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Included is the latest Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) "Where We Stand."
This is basically our position paper on the major issues for our organization.
The wording in this has been written over the years at our conventions and
ratified via referendum. There have been many amendments and additions. The
latest was our inclusion of our environmental perspective and an expansion on
our sexism statement. Feel free to respond to me personally at ee@lever.com or
the the WSA address of wsa@lever.com.
Where We Stand
Workers Solidarity Alliance - Statement of Principles
Exploitation
Under the existing social system - capitalism - we can only live by selling
our time, our talents and energies, to employers for a wage. When people must
work, not simply to do things for each other, but to build up the power and
wealth of a few, this is exploitation. This system of wage labor gives to the
bosses the power to make the decisions about what will be produced, how it is
produced, and, thus, how we will spend our time. This hierarchy or pyramid of
power divides society into "classes" with a basic and irreconcilable conflict
of interests. The struggle between workers and bosses will go on as long as
society is thus divided.
What the individual boss do is shaped by how the system as a whole
operates. Though each company makes its own decisions, these decisions are
determined by what will make a profit in the marketplace. They will pollute
the environment, speed up work, lay people off or ignore unhealthy conditions
if these things will help them make more profit.
People in this society are encouraged to define "freedom" in terms of
buying things. Yet, a healthy environment and genuine control over our lives
are not to be found in the marketplace.
The capitalist market, which subordinates human life to money-making, is a
global system. The bosses' control of production, communication and finance
has become increasingly integrated across national boundaries. Since the
bosses' system is international, effective workers' struggle must become
international as well, based on direct solidarity and coordination of
struggles across national frontiers.
The Role of the State
We believe that the capitalist system and the modern state play an
increasingly negative role in the organization of production, distribution and
social life in general. They are clearly unable to deal with the deepening
economic and political crises that they themselves have created. Since
governments and capitalism have always rested upon domination and
exploitation, both are inherently oppressive and cannot be reformed, won over,
or used in a progressive way in the modern-day struggle for human
emancipation.
Although the government and individual companies do not always see eye-to-eye,
the basic function of the State - the courts and prisons, police and
army, regulatory agencies, and other State institutions - is to defend the
collective interests of the employing class. It is useless to try to change
the system by electing representatives to government office. Nor do we
advocate the seizure of State power. A state is a top-down institution that
puts power in the hands of a few. All efforts to construct a "workers state"
have only led to one form of oppression being substituted for another.
Russia, Cuba, China, and the other countries that have a top-down system
based on the fusion of economic and political power in the State, are not
societies run by the workers, nor are they a step in the direction of human
emancipation. The conflicts between these countries and the capitalist nations
are not merely ideological but are dangerous skirmishes over territory and
profits.
Since states exist to defend the power and wealth of bosses, wars are
struggles between the bosses in different lands. Organized slaughter under
state auspices will continue to happen as long as society is based on
exploitation, hierarchy and competition.
Workers' Role in Social Change
Since oppression and exploitation take a variety of forms in this society,
so must the struggle for social liberation be multifaceted. Movements
expressing the will of various communities, women, sexual minorities, young
people, national and cultural groups, the aged, the disabled, and those who
have specialized knowledge helpful to social progress, must be seen as having
equal footing and input into decisions affecting the welfare of the people. We
are opposed to all forms of discrimination and oppression that bar people from
fully participating in society and realizing their potential as free
individuals.
Educational work carried out by working class organizations on a multi-cultural
and multi-racial basis is basic to any movement for working class
self-emancipation. The best aspects of working class culture must be preserved
while new forms of interaction and discussion in workplaces and communities
are developed. Movements in this direction serve as an organizing force as
well as a model of what a new society can be, since they challenge established
social divisions, the oppressive aspects of modern culture and the false
assumption that the worker lives one life on the job and quite a another at
home.
In pursuing social change, we put our main emphasis on the role of people
as workers, not because we think that all of the ways that people are
oppressed in this society stem directly from the boss/worker hierarchy, but
because no sector of society can emancipate itself unless the power of capital
is overthrown. All workers have a common stake in the struggle against the
employing class.
Workers have a collective self-interest in the creation of a society based
on freedom and equality since we can only have power if we manage society
together, through mass direct democracy. The potential power of worker
solidarity for overthrowing the bosses and creating a new society based on
collective workers' control of the economy has been demonstrated in numerous
general strikes and revolutions in this century.
Environmental Destruction
Our health and quality of life depends upon the integrity of the natural
environment around us, the purity of the air we breath and the water we drink.
Our fate is linked to that of countless other species of plants and animals
who also inhabit this planet. But to business, the only value to the natural
environment is the money that can be made when it is converted into
merchandise. Forests may provide habitat for many species, but capital only
sees the price of lumber.
The existing system only minimizes waste of things that carry a pricetag.
The air and water have become polluted because businesses have not had to pay
for the use of the planet's air and water as wastedumps for their production
systems. Antipollution technology is underdeveloped because expenditures to
minimize pollution don't increase revenue. Competition means companies will
pollute in order to survive.
The disappearance of many species of animals and plants is a sign that the
common basis of life is being undermined. This deterioration in the natural
environment has its origin in hierarchical, competitive social structures
where decisions that affect all of us are made in air-conditioned offices by
an elite preoccupied with shortsighted concerns of profit and power.
As the threats to the common basis of life have become more acute, and
social protests have become harder to ignore, governments have been forced to
set limits to pollution. But government action has been inadequate because it
is an institution of the business class.
The horrible pollution in the so-called "Communist" countries shows that
state control is no solution for the environmental crisis. Any system that is
top-down, lacking in social accountability, will pursue power and wealth for
the elite at the expense of the environment. As long as human beings are
exploited, subject to authoritarian bureaucracies and conditions ruinous to
their health, we cannot expect an end to the ruinous exploitation of the
earth.
A human social order that is ecologically sustainable over the long run
must be globally coordinated rather than competitive, and it must be directly,
democratically accountable to everyone so that our life and health cannot be
sacrificed to an elite's short-sighted search for power and wealth. Such a
system would chart a different path for technological development, consistent
with worker mastery of production, protection of human health, and longterm
environmental sustainability. This democratic revolution in the organization
of production can only be carried out by the workforce itself. Taking
responsibility for the survival of the ecological basis of life is an historic
task that now confronts the working class.
An effective fight to protect the health of the workforce and the community
against pollutants, and against ecologically destructive actions by the
bosses' system, requires direct action and a mobilization of the widest
support within the workforce rather than relying on lobbying the bosses'
representatives in legislatures or actions by small, elite groups.
Racism
Capitalism, which thrives on inequality, has sustained social divisions on
racial lines, where people of color are labeled "inferior" and subjected to
discrimination which limits their freedom in society.
Early capitalist development in America was only made possible by the
bondage of people of African descent, and the slaughter of the original
inhabitants and the expropriation of their land. The ideology of "white
supremacy" came into being to justify this oppression. Capitalism continued to
benefit from a racist heritage, which has provided pools of cheap labor and
permitted me people to be subjected to worse treatment.
Solidarity, which is essential to making changes in society, must be based
upon genuine equality, rejecting the idea that privileges can be founded on
race or nationality. We stand determined to retain our humanity in the midst
of a racially oppressive system by identifying with all the oppressed to the
end that we will win full equality or fall together in the effort. We affirm
that we are the enemy of racism and inequality everywhere. To this end, we
support people of color in their struggle to achieve economic and social
justice and equality.
Sexism
Women are subject to systematic prejudice that limits their freedom in
society. A century ago, the system defined the role of women in society in
terms of taking care of men and children in the home. Even today, married
women who work for wages usually have "two jobs." The age-old division between
"men's work" and "women's work" is still reflected in the jobs that people do
and the lower pay for women workers.
Women want the same conditions for livelihood as men, and we support this
aspiration. Women also have a right to control their own bodies and behavior.
To this end, we support free abortion on demand and free contraception. The
struggle for women's rights is a necessary part of the struggle for a free and
egalitarian society.
Reproducing the species is a social task, but women have been burdened
unequally with this task. Free, quality childcare is needed as part of the
effort to make childbearing a collective responsibility.
The liberation of women can only be accomplished as part of the revolutionary
reorganization of society. But a revolutionary workers movement that
overthrows the power of the bosses cannot ensure equality between the sexes in
the new society if that is not a goal it has fought for all along. Since the
goal is shaped by the means used to achieve it, we must strive to build a
workers movement that fosters equal participation of women and that fights for
women's rights. We also support the development of an independent women's
movement as part of the struggle for sexual equality and the emancipation of
women.
The oppression of lesbians, gays and bisexuals is inextricably linked with
sexism. A patriarchal, capitalist society cannot see homosexual practices as
the normal human variations they are because they blur that society's rigid
gender roles and sexist stereotypes. Therefore, the oppression of people based
on their consensual sexual practices will not end until sexism is eliminated.
Homophobia leads to divisions in the working class and limits the flexibility
of all people, gay or straight, to choose sexual expressions and relationships
that are right for them. The ruling system encourages and benefits from the
division of the working class and the isolation of working people. Therefore
it will be difficult to achieve a lasting freedom for lesbians, gays or
bisexuals until capitalism is defeated.
Since working people are the only force capable of a revolutionary
transformation of society, we encourage lesbians, gays and bisexuals to make
themselves known and express their concerns in working class forums. Because
sexual oppression affects a large section of the working class, we urge
workers' organizations to fight for the rights of these groups. In light of
the fact that homophobia and sexism are distinct phenomena from - although
linked to - class oppression, we also support the autonomous organization of
lesbians, gays and bisexuals in their struggle against sexist oppression.
Further, we support full sexual freedom for all people.
Sexism is systematic prejudice based on gender or sexual orientation.
Women, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, even straight men, are all subject to the
freedom limiting effects of sexism in this society.
Prejudice against women is pervasive in America today. From childhood women
are educated differently to prepare them for an inferior position in society.
This is evident in the way that young women are steered away from
traditionally male courses of study and in the practice of sending girls to
home economics classes, while boys must attend shop classes. This teaches
children that men and women are assigned different roles in society. It sets
them up to accept these limitations as they grow up.
Women are expected to slave for wages at work and to take full
responsibility for maintaining a household and rearing children. The ideal
woman of the fifties was the perfect housewife. The ideal woman of the
nineties is not only a perfect housewife but also the breadwinner. Even if
there were no other manifestations of sexism, this ideal would place severe
limitations on women. Childrearing is a community responsibility. Free quality
child care is necessary to give women more control over their lives. Men must
also take responsibility for the care of children.
In the workplace, women are paid less than men. They often have less
opportunities and less protection than men. Sexual harassment is commonplace
at work as is the practice of hiring women based on their looks rather than on
their talents. Women want the same freedoms in choosing their work and
practicing their livelihoods as men. We support this aspiration.
Direct Action
The way to fight for social change is through direct action. Action is
direct when it is people fighting for their own aspirations, not relying on
politicians or trade union leaders to fight for them. For direct rank-and-file
control over struggles against the powers-that-be, movements have to be based
on the direct participation of the people in the struggle. Direct action must
be collective because only solidarity provides the power to transform society.
Forms of direct action that we favor include "sit-down" strikes, where
people maintain control over the place of work; "squatting," where people
jointly occupy unused buildings for their own use; "hot cargo," where workers
refuse to handle products in order to support the struggles of others; "social
strikes," where workers continue to provide their labor for the benefit of
other working people in the community but deny the revenue or control of their
labor to the bosses; and community or nation-wide general strikes, which
demonstrate the power that the workforce has when it is united.
On the other hand, a strategy that relies on indirect action, such as
electing representatives to government office, encourages a division between
leaders and led, between those who make decisions and those who follow them.
Electoral politics also leads to statist solutions because it tends to define
the issues in terms of what State policies a set of leaders will implement.
Because a political party is a vehicle for putting a leadership into State
power, a political party cannot serve as a vehicle for people intent on
creating a nonauthoritarian society.
We particularly reject the so-called "vanguard" party as a model because it
can only serve as the embryo of a bureaucratic state machine, as we sec in the
"communist" countries. Such parties exist at the expense of independent
working class movements and they have, once in power, developed managerial
elites every bit as fascinated with the arms race and the profit motive as
their capitalist counterparts.
Unionism
As the labor movement has failed over the years to mount a fundamental
challenge to the power of the bosses, the unions became increasingly top-down
in their structure and integrated into the system. The officials who run these
organizations work to contain workers' struggles within the framework of their
longstanding relationship with the employers and politicians.
Since the problem does not stem from "misguided" leadership, we do not seek
to change the labor movement through a strategy of electing a different union
leadership. As the existing unions are not suited to overthrow boss rule, a
workers movement that can transform society will be built independently of the
existing union hierarchies.
The system's economic crisis, and the resentment against the bosses and
against the union hierarchy as well, will engender struggles in the coming
years - struggles that could lead to the development of a self-managed workers
movement. We cannot hope to play a role in these struggles, to put forth our
ideas and our program, if we remain aloof and abstain from them simply because
they take place within the existing trade unions. So long as workers struggles
are organized through the existing unions, we participate in those unions and
their struggles.
As workers move towards more militant action and more widespread
solidarity, the creation of organization on a new basis becomes a more
realistic possibility, as workers move to take over more direct control of
their own struggles. Independent rank-and-file organization, which exists to
some extent today, is a forerunner of the movement that can change society.
Self-managed workers' organization, such as workplace assemblies, rank and
file coordinating councils, and unions free of top down control, are the kind
of organization that can be the basis of self-emancipation. Such organizations
tend to have a more transitory existence during a period when fundamental
social change is not on the immediate agenda. On the other hand, the
development of self-managed organization of workers in solidarity with each
other on a mass scale would mean a revolutionary crisis for the bosses'
system.
For the development of a workers' movement that is "self-managed' by the
rank and file, we advocate direct democracy, with basic decisions made in
assemblies, not imposed by leaders. People who are elected to coordinate
struggles or negotiate with the bosses or the government should not be paid
officials and they should be subject to immediate recall and mandatory
rotation from office after a short term.
To encourage the development of a workers' movement based on direct action,
solidarity and direct democracy, we favor the formation of action committees
in workplaces as well as networks of anti-authoritarian workers in industries
or companies.
Workers' Self-Defense
We have no interest in echoing the hypocrisy of the employing class when
they denounce the "terrorism" of small armed groups or guerrilla armies. From
Poland to El Salvador, the State's "forces of order" are the main instrument
for striking terror into the hearts of the people. Yet, we do not agree with a
strategy for social change based on armed actions by political minorities.
Such a strategy substitutes the armed force of a political "vanguard" for
working class solidarity and invites entrapment by provocateurs.
The bosses will not give up their power and wealth voluntarily. A period
when the working class is beginning to pose a fundamental challenge to boss
rule is likely to see violent clashes. Although we would want violence to be
minimized, we recognize the use of armed force as legitimate in defending the
movement for social change.
Since the workers' movement to reorganize society on the basis of self
management cannot succeed without the breakup of the State and its armed
machine, it is important to spread class-consciousness within the ranks of the
armed forces and to link their concerns with those of workers in civilian
life.
But the defense of the revolution must be the responsibility of a workers
militia, organized and controlled by the workers' mass organizations, not an
army or guerrilla force controlled by a minority, such as a political party.
If working people are to have control over industry and society, they must
also have direct, democratic control over the defense of their revolution.
Towards a Self-managed Society
Workers in every nation repeatedly pose their own desires and demands in
opposition to the programs of private capital, corporate and state bureaucrats
and political party hacks. Workers create, sometimes with great clarity of
vision, movements and new forms of organization which pose demands that no
State can fulfill, inherent in which is a desire for freedom and a vision of
what a new society could be.
We favor the development of a workers movement based on direct democracy,
not just because it will be more effective in the present-day fight against
the employing class, but also because it foreshadows - and lays the basis for
- a society of freedom and equality, without authoritarianism or exploitation.
Self-emancipation means that the working class, through its own united
action, must seize and manage the entire system of production, communication
and distribution. Tenants must take over the management of the buildings where
they live. Dangerous technology must be redesigned or dismantled. The time
that people must spend in work can be greatly reduced by eliminating the
unnecessary work created by the current system, and sharing the necessary work
among all those who can contribute.
The most basic organ of decision making in a self-managed society should be
the face-to-face democracy of assemblies of people in workplaces and
neighborhoods. But self management cannot be isolated in small, local units.
The economy as a whole must be managed by the entire working class.
To do this it is necessary to create some means for bringing together
workers from the different industries and localities in order to decide what
to produce, what sort of technological development to have, and how to
organize the defense of the revolution. This can be organized through
conferences of delegates, elected by the rank and file and subject to immediate recall and rotation from office. The delegates would present, discuss
and act on the ideas and goals developed and approved by the local worker
assemblies. This would provide the people with a means of establishing
priorities for production that are not determined by bureaucratic decree or
the capitalist market but by collective, democratic decision-making.
We do not want to fight a revolution only to find that we have placed in
power a bureaucratic elite that pursues its own interests. Any administration
elected to carry out the will of the workers should be subject to mandatory
rotation from office after a brief term, immediate recall, and no special
privileges in comparison with the average worker. They should operate under
specific mandates from the various democratic decision-making bodies in
society, and not attempt to impose their own policy.
The interdependence of production on a global scale means that a workers
revolution must be an international movement. A movement for social change
will be subject to the dictates of the world capitalist market and the power
of the bosses' military forces insofar as it is not a movement to change the
world-wide organization of society.
Economic reorganization on the basis of self-management can be realized on
an international scale through the same kind of decision-making bodies as
would exist on a regional or national basis. The alternative to a world of
warring nation-states is a world human community of self managed regions
united on the basis of common interests and mutual respect.
For more information contact: WSA, PO Box P0400, San Francisco, CA 94140.