Defining politics

Chapter 8. Part II: Defining politics and the terrain of political organising from within the trade union form.

“Plato and Aristotle“ by Image Editor is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

What does politics means in the context of union strategy?

The term is derived from the ancient Greek word polis (a city-state), and politics according to Aristotle meant the affairs of the city-state. Often politics, however, in a union context refers merely to parliamentary elections and the institution of parliament. This is unnecessarily limited.

I would argue that instead politics should be defined as encompassing any matter related to the character and life of a social community – from local to international – whether or not it directly impacts the wage-labour relation.

This opens up a broad field of engagement but scope and priority emerges from rational and democratic debate within the rank-and-file membership.

This definition goes beyond parliament and parliamentary elections. One denies the daily practice of democracy to workers if democracy is defined as synonymous with parliament and parliamentary elections.

In fact, Aristotle thought of representative elections as an inherently oligarchic institution even where all citizens (noting how restrictive that term was in his time) had the right to vote. His reasoning was simple enough – the means to fund an election could only be found amongst the rich, and thus it is a mechanism that can be restricted to the few as far as meaningful participation as a candidate is concerned.

Of course, the history of the last two hundred years or so points to the dangers workers face in the absence of parliamentary elections. Moreover, there are demonstrated ways of pushing against the oligarchic tendencies of elections. Workers have pushed back through the mass organisation of political parties, various forms of electoral funding reform, and increasing the accessibility of voting.

Taking in the full width, therefore, of what potentially counts as politics under this definition can be bewildering but this reflects nothing more than the complexity of the society we struggle to navigate on a daily basis. Comfort may come from simplifying matters but it does not give rise to effective strategy. What is required, instead, is a means through which to orientate oneself through the mess and the noise.

This compass consists chiefly of remembering what a union is, and the actual basis of union power – a union describes a relation between workers, and union power is derived from active cooperation between workers. Such relationships form the basis of cooperation, and active cooperation between workers reinforces such relationships.

The strategic mission, therefore, as far as it relates to politics can be characterised as fostering a relationship of active cooperation between workers to produce material outcomes on the character and ongoing life of the various social communities that workers actually inhabit.

Additional refining is required. As the strategy is grounded in relations between workers further regard needs to be hard with respect to the quality and context of such relations.

First, these relationships are formed within a shared experience of work and a broader vision of intervention in a social community must grow out of, and be nourished by an ongoing connection with, that shared experience of work and wage dependence. Second, given worker power grows at work then workplace power can be the most impactful point at which to initially intervene in the broader political process. The latter is a general tendency only and most definitely not a hard rules even in a union context.

Here’s one example. In late 2023 over 1000 Inghams process workers in Adelaide and Perth as well as 1400 dairy workers across the industry in Victoria took strike action over their wage rates and the cost of living crisis. This material intervention, in my opinion, did more to crystalise corporate price gouging than any thinkpiece or smart bit of mass media framing.

Third, it is the hard won lessons of solidarity and mutual cooperation between rank-and-file workers that must be continually applied in the hostile terrain of elite political processes.

It is for these reasons that political organising within a union grows out of, and is otherwise dependent on, militant workplace activity. To put the matter another way, a union’s social and political ambition can reach far out to the horizon as long as its foundations remain rooted in everyday relationships between workers.

This post is the second post of chapter eight which is the last chapter in part three of the overall project. Part Three is Solidarity beyond Wage Labour and examines building transformational solidarity beyond the constraints of the wage labour relation. Use the about page to locate where you are in this broader project.