International Transport Workers Research Articles

The customer is always right? Flags of convenience and the assembling of maritime affairs

The concept of ‘flag of convenience’ is ubiquitous in literature on maritime governance. First popularised by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), it has served as a touchstone concept in maritime policy discourse, and as a metaphor for the interaction between state and corporate actors in both maritime affairs and the globalised economy more broadly. This article argues, however, that the conceptions of public and private as ontologically separate that underpin existing literature on maritime governance have obscured notable shifts in the practices of flags of convenience in recent decades. More specifically (and drawing on assemblage theory), it argues that while flags of convenience have been framed exclusively as entities that allow shipping interests to escape regulatory control, certain open registers have been re-constituted as hubs of knowledge and materiality that ease and accelerate commercial circulation in a variety of ways. The article concludes by drawing attention to the volatility of the politics and practices of flag statehood at large; additionally, it highlights the insights that can be yielded for International Relations by the examination of maritime governance using novel theoretical tools.

Advances in Research on COVID-19 Vaccination for People Living with HIV.

Advances in Research on COVID-19 Vaccination for People Living with HIV.

THE CASE OF MOHAMMED AISHA: THE EFFORTS IN PROTECTING SEAFARERS AGAINST ABANDONMENT

The abandonment case of Mohammed Aisha is a case that occurred in 2017, where the ship MV Aman was detained in the Egyptian port of Adabiya and caused a situation where Mohammed Aisha was trapped on the ship due to the failure of the shipowners. This then led to the case of the abandonment of seafarers. In this case, MLC 2006 is the instrument that covers regulation towards abandonment and seafarers' rights. This study was made to provide a broader and more detailed perspective related to cases of abandonment and MLC 2006. The goal of this research is to clarify matters that are unclear related to the regulation that is mentioned in MLC 2006, such as the vague regulation of who is in charge between flag states, port states, and nationals of seafarers in the case of the abandonment of seafarers in both theory and practice. Apart from clarifying the unclear matters of who is in charge of the three states mentioned previously, this research will elaborate even further regarding the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) role in advocating the repatriation of the abandoned seafarers. This research revealed that the 2006 MLC has not been very effective in protecting the rights of seafarers and that the obligation for repatriation lies within the flag state; however, in its practice, when a flag state fails to carry its obligation, then the port state and the origin country of the seafarers with the help from ITF shall take that roll.

Nature of Sea, Types of Sea and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)- Policies and Rules of Engagement

Nature of Sea, Types of Sea and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)- Policies and Rules of Engagement

Capitalism and the Sea: The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern World, LiamCamplingAlejandroColásLondon & New York: Verso. 2021. pp. xiv + 418. £20/$29.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 9781784785239

Capitalism and the Sea: The Maritime Factor in the Making of the Modern World, LiamCamplingAlejandroColásLondon & New York: Verso. 2021. pp. xiv + 418. £20/$29.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 9781784785239

Two forms of transnational organizing: Mapping the strategies of Global Union Federations

It has become a commonplace belief among academics and trade union officials that globalization has weakened trade unions. However, the expansion of global capital has also led to a rise of transnational labor organizing. Since the 2000s, Global Union Federations have developed different strategies to tackle the challenges of globalization. In this article, we analyze two such forms of transnational organizing: A network-based and an event-based form of organizing. While the network-based approach brings together unions from different countries in a company or industry-wide cross-border network, the event-based strategy is built on the engagement of the GUFs at large international events to wage local struggles with a lasting impact on labor relations. By drawing on a power resource approach and labor geography and by using empirical data from two case studies, the Building and Woodworkers International’s Fifa World Cup campaign of 2014 and the International Transport Workers Union’s Latam Union network, we demonstrate how GUFs are using different pathways of transnational activism to link the global with the local and why local trade union action is crucial for success in transnational organizing.

Overview of recent cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union for the special issue on strategies for Social Europe

Being part of the special issue on strategies for Social Europe, this overview of recent cases before the Court of Justice is focused on matters that are high on the European agenda for Social Europe. Firstly, in the aftermath of the economic crisis, many Member States had to reduce their generous pension schemes. The YS case, rendered by the Grand Chamber on the 23rd September 2020, deals with the limits afforded by the Member States when they reduce an occupational pension scheme in order to secure the continuity of State-funded pensions. Secondly, the status of “self-employed” delivery carriers operating in the gig economy is being discussed in many Member States’ courts. In the Yodel case, the Court of Justice clarified in July 2020 whether such delivery carriers should be considered as “self-employed persons” or as “workers” for the purposes of the Working Time Directive. Lastly, the AFMB case concerns the underlying issue of using a company situated in a Member State as the formal employer of international transport workers in order to benefit from more advantageous social security legislation. The Court then determined in April 2020 the criteria to establish who is the actual employer of international transport workers.

Essential but Unprotected: Highly Mobile Workers in the EU during the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that highly mobile workers who frequently move either within or in and out of the European Union (EU) are irreplaceable during a public health crisis. Nevertheless, they often remain the least protected and most vulnerable.Measures introduced to protect workers in standard employment relationships during a public health crisis might not reach certain groups of highly mobile workers. As a result, they may become even more marginalised during a crisis.This is further exacerbated by such workers often being foreigners in their host countries. Both host and home countries fail to protect them adequately, and this can be even more pronounced for workers from third countries, outside of the EU.During the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-existing EU law has failed to protect highly mobile workers and, so far, the guidance and policy actions taken by the European Commission have failed them too.To enhance protection for highly mobile workers in the long term, a significant (upwards) convergence of social and labour law standards between countries and for different groups of workers is needed. In the medium term, a pan-European social safety net for crisis situations should be created, with the needs of highly mobile workers in mind. And in the short term, targeted emergency measures including both support and protective standards for this group of workers should be adopted, ideally at the EU level or, if not possible, at the national level.This policy brief's focus is on ‘highly mobile workers’, namely those workers whose place of employment is not a single Member State: they either regularly cross borders due to the nature of their work, work in multiple Member States, or cross a border every day in order to work in a Member State other than the one where they permanently reside (De Wispelaere and Rocca 2020).The following groups of workers are of interest here: international transport workers (drivers, seafarers and air crew members); seasonal workers; frontier workers, who travel to a country other than their own for work on a regular basis; and other types of highly mobile workers.

Building Labour Internationalism ‘from Below’: Lessons from the International Dockworkers Council’s European Working Group

This article considers whether the efficacy of transnational unionism, a strategy for trade union movement revitalisation, might be increased by a second revitalisation strategy: rank-and-file trade union democracy. This question is examined through a study of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), an exceptional case of institutionalised rank-and-file union democracy at the transnational level. A shadow comparison examines the work of the International Transport Workers Federation, a bureaucratic trade union organisation active in the same sector. The IDC’s structure is found to increase the efficacy of transnational unionism by removing layers of bureaucratic mediation that slow down action, fostering a culture of militant solidarity among participants. Nevertheless, participants noted the heavy personal burdens placed on activists under this model and some difficulties of operating without the assistance of paid professionals. Additionally, differing national legal and political contexts for unionism remain significant barriers to effective internationalism.

The gendered impacts of technological change for public transport workers in the Global South

The automation and digitisation of work are heavily impacting on the public transport workforce worldwide. Many of the jobs affected are those typically done by women. Yet much discussion about the future of work in public transport is gender blind, or considers women primarily as users of public transport. This paper draws on original research commissioned by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) to address this gap, based on five cities that have introduced changes to public transport with significant implications for women's employment – Bangkok, Bogota, Cape Town, Mexico City and Nairobi. It was a qualitative study involving 164 interviews in five cities, primarily with women transport workers but also union representatives, community organisations, policy makers and employers. It finds both opportunities from and risks to women's employment, including the chance to move from informal work to new formal employment, as well as job loss from integrated fare payment systems. It considers the possibility of breaking down traditional patterns of occupational gender segregation in public transport when new systems or technologies are introduced. However in order for women to move into traditionally male jobs such as driving in greater numbers, several barriers must be addressed, such as gender stereotyping, violence at work and working hours and shift patterns. The paper offers some suggestions for how unions, employers, transport authorities and funders can address such barriers.

Trade union pedagogy and cross‐border action

In this article, we examine the potential of global union pedagogy to address the structural and political challenges of cross‐border trade‐union action. We do so by proposing an analytical framework that draws on labour relations, political sociology and education to explain educational processes and outcomes as responses to the pitfalls of global labour campaigns and the inadequacy of global and local labour institutions. We proceed to assess the value of our framework by elaborating on its different dimensions – framing, synthesizing, connecting and regenerating – in relation to the educational work of a global union federation, namely the International Transport Workers' Federation. We find that an actor‐centred approach that combines top–down, bottom–up as and horizontal processes of collecting knowledge from different contexts and making links between different countries, industries and parts of supply chains can help actors realize that their seemingly diverse concerns are essentially different manifestations of the same problem.

German seafarers, anti‐fascism and the anti‐Stalinist left: the ‘Antwerp Group’ and Edo Fimmen's International Transport Workers' Federation, 1933–40

Between the mid‐1930s and the beginning of the Second World War, a group of German seamen based in Antwerp combined with Amsterdam‐based Edo Fimmen, secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, to wage a campaign against the Nazi government among the sailors of the German merchant fleet. They organized cells of supporters on German ships, encouraged informal resistance, circulated propaganda and planned sabotage. The Antwerp Group was a breakaway from the Comintern‐aligned International of Seafarers and Harbour Workers (ISH). The Antwerp men were reacting against the ineffectiveness of the response of the German communist leadership to Hitler's takeover of power, and against the growing subordination of the ISH to Soviet interests. By highlighting the role of anti‐Stalinist militants in the anti‐fascism of the 1930s, the article contributes to the recent scholarship on anti‐fascism – a scholarship that has tended to emphasize the transnationalism and ideological diversity of anti‐fascism, rather than seeing it in national terms, or as a monolithic entity controlled by Moscow.

Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped

2 | International Union Rights | 25/1 EDITORIAL Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped For decades wages have stagnated, public services have been squeezed and inequality has risen while workers struggle to understand why the riches of globalisation pass them by. This edition opens the lid on possibly the single largest scam in the globalisation riddle. And one of the central barriers to organised labour doing better for workers. It explains why nobody has noticed how capital and the richest in the world have hoarded and hidden the loot – because they shift it before they even declare it is made. Most importantly this edition provides a union perspective on these issues and outlines what is to be done. Make no mistake, tax avoidance supresses wages. Workers cannot bargain for profits that are not there profits that have been shifted to jurisdictions specifically designed to hide the cash and defend the secrecy of the owners. Recent scandals have highlighted how the global system has been established to shift profits to avoid taxes. But little attention is paid to how shifting these profits allows companies to claim they have no money to pay workers, and is often used to justify job cuts. If the tax office can’t find the money what chance do workers have? Recently, a few unions have understood the problem and fought back. Jason Ward outlines how the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) took on Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the world, who are now required to pay 10 billion AUSD more in taxes. Nick Allen and Mary Joyce Carlson explain why a coalition of public and private sector unions lead by the SEIU pursued Mcdonalds tax practices in the Fight For 15. Perhaps none is more chilling than Dick Forlands article on the massacre of mine workers at Marikana, South Africa - killed for demanding decent wages - and the tax avoidance and secrecy of the company. In addition to supressing wages, Peters Adeyemi from the Nigerian Labour Council, demonstrates how corporate tax avoidance undermines economic and social development. It drives up inequality, starves public services and shifts taxation to those least able to pay. Jose Antonio Ocampo, explains the details of corporate tax avoidance and what policy change is needed to stop it. In each case a conspiracy of secrecy is at the heart of the scam. The indefensible can only be defended if never discussed. The beneficiaries deliberately keep information from the public. They know that each time we learn more, the foundations of the system are weakened. Ultimately tax is about power. There is barely more radical a project than taking from the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet for the benefit of workers. And without the collective power of workers organised into unions the project cannot succeed. Nadine Flood from the Australian CPSU, explains how unions have made corporate tax avoidance a popular issue and forced progressive and right-wing political parties to change tax policy. Dany Richard, Madeline Rodriguez and Sergio Hemsani argue that protecting workers from whistleblowing is a fundamental trade union right and essential for ensuring that secrecy and vested interests cannot continue to control the agenda. Recent union campaigns, like Chevron and McDonalds, show how holding corporations to account for their tax practices can build union power beyond traditional union action. They make immediate gains for workers and simultaneously raise awareness of the broken tax system and how it must be fixed. This edition is the first attempt to bring this knowledge together. A coalition of global unions has just launched an International Centre for Corporate Tax Research to help unions better understand tax avoidance and profit shifting in their industry and take action. A global conference will be held in the second half of 2018 for public and private sector unions that want to learn more, and do more. Daniel.bertossa@world-pse.org / Leo.hyde@world-psi.org Next issue of IUR Articles between 850 and 1800 words should be sent by email (mail@ictur.org) and accompanied by a photograph and short biographical note of the author. Please send by 5 June 2018 if they are to be considered...

Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped

2 | International Union Rights | 25/1 EDITORIAL Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped For decades wages have stagnated, public services have been squeezed and inequality has risen while workers struggle to understand why the riches of globalisation pass them by. This edition opens the lid on possibly the single largest scam in the globalisation riddle. And one of the central barriers to organised labour doing better for workers. It explains why nobody has noticed how capital and the richest in the world have hoarded and hidden the loot – because they shift it before they even declare it is made. Most importantly this edition provides a union perspective on these issues and outlines what is to be done. Make no mistake, tax avoidance supresses wages. Workers cannot bargain for profits that are not there profits that have been shifted to jurisdictions specifically designed to hide the cash and defend the secrecy of the owners. Recent scandals have highlighted how the global system has been established to shift profits to avoid taxes. But little attention is paid to how shifting these profits allows companies to claim they have no money to pay workers, and is often used to justify job cuts. If the tax office can’t find the money what chance do workers have? Recently, a few unions have understood the problem and fought back. Jason Ward outlines how the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) took on Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the world, who are now required to pay 10 billion AUSD more in taxes. Nick Allen and Mary Joyce Carlson explain why a coalition of public and private sector unions lead by the SEIU pursued Mcdonalds tax practices in the Fight For 15. Perhaps none is more chilling than Dick Forlands article on the massacre of mine workers at Marikana, South Africa - killed for demanding decent wages - and the tax avoidance and secrecy of the company. In addition to supressing wages, Peters Adeyemi from the Nigerian Labour Council, demonstrates how corporate tax avoidance undermines economic and social development. It drives up inequality, starves public services and shifts taxation to those least able to pay. Jose Antonio Ocampo, explains the details of corporate tax avoidance and what policy change is needed to stop it. In each case a conspiracy of secrecy is at the heart of the scam. The indefensible can only be defended if never discussed. The beneficiaries deliberately keep information from the public. They know that each time we learn more, the foundations of the system are weakened. Ultimately tax is about power. There is barely more radical a project than taking from the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet for the benefit of workers. And without the collective power of workers organised into unions the project cannot succeed. Nadine Flood from the Australian CPSU, explains how unions have made corporate tax avoidance a popular issue and forced progressive and right-wing political parties to change tax policy. Dany Richard, Madeline Rodriguez and Sergio Hemsani argue that protecting workers from whistleblowing is a fundamental trade union right and essential for ensuring that secrecy and vested interests cannot continue to control the agenda. Recent union campaigns, like Chevron and McDonalds, show how holding corporations to account for their tax practices can build union power beyond traditional union action. They make immediate gains for workers and simultaneously raise awareness of the broken tax system and how it must be fixed. This edition is the first attempt to bring this knowledge together. A coalition of global unions has just launched an International Centre for Corporate Tax Research to help unions better understand tax avoidance and profit shifting in their industry and take action. A global conference will be held in the second half of 2018 for public and private sector unions that want to learn more, and do more. Daniel.bertossa@world-pse.org / Leo.hyde@world-psi.org Next issue of IUR Articles between 850 and 1800 words should be sent by email (mail@ictur.org) and accompanied by a photograph and short biographical note of the author. Please send by 5 June 2018 if they are to be considered...

THE MONOGRAPH ABOUT TRANSPORT TRADE UNIONS

[For the English abstract and full text of the article please see the attached PDF-File (English version follows Russian version)].REVIEW OF THE BOOK: Zubkov, S. A., Krainov, G.N. Transport unions as part of the international trade union movement. Monograph. Moscow, INFRA-M publ., 2017, 297 p. ABSTRACT The book, published in the series «Scientific Thought», is devoted to the study of transport unions as components of the international trade union movement. The authors draw attention to the history, current state and problems of the international trade union movement, t h e processes of globalization, cooperation and coordination of the actions of international transport unions. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the trade union movement in rail transport, the participation of the Russian trade union of railway workers and transport builders in the international trade union movement. Keywords: trade union, transport unions, international trade union movement, International Confederation of Trade Unions (ITUC), World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), International Workers’ Association (IWA), Global Federation of Trade Unions (GUF), International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITWF), International Committee of Transport Workers’ Propaganda (ICTWP), Profintern, International Confederation of Trade Unions of Railway Workers and Transport Builders (ICRW), Russian Union of Railway Workers and Transport Builders (ROSPROFZHEL).

A dark day for dockworkers in Norway

24 | International Union Rights | 24/1 REPORT | NORWAY A dark day for dockworkers in Norway Over the past three years, the fight for collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) in three of the major port operating companies in Norway (Risavika Terminal AS, Holship Norge AS and Yilport Oslo) has revealed serious weaknesses in the Norwegian rules on industrial action. The rules on taking industrial action in Norway are regulated by the Labour Disputes Act and the National Agreement. The National Agreement is a collective bargaining framework negotiated and signed the LO, the national trade union body, and the NHO, the national employers’ association. The National Agreement, often called the social constitution, was first signed in 1935. Local bargaining then happens under this umbrella agreement. However, in addition to regulating industrial disputes, the Agreement also limits the scope of industrial action. A clause in the National Agreement states that ‘where a collective agreement is in place, no work stoppages or other industrial action should take place’. Essentially, industrial action is only allowed in the period that a CBA is being negotiated. This includes the process of establishing a CBA. This is upheld by the Labour Disputes Act. Collective bargaining in ports Organisation in the ports differs from other businesses. There are many port users and very few of them need or have the possibility to have their own permanent employees. Some port users, for example, passenger ferries, have a daily need for labour but for short periods at a time. Other port users need many workers for one or two days in the course of a week or a month, whilst others have a sporadic need for workers. A system was set up to secure income and permanent employment for dockworkers and a steady stream of qualified labour for the port users. An office was set up in each port that acted as a sort of employment agency for dock work. The prerequisite for this system working was that all port users, both small and large would make use of the system, giving registered dockworkers the preferential right to this work. This is a system adopted in many ports around the world, especially Europe. This system was underpinned by ILO Convention 137 to secure full employment for dockworkers. Article 3 of the Convention states that: ‘registered dockworkers shall have priority of engagement for dock work’. Norway ratified ILO Convention 137 in 1975. During discussions around its implementation, both the LO and the NHO agreed that there was no requirement to have a separate law or regulation to safeguard the Convention. They agreed that the spirit of the Convention would be contained in collective bargaining agreements. Furthermore, the Norwegian government stated in 1976 that ‘[Employment] offices are created in the ports. These offices have exclusive rights to all port work in the harbour. All regular dockworkers must be registered in this office’. Flags Of Convenience (FOC) A significant portion of today’s Norwegian ships, both local and international traffic, are not registered in Norway. Instead they are registered to countries with lower tax rates and, often, lower rates of salary and labour standards, so-called ‘flag of convenience’ (FOC) states. CBAs for these FOC ships are established by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). Dockworkers’ unions are part of these negotiations. All ITF agreements have a clause stating that the ship’s crew should not perform loading or unloading duties in harbours where there are registered dockworkers. This is to ensure the safety of seafarers and to protect their periods of rest. If a ship owner/operator refuses to sign an ITF agreement, they risk a global boycott and the loading and unloading of that ship could be stopped. The same could happen if an ITF Inspector finds that conditions on board the ship do not comply with the CBA. If the NHO and the EU are successful in removing registered dockworkers in Norway, ships’ crews will be able to load and unload vessels for a much lower salary, with questionable training and at a great potential risk to safety. It will leave a huge space for social dumping in the ports and seafarers will lose the protection that dockworkers provide of safe and...

HIV/AIDS, health and wellbeing study among International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) seafarer affiliates.

Transport workers generally face a higher-than-average risk of HIV as well as other health challenges. In order to improve understanding of health issues in the maritime sector, including but not limited to HIV/AIDS, and to prepare appropriate responses the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) conducted a study of the views and needs of those affiliates. The ITF carried out two surveys. The first consisted of a questionnaire sent to all ITF seafarer affiliates to establish their concerns about health issues, including the impact of HIV/AIDS, and to assess the extent and nature of existing trade union programmes. The second consisted of a knowledge, attitude and behaviour survey on health, wellbeing and AIDS among a cross-section of individual members administered through anonymous and confidential questionnaires by maritime affiliates in four countries in different regions and an identical online questionnaire through Survey Monkey. For the first survey, replies were received from 35 unions in 30 countries, including major seafarer supplying countries - India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Turkey, Ukraine - and major beneficial ownership countries such as Germany, Italy, Norway, and South Korea. Health issues of concern included HIV and other sexually transmitted infections for over three-quarters of them, and then alcohol use, weight control, and mental health. All said they would welcome ITF support in starting or strengthening a programme on general health and/or HIV. Replies were received to the second survey from 615 individual seafarers. Half to three-quarters said they worried about their weight, lack of exercise and drinking; over half felt depressed sometimes or often. There were serious knowledge gaps in a number of areas, especially HIV transmission and prevention, as well as high levels of stigma towards workmates with HIV. A number of health issues and information gaps remain unaddressed on board and pre-departure. Mental health is especially neglected but the needs emerge clearly. Seafarers believe that companies should provide programmes but also look to their unions for health information and services. The ITF has an important role to play in supporting affiliated unions in developing activities and in providing technical and strategic guidance.

World-System Hegemony and How the Mechanism of Certification Skews Intra-European Labor Solidarity*

This article uses ethnographic methods, archival research, and systematic process tracing to suggest how McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly's certification mechanism helps to explain systemic impediments to docker solidarity during the EU docker's campaign, 2001-3. By cross-referencing semistructured interviews across docker INGOs and unions in nine OECD countries and triangulating those interviews with internal communications, I found that although the leaders of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation were keen to cooperate with leaders of the competing International Dockers Council, national unions affiliated to the ITF/ETF possessed a special power to prevent cooperation. The “national sovereignty clause” in the ITF/ETF constitution endows existing affiliates of the ITF/ETF with the power to veto applications for affiliation by other unions in their national domain. It also can prevent ITF/ETF leaders from communicating with those excluded unions and their representatives. Thus, ITF/ETF certification is founded, not on mutual recognition among all groups of workers, but rather in the denial of recognition to some. This study traces the origins of the clause to the post-WWII construction of the US-led hegemonic order, when ITF leaders colluded with the American Federation of Labor in dividing labor worldwide along Cold War lines. The study identifies the by-pass mechanisms that today's ETF leaders used and which temporarily enabled cooperation across the INGO divide. It also detects a long-term uneven and unequal representation of southern European unions that can skew the frames and goals of a campaign to reflect the interests of more solidly represented regions of labor. This analysis shows that the study of labor transnationalism is enriched by a combination of ethnographic and indepth historical inquiry, which can help us avoid the Kantian imperatives that seeped into the study of transnational actors after the end of the Cold War. And it shows that, by pushing us deeply behind “campaign time,” the combination of ethnography and archival sleuthing helps students of contentious politics to detect longer processes and bigger power structures than we have been apt to do—structures such as world orders established by a hegemonic state.

The East African Railway Strike, 1959-60: labour’s challenge of inter-territorialism

The crisis of accumulation which tore East African Railways and Harbours (E.A.R.H.) provoked fierce resistance from African railwaymen in all three colonies. This was marked by the East African Railway Strike which began on 14 November 1959, as the majority of railwaymen stopped work in response to the Railway African Union [Kenya] call for a colony wide strike. Railwaymen in Tanganyika and Uganda followed them into action to mark the region’s first inter-territorial strike. The strike rudely coincided with preparations for African majority government throughout the region, and continued intermittently until April 1960. This had an immense impact and triggered the era of strike waves which challenged the nature of the nationalist transitions to independence throughout the region in which the African bourgeoisie stood to become the principal beneficiaries. The following work attempts to bring out the organic interconnectedness of a regional struggle which veered between unity and fragmentation. In this connection, it questions the role of the British TUC, the International Transport Workers Federation and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in deflecting the course, and bargaining down the demands of this momentous confrontation. The examination of the strike attempts to reopen unresolved issues about the role and influence of organised labour within East Africa’s independence struggles.

Pursuing Trade Union Internationalism: Australia's Waterside Workers and the International Transport Workers Federation, c. 1950–70

When the Australian Waterside Workers Federation (WWF) decided in 1971 to join the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) it overturned decades of antipathy to the ITF. We ask why union officials held this view and why the union now changed its mind at this particular moment. We argue that while union power was strong in the immediate postwar decades, the WWF was able to pursue its economic goals locally and join international actions for reasons of solidarity. In the following decade, however, union archives reveal that a confluence of technological change and diminishing union strength under a conservative government made international organising a logical and necessary strategy. Under the guidance of General Secretary Charlie Fitzgibbon, the WWF overcame its opposition to the ITF, by then an organisation representing millions of workers worldwide. We concentrate on Fitzgibbon’s leadership as a crucial factor in the timing of this historic change.