In Chicago during May Day weekend 2010, the Institute of Working Class History sponsored a conference titled "A Century+ of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles International Conference" to discuss, debate and analyze labor and social struggles, both past and present.
A Century+ of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles International Conference
"May 1st is the only truly universal day of all humanity, the only day when all histories and all geographies, all languages and religions and cultures of the world coincide."
It was in describing a visit to the city of Chicago, where International Workers' Day was born, that the Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano penned these words.
How fitting, in this spirit, that trade unionists and labor historians, worker center organizers and journalists from Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel/Palestine, Japan, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, Venezuela, and all over the United States converged on Chicago April 30–May 2 to participate in the conference "A Century+ of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles" convened by the Institute of Working Class History and hosted by the International Studies program at DePaul University.
A delegation of 72 members of the Japanese labor federation Zenroren were also in attendance, hosted for the weekend by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). The morning of May 1st, the Illinois Labor History Society and the Chicago Federation of Labor sponsored a ceremony in which Zenroren members placed a permanent plaque carrying a message of solidarity on the base of the statue at Haymarket Square that commemorates the 1886 rally for the eight-hour workday that took place there. The Zenroren delegates also met with members of UE Local 1110 to hear about their December 2008 occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory, and got a briefing on the Warehouse Workers for Justice campaign.
Themes of conference sessions and talks included the future of labor internationalism, the legacies of Victor Serge and Mother Jones, the history of class struggle in the developing world, labor and the peace movement, the campaign to end wage theft, labor and community organizing, "Haiti: From Slave Revolution to Earthquake" and "Capitalism and Crisis: Social Justice or Mad Max?"
One panel — held on May 1st — explored "Iran: Labor Struggles, the Green Movement & International Solidarity" and was dedicated to the imprisoned Iranian trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, whose image appeared on the wall behind the panelists. Those panelists were Elise Auerbach of Amnesty International, Pooya Shoghi, a student at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and Ian Morrison, who covers labor for the publication Tehran Bureau. The moderator was Danny Postel, North America co-chair of the Iran Labor Support Committees.
The session was scheduled to go from 4:00 until 6:00 in the afternoon, but instead lasted until roughly 8:00 at night, due to the vibrant and impassioned course of the discussion, both among the panelists and the audience.
The session opened with a text prepared by the Network of Iranian Labor Associations — "Entering a New Phase: The Resurgence of the Labor Movement in Iran" — which traces the historical arc of Iran's labor movement and maps its state of play today, and analyzes its multi-layered relationship to the Green movement. The labor movement and the Green movement need one another, the paper argues: with its century-long history of struggle in Iran, trade unionism can offer lessons to the young and pluralistic Green upsurge, while extending its class reach; at the same time, the political space opened by the explosion of the Green movement since June 2009 presents a critical opportunity for the labor movement to exert itself and connect with wider struggles. This bold text became a recurrent reference point for the discussion that unfolded over the next four hours.
Pooya Shoghi also focused on the interplay between the Green movement and workers struggles in Iran. While supportive of the Green movement, he identified a critical tension in the movement’s pre-history, pointing to the failures of the Reform movement (1997–2005) to address the problems of Iran's working class or to deliver on issues of economic justice. He concluded that the Green movement must now embrace the demands of Iran's increasingly dispossessed workers and integrate those demands into the democratic struggle, and he identified several promising signs that this process is already underway.
Elise Auerbach of Amnesty International discussed Iran's labor movement from a human rights perspective, focusing on the plights of several trade unionists currently behind bars, including Osanloo, Ebrahim Madadi, also of the bus drivers union, Ali Nejati of the Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Workers syndicate, and Mohammad Beheshti Langeroudi and Ali Akbar Baghani of the Teacher's Trade Association. With the Amnesty International placard "Workers Rights = Human Rights" hovering above, Elise discussed the tireless campaigning that Amnesty, in cooperation with labor groups like the International Transport Workers' Federation, are doing on behalf of these prisoners of conscience.
Ian Morrison focused on what he called "the difficulties and opportunities regarding international solidarity with labor struggles in Iran." Drawing on the work of the sociologist Asef Bayat and the late Fred Halliday, and on some of the recent insights of the scholar Saeed Rahnema and the activist Yassamine Mather, Ian identified several challenges facing labor organizing in Iran. Given the shrinking of the public sector not only in Iran but across the Middle East and indeed globally, he argued for "new post-Cold War strategies for labor internationalism, which will ultimately need to be set on organizing the private sector."
The robust discussion that ensued revolved largely around the relationship between the Green and labor movements and the prospects of both. Ian Morrison argued that both the Green and labor movements lack sufficient organizational structure given what they're up against, and that the Green movement’s much-discussed leaderlessness or "horizontalism" are, contrary to what many of its admirers believe, weaknesses rather than strengths. There was considerable debate on this point. One member of the audience countered that this emphasis on organizations should give way to a focus on the role of networks in social change, the Green movement being Exhibit A. Another member of the audience argued that Iran's democratic struggle shouldn't be viewed through the prism of existing models of organization and social change — 20th-century revolutionary models, for instance — but should rather be seen as offering a new and dynamic model that must be understood on its own terms and in the specific political terrain in which it is operating.
There was much speculation about the future of both the Green and labor movements. There was broad agreement that labor unrest is likely to increase in the coming months. But will there be industry-wide strikes? Could a general strike be on the horizon? Will workers join forces with the Green movement in greater numbers in the near future? Will the Green movement succeed in its attempt to forge an alliance with workers? If convergence and alliance between the two forces grows, what impact could this development have on the popular struggle in Iran?
While no one in the room (or anywhere else, for that matter) possesses answers to these questions, passionate engagement with them, and a spirit of international solidarity with Iran’s labor movement, abounded on International Workers' Day in Chicago.
In that same spirit of international solidarity, this Saturday, May 15, at 6:30 p.m. there will be a vigil at the Haymarket Memorial (corner of DesPlaines and Randolph) for Farzad Kamangar, the Kurdish teacher, social worker, and labor activist who was executed last weekend. There will be a reading of his prison letters along with a candle light vigil. Larry Spivack, organizer for AFSCME 31 and President of the Illinois Labor History Society, will speak on the history of the Haymarket Monument.
— iranlaborreport.com, 13 May 2010