews the condemnation of the great campaigns of genocide and assassination that have targeted innocent and defenseless people who were demonstrating for the right to decent work in a society characterized by freedom, democracy and human rights and the fundamental rights of workers represent an integral part of these characteristics.
2 - Praises the role played by the Tunisian General Labor Union in embracing the workers, led by trade unionist and sectoral structures, and in its success in embracing the rest of the segments of the population, protecting and defending them and their social interests.
3 - Calls for the need to apply the Constitution, respect the chapters relating to the mechanisms to get out of the crisis and the formation of a national coalition government composed of intellectual, political and social figures and which should not include persons from the dissolved government. The task of this government is to work to protect the citizens and families of all forms of robbery and assault and to ensure their safety.
4 - Emphasizes the need for the immediate formation of the following committees: A) A fact-finding commission to prosecute all the people involved in the assassination of citizens either by shooting or by giving orders to do so. B) A follow-up Committee to capture the corrupt, the manipulators of people's money and those who caused corruption in whatever form. The commission should include independent figures and jurists selected through consultation with the components of civil society. C) A national committee to review the Constitution and the Electoral Code and all the laws relating to political reform in order to ensure the preparation for democratic elections that reflect the aspirations of our people and respond to the demands of the strikers in order to give the possibility for the parliamentary government to establish the rule of law and institutions.
5 - Calls for a real freedom of the media through the dissolution of the High Council for Communication and the Tunisian Agency for External Communication and the formation of an independent commission to direct the media in our country.
6 - Calls for the immediate dissolution of the professional divisions and the professional federations that they created, because they represented one of the causes of tension within the institutions of production and work sites.
7 - Stresses the need to uphold the enactment of a general legislative amnesty. 8 - Calls for the separation between the political parties and the state structures and to an in-depth review of the concept of security and its structures and functions.
9 - Affirms the right to peaceful demonstration and emphasizes the freedom of association away from any pressures or restrictions.
10 - Draws the attention to the need to preserve the public and private properties and the peaceful and free expression and invites business owners and retail stores to return to their economic activity and to open their shops to meet the needs of citizens in order to reduce some aspects of looting and robbery carried out by groups of suspicious identity.
11 - Calls the regional and local trade union structures to form committees to protect the headquarters of the unions, the public properties and institutions and to protect families and citizens and the general public from all the forms of robbery and assault.
The General Secretary
Abdessalem Jerad
4. Statement of the Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor Union
The Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor Union held a meeting on Sunday, 16 January 2011 under the chairmanship of the General Secretary comrade Abdessalem Jerad to follow the latest developments in our country asthe existence of a gang whose relationship with some symbols of the former regime was confirmed. This gang attempted to instill fear and chaos among the population. The Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor union:
1 - Calls for an immediate freeze on all assets of the former President and all the bank accounts of his family and in-laws and to prevent any attempt to leave the Tunisian territory until the outcome of the investigation that will be led by an appointed commission entrusted with revealing all financial excesses, all forms of corruption and the attacks on people's property.
2 - Calls the officials and the responsible charged with forming a coalition government to provide people with minute information about what is happening in our country like organized sabotage, the attempts to spread terror among the citizens and the rapid and urgent actions to be taken to preserve the safety of all families.
3 - Addresses all the trade union structures, the workers and the entire population:
Dear trade unionists Dear workers Dear citizens
Our country is witnessing a situation that includes attempts of some people, whose relationship with the former regime was confirmed, to spread terror, fear and chaos among the population. In order to face the crimes committed against our people and their properties, against the gains achieved over the long process of national and the social struggle and to stop doubting in the path that we want to build with all the components of civil society and all the national forces in addition to opposing the revitalization of black market, the Executive Bureau of the Tunisian General Labor Union calls all the workers to resume working and all tradesmen to open their shops starting from Monday, 17 January 2011
Let us have another date with history, Let us be united in defending the interests of our people, our institutions and our work
Let us be a strong unit in confronting all attempts of spreading confusion and organized terrorism against our people.
United Electrical Workers (UE) members in Massachusetts are once again gearing up to stop the company that closed their plant from auctioning off its equipment for scrap. They’re asking New England union members to come to Taunton, south of Boston, January 19 to blockade the Haskon Aerospace factory, a maker of door seals and silicone gaskets for aircraft, and prevent the auction from taking place. Besides UE members from throughout the Northeast, Jobs with Justice chapters, local unions, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Jewish Labor Committee, students and professors from Stonehill College, local residents, and the Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Central Labor Council will be there.
The Taunton City Council backs the union’s bid to keep open the 80-year-old plant, which has provided jobs for generations of residents. The council voted unanimously to take Haskon’s equipment by eminent domain, planning to then sell it to a buyer or to the workers themselves. But the council needs permission from the state legislature, which won’t convene till January 21.
Haskon’s parent company, Esterline Technologies, postponed the scheduled auction once in response to union pressure, but has generally been highly uncooperative, on everything from severance pay to health insurance to the fate of the presses. The company has demanded that workers pay more than triple what an appraiser says the presses and equipment are worth.
The UE members were offered solidarity by a Canadian Auto Workers local experienced in fighting a plant auction. President Gerry Farnham’s CAW Local 195 blockaded an auction in November 2009 to keep a Chrysler supplier from selling off equipment while it still owed workers hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance, vacation, and other benefits.
The company had employed 80 CAW members. “We strategized here in Windsor [Ontario] with all the brother and sister locals around,” Farnham said. “I called a meeting of all the presidents. I told them, ‘I have two facilities I have to block.’
“We had retirees out, we really mobilized our people. They had picket signs with what they were owed—$25,000, $30,000—so the media and people in the community could put a face to a person who’d worked there 25 years and wasn't going to receive a penny.”
Farnham said the Windsor area was lucky because a local union with a problem can call a flying squad to come to its aid. His call resulted in 200 workers and supporters forcing their way through the door of the Radisson Hotel, running up the stairs (the elevators were shut down), and taking over the auction room. The auction was halted.
“Had we not reacted in the manner in which we did,” Farnham said, “there is no doubt in any of our workers’ minds they would not have received one penny.” Earlier, workers had occupied their plant, chaining the doors shut for four days to keep the company from removing equipment. They eventually received $650,000 from Chrysler and from Comerica bank.
See Keep Haskon Jobs in Taunton! for updated information. Call Peter Knowlton, UE regional president, at 774-264-0110 if your union is sending a delegation to the Haskon plant, 336 Weir St. in Taunton. They’re asking for support at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, January 19.
Further information on the campaign are available on Labor Notes and from UE.
In 1968, the world was transfixed by global student unrest. Less attention was paid to factory uprisings that occurred at the same time and overlapped with campus protests in places like France. In one small corner of the Ford Motor Company's huge production complex in Dagenham, England, several hundred women did their part in the "year of revolt." Toiling in their own-sex-segregated department, the only females in a plant of 55,000 had walked out many times in the past, over strike issues dear to their male co-workers. Now, it was their turn to shut down sewing machines, stop production of seat covers, and picket Ford over a pay dispute with broader social implications.
Made in Dagenham is the story of their strike -- born of working-class feminist consciousness in a labor movement even more dominated by "the lads" forty years ago than it is today. Schmaltzy, upbeat, and out of synch with our current workplace gestalt of hopelessness and defeat, this filmis just what the head doctor ordered for holiday entertainment. It is, by far, the best popular depiction of union activist creation since Ken Loach's Bread and Roses and Martin Ritt's Norma Rae. If unions don't use it to train shop stewards and bargaining committee members, that failure of labor education imagination will be understandable because Made in Dagenham captures the frequent tension between labor's full-time officialdom and its working members, particularly during strikes.
The strike leader played by Sally Hawkins in Nigel Cole's new movie is a very British version of the Southern textile worker portrayed so famously by Sally Fields in 1979. Rita O'Grady is not even a union steward in the film's early scenes of shop-floor life and work. She steps into that role only because her older co-worker, Connie, is dealing with the suicidal depression of her husband, a damaged survivor of wartime duty in the RAF. Unlike the mill where Norma Rae toiled, the Dagenham plant is completely organized. Unfortunately, with the exception of Albert, a loveable chief steward ally (wonderfully played by Bob Hoskins), the union, which is a composite of several actually involved, seems to function as an arm of Ford's HR department, a labor-management relationship not unknown to autoworkers in this country.
The political traditions of British trade unions give this arrangement humorous left cover. In one memorable scene, a clutch of worried officials, in jackets and ties, are trying to talk Rita out of strike action that might upend some murky, big-picture strategy the leadership is pursuing. While condescending to the only worker in the room, they address each other as "comrade" and invoke Marx as the final authority on what should and should not be done!
Rita's first bargaining session is a face-to-face meeting with Ford officials about their misclassification of the sewing machine operators as un-skilled labor. Both Rita and Connie (Geraldine James) get a day off from work and overdress for the occasion. Monty, their full-time union representative (played by Kenneth Cranham), first takes them out for a well-lubricated lunch, a perk designed to put Rita and Connie (Geraldine James) in his debt. Monty has obviously been off the job and out of the plant for years; his main preoccupation now seems to be eating and drinking at dues-payer expense, dressing nicely, and seeing the company's side of things. When the union delegation finally sits down with management, Monty does all the talking and fails to give Ford a firm deadline for fixing the problem.
Shocked by the incompetence of her own union negotiator, and his coziness with employer representatives, Rita commandeers the meeting. She interrupts Monty and pulls out samples of the seat covers stitched by the workers in her department. She explains the complexity of the labor process involved and insists that Ford properly reward the skill and experience necessary to do the job. The scene is a great tutorial in how to make effective job upgrade presentations -- and, believe me, they're always done best by those who do the actual work. The bosses are so taken aback that one can only respond with a threat of discipline for Rita's lifting of the material used in her demonstration.
The radicalization of Rita that follows is a sight to be seen. Hawkins' character in this film is no Poppy, the loopy Cockney in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky that won her a Golden Globe and a slew of other awards in 2008. She is a mother with two children, working the proverbial "double shift" in a traditional marriage to a fellow Dagenham worker (played by Daniel Mays) who is sweet but weak-willed. She's a woman previously lacking in personal self-confidence, a stranger to public speaking, and bereft of "political experience" (as Ford officials discover when they scour her file expecting to find evidence of left-wing party connections).
Under the tutelage of Albert (a far more appealing version of the union mentors played by Ron Leibman in Norma Rae and Adrien Brody in Bread and Roses), Rita finds her own voice, a streak of determination, and the capacity to move others. As in many strikes, rank-and-file unity is stronger at the beginning. Then, as the job action spreads, thousands are thrown out of work and the recriminations begin to fly. For some workers, organizing strike relief, attending rallies, maintaining picket-lines, and meeting other union members is a learning experience, liberating and even euphoric. Others -- in this case, mainly fearful or disgruntled guys -- slink away to the pub. There, they watch strike coverage on the telly and grouse about the economic hardship inflicted on the real breadwinners in the community by a handful of unreasonable women.
Rita's own Norma Rae moment occurs at a union conference, not standing on the picket-line or a work bench in the plant. Monty and the other "comrades" have scheduled a vote, among the entirely male conference delegates, that will end this costly "industrial action" at Ford, without a favorable resolution of the job grading issue. Rita and her roving pickets are the only women at the meeting. Rita takes the stage and delivers a moving, but simple, speech recalling the wartime courage of her co-worker's husband, the now deceased RAF veteran. "Men and women, we are in this together," she tells the stone-faced crowd. "We are not divided by sex. Only by those willing to accept injustice." Moved, shamed, and/or inspired by her message, the delegates vote to continue union backing for the Dagenham strike, which, by then, was creating widespread disruption of Ford production.
The company responds by sending a hard-nosed executive from Detroit to read the riot act to Britain's then-Labour Government. If the strike is not ended, Ford strongly hints, it might shift Cortina production to a land where the blokes and birds aren't so strike-happy. The prime minister at the time was the wishy-washy Harold Wilson. His First Secretary of State was Barbara Castle, a longtime member of parliament (played with flair by Miranda Richardson) who takes charge of the situation when Wilson doesn't. In the film, with a little waving of Castle's magic wand, a dispute over pay-grading in a particular auto plant job classification gets transformed, for PR purposes, into a broader demand for "equal pay." Two years after the walkout was finally settled with an increase for the sewing machine operators (that still left them earning less than men in the same job grade), Parliament did enact legislation against pay discrimination, based on gender. The measure was not fully implemented until 1975.
But the social reality, in the meantime, was a bit more complex, as several British commentators, including Sheila Cohen, have noted (see Cohen's critique of the film at thecommune.co.uk.) The real-life Labour Party feminist shown negotiating with Rita and her friends in London triggered a trade union revolt in 1969 with a white paper entitled "In Place of Strife." Castle (who would later become Baroness Castle of Blackburn) created a backlash against Wilson's government and contributed to Labour's electoral defeat in 1970, when she tried to curb union rights and quell the broader strike wave that the women of Dagenham surfed so impressively.
The finer points of British left and labor history aside, if you liked Brassed Off, The Full Monty, or Billy Elliot, Made in Dagenham is the film for you. The lyrics for its theme song, performed by former Dagenham worker Sandie Shaw, were written by the British protest rocker, Billy Bragg (who has a street in Dagenham named after him). It's not coal miners or steelworkers who take center stage this time, but sewing machine operators who were no less skilled in the hard work of union solidarity.
Steve Early was involved in telecom and manufacturing strikes and bargaining for 27 years as a New England representative of the Communications Workers of America. He is the author of Embedded with Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home. His new book, due out February 1 from Haymarket Books, is called The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor. He can be reached at . For speaking event information, visit: .
Revitalising Labour attempts to reflect on efforts to rebuild the labour movement internationally, emphasising the role that left-wing political currents can play in this process. It welcomes contributions on union struggles, internal renewal processes within the labour movement and the struggle against capitalism and imperialism.
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