This is not SIPTU!
CHRISTMAS saw many emigrants return for the holidays. One was
Ciaran Casey who went to Sweden twenty years ago and is currently
International Secretary of his union, the Central Organisation of
Swedish Workers (SAC). This union describes itself as syndicalist and
libertarian socialist. Workers Solidarity spoke to Ciaran and
learnt
- There are 13,000 members spread across many industries, with
concentrations in the post office, public transport, local
authorities, childcare and education. While job losses have
weakened the traditional SAC bases in forestry and construction
they have been recruiting increasingly among public sector workers
and from the refugee and immigrant communities.
- Super wages and bureaucratic control have no place in their
union. The five full-time national officers must stand for
election every four years and are encouraged not to serve more
than two terms. The eleven 'ombudspersons' are the skilled
negotiators who can be called on by local union branches. They
have to run for election every five years. All staff receive the
same wage, whether general secretary or telephonist. That wage is
the average industrial wage. Officials, unlike in other unions,
cannot be elected delegates to SAC congress or any other decision
making body.
- All branches and sections decide themselves on internal
matters, it is the membership in a workplace which decides whether
to accept or eject an agreement or go on strike. The national
executive only has a say if the local branch (which retains a
portion of members' subscriptions) needs extra cash. In that case
the executive will decide if SAC can afford to give more help.
- SAC members pay higher subscriptions than members of other
unions. Part of this money goes to build contacts with militant
unions in the third world,. At present they are talking to free
trade unionists and libertarian socialists in Nepal, China,
Indonesia and Bangladesh (where they are assisting trade unionists
campaigning against child labour).
- SAC members and branches have taken on concrete solidarity
actions including assisting the emerging free trade unions in
Eastern Europe and running aid convoys to the mining town of Tuzla
in Bosnia.
- SAC is also active in the struggles against racism, for
protection of the environment, and calls for a 6 hour day as an
answer to unemployment. It not only fights for higher pay and
better working conditions today, but also declares for a
libertarian/anarchist revolution that will put the working class
in control and end both inequality and authoritarianism.
Originally published in Workers
Solidarity 44, 1995