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Palestine ’s democratic trade unions unite

At the end of July, Socialist Resistance correspondent Tony Richardson visited Ramallah for the launch meeting of a very important new democratic trade union federation in Palestine - the Coalition of Democratic and Independent Trade Unions.

OVER THE LAST four or five years, workers in Palestine have been forming independent, and democratic unions.

The main pattern has been that they have formed workers councils in individual workplaces, and then by uniting these councils to form sector unions. They have often done this, with the assistance of the ‘Democracy and Workers Rights Centre’. (DWRC)

These new formations have been meeting with some older democratic unions, and have now come together to form a coalition. They represent workers in finance, health, pharmaceuticals, higher education, kindergarten, telecommunications, municipalities, electricity, and the unemployed and represent 50,000 members all together.

There has also been an increasing amount of strike activity that many of these unions have been involved in.

There were 105 delegates at the Conference which given the fact that there had been much pressure from political parties and the ‘official’ unions against attendance was impressive.

The fact that it was impossible for anyone from Gaza to attend given the situation also means that the support for the initiative is greater than shown by the numbers of delegates. However there are clearly real difficulties for trade unions attempting to function in Gaza at the minute.

The opening ceremony, in the Ramallah Cultural Palace heard Abdel Hakim Aleyan argue that they did not want to carry out factional activity, but to try to advance workers against those who exploit them. National and Islamic Parties PLO Executive member Saleh Rafah said trade unions should ensure political plurality, and he called for unity of unions, but on a democratic basis.

He also demanded a state based on 1967 borders, with no concessions, and called for Hamas to give their arms to Abbas.

Hasan Barghouti for the DWRC, facilitators of the conference, called for the protection of “the dignity of the people.”

Ahmed Tawfiq, the Director of Labour Relations at the Palestinian Ministry of Labour said that they have relations with all federations, and this one consisted of real professional unions.

Speaking from Oxford and District Trade Union Council, Tony Richardson welcomed the formation of the new democratic unions, said that democracy was not a choice, and described the bureaucratisation of the long established British trade unions.

He called for the new unions to control their leaders, and for them to make sure this bureaucratisation doesn’t happen to them. He said their main support from outside would come from those fighting in their unions against these bureaucrats.

Tony also brought support from the National Twinning Network, which would help establish relations with their local counterparts in the UK .

Throughout the day there were constant votes and vociferous discussion. The first issue was how the voting would take place. Some of the unions are quite long established, like the Hebron unemployed, and others very new.

Nobody wanted to find themselves voted down, so there were tensions. After about two hours it was agreed that voting on resolutions would require a two thirds majority; this vote was almost unanimous. It was then agreed that as far as the rest of the constitution was concerned the groups would all give their opinions to a sub-committee, which was then elected.

Another long discussion took place over the name, and it was agreed to keep Coalition, rather than federation.

It was agreed that new affiliations would go before the full Executive. There would be a 15-person Executive, and 45-person National Council, the latter on proportional representation according to the size of the union.

On the second day, the National Council met to elect the Executive. Some people had met overnight, and made suggestions for a list. Here all kinds of tensions arose, some insults were exchanged, and a health union delegation walked out.

Finally 18 names came up and everybody had 15 votes each, an Executive was elected, and the new coalition was formed.

One of the weaknesses was that only one woman spoke at the conference proper, although one, Khouled Asmar chaired the opening. There are also only three on the Executive.

This is clearly a problem reflecting the society, but there are strong women active in some of the individual unions, which gives the potential for this to change.

This clearly is historic democratic conference. It is not surprising that there are tensions between those involved - they want to form a body that does things, and all are risking a lot, with the occupation, and a violent authority and opposition.

Although these unions have only limited experience, this means they are not yet bureaucratised, and so this could be a qualitative development. All praise the DWRC for facilitating this activity, they are trying for moves in this direction in Jordan , and their affiliates also in Egypt .

All trade union activists should support this development, and develop links with their Palestinian counterparts to see if they can be of assistance.

For further information see www.dwrc.org