Victory for the Clabecq 13
ON 22 MAY, the Brussels court ruled in favour of thirteen
metalworkers from the Forges de Clabecq in Belgium. The legal action against
them had begun in November 1998, after they were accused of clashing with the
police during demonstrations against the closure of the factory. Roberto D’Orazio
and Silvio Marra, two union representatives who had led the struggle, risked
several years in jail and heavy fines on the basis of an anti-strike law of 1886
which holds the workers’ leaders personally responsible for any criminal acts
during a strike. Significantly, this victory was achieved because of the
mobilisation of thousands of workers and young people, without the support of
the national trade union leadership.
In the early 1970s, Forges de Clabecq employed 6,500
workers. The economic crisis of 1974, however, saw the beginning of the running
down of the factory. Thousands of jobs were lost. There were numerous
restructurings and, by the 1990s, only 2,500 workers remained.
The union leadership’s strategy was to organise action to
secure improved severance deals, rather than building a movement to prevent the
closure and layoffs. Although that would ease the situation for the redundant
workers, the jobs would disappear and thousands of young people would be
deprived of the possibility of work in the future.
In the Forges de Clabecq, the social democracy-led FGTB
union had always held a majority. But for many years there had been a number of
workers allied to the Communist Party at the plant. Most of these Communist
Party members were also members of the FGTB and tended to be active union
militants. An opposition within the FGTB began to form in the 1980s. Its main
objective was to develop a democratic unionism based on action. Little by little
a network of activists developed throughout the factory. These activists were
the eyes and ears of the union representatives. They organised around workplace
issues but also held discussions which attracted and developed the most
politically conscious workers.
The discussions were linked to action. For example, many of
the workers were immigrants. The leading militants signed an anti-racist
statement. This was not merely a symbolic act because some of the managers had
racist attitudes. After many discussions, a crushing majority of the workers
signed the statement and Forges de Clabecq became known as a ‘racist-free
factory’. In another example, the far-right Front National had distributed
racist leaflets in Clabecq village. The union took the Front National to court
and organised coaches to every court session so that workers could attend the
hearings en masse.
In the beginning of the 1990s, after three weeks of strike
action against redundancies and a wage cut, there were new elections for union
representatives (the ‘union delegation’). The FGTB won a very large majority
and many of the militants were elected. D’Orazio became president of the union
delegation. During this time, the Clabecq workers organised solidarity action
with strikers in other sectors – Caterpillar and Volkswagen workers, teachers
and students, etc. It was also during this period that the bosses, like rats
leaving a sinking ship, sold the factory to the Walloon regional government.
In December 1996, the regional government announced the
bankruptcy of Forges de Clabecq. The workers were preparing for a fierce
resistance but the union bureaucracy declared that it would provide only two
days strike pay! To get around this blackmail, the factory’s union delegation
waited for the bankruptcy to go through before starting the fightback. This was
so that the workers could receive some unemployment benefit, which would enable
them to resist longer than the two days proposed by the national leadership. As
it turned out, the struggle was to last for seven months!
The workers occupied the factory to guarantee the security
of the plant and machinery. All general assemblies took place inside the factory
and union activists from other workplaces, as well as political organisations,
were welcome. Although LSP-MAS (the CWI section in Belgium) did not have many
members in the area, it had been involved from the beginning. LSP-MAS organised
solidarity for the strikers and participated in the discussions in the Mouvement
pour le Renouveau Syndical (MRS - Movement for Union Renewal). This had been set
up by the Forges de Clabecq union delegation with the aim of building combative
currents inside all the unions. In February 1997, the Clabecq workers organised
a demonstration of 80,000 people from all over Belgium.
The bosses, union bureaucrats and the government were
worried by these developments, especially as the Renault factory in Vilvoorde
was also shut down. That was when the counter-attack against the Clabecq workers
was set in motion. Initially, a media campaign was launched, presenting the
strikers as mindless wreckers in an attempt to isolate them. Even the smallest
incident was exaggerated by the media to cut across workers’ solidarity.
The Walloon government, feeling the pressure of the
movement, sold the factory to the steel-making group Duferco for a very low
price. Restarting the factory was gained through the workers’ resistance. For
the first time, the struggle had resulted in keeping the ironworks going,
instead of merely securing a better severance deal. The victory, however, was
not total because Duferco announced that it would not re-hire the union
activists.
To ensure the deal was accepted, and to prevent a workplace
vote, the bosses, government and national union leadership organised a postal
ballot. The media urged the workers to accept this ‘last chance’ compromise.
The pressure was enormous. With no other alternative on offer, a sizeable
majority accepted the proposal. The result was that 400 union activists were not
re-employed. All the workers going back had to undergo ‘psychological tests’
to prove that they were ‘suitable’ for work in the industry – even those
who had worked in Clabecq for 20 years!
The manoeuvres of the union leadership continued. Despite
the heroic struggle led by the union representatives in Clabecq, they were not
invited to the FGTB metalworkers’ section conference in April 1998. When they
turned up outside, there were angry confrontations. The FGTB leadership took
advantage of these incidents to expel six union activists, including D’Orazio
and Marra.
This was the signal for the legal action to get underway. In
April 1997 the strikers had tried to block a freeway. The police attacked them
with water cannon and tear gas. The workers defended themselves with bulldozers,
destroying several police trucks. In September 1998 the police and the Walloon
government brought a lawsuit against thirteen Clabecq workers. From the
beginning, there were numerous irregularities in the way the action was brought.
The police had prepared the file instead of an independent judge, which is the
legal requirement. The case lasted three-and-a-half years. At every court
session, hundreds of sympathisers came to support the Clabecq 13.
The FGTB leadership refused to support D'Orazio and Marra,
or any of the sacked workers. There were no official mobilisations and no
financial support. The legal action had already cost the workers more than
£45,000.
The fact that the case has ended without a jail sentence or
fines being imposed is a big victory, especially as it was achieved without the
support of the union leadership. There are now three important objectives.
Firstly, to continue the financial support. More than £20,000 has been
collected. But solidarity must continue because the lawyers’ bill is high and
the union refuses to pay. Secondly, the reinstatement in the FGTB of the
expelled activists. The Clabecq workers had the right to speak in their defence
in court, but have not had that right in their own union. This battle has become
harder since the last FGTB conference elected Mia De Vits as chairwoman,
indicating a new turn to the right in the leadership. Thirdly, MRS needs to be
relaunched – this task was cut across by the legal action which has taken up a
lot of time and energy, and cost a lot of money – but it is more urgent than
ever to ‘renew the unions’ for the struggles ahead.
Guy Van Sinoy
To find out more or to help the Clabecq 13, contact:
lspmas@skynet.be
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