Ep 18: Rank-and-filism 101: What's "the bureaucracy"? What's "the rank and file"?

Labour Days: a labour movement podcast

Trade union activists, particularly those on the left, will almost certainly be familiar with the terms “bureaucracy” and “rank and file”. But what do they mean? In this episode, with Ellie sadly absent, Edd gives us a historical sketch of the development of trade union officialdom, and talks about some Marxist approaches to understanding it. Daniel worries that he might himself have become a bureaucrat. Finally, we talk to Rhian Keyse, an activist in the University and College Union, about the embryonic rank-and-file revolt in that union around the 2018 strikes against pension cuts. The new rank-and-file initiatives she refers to, UCU Rank-and-File and the Branch Solidarity Network, are online here: https://twitter.com/ucu_rankfile Hmmm https://ucubranchsolidaritynetwork.wordpress.com/ In the course of the episode, various historical organisations/episodes are mentioned fleetingly, so here’s some suggested further reading: The Local Associations National Action Campaign, an attempt to form a rank-and-file network in the National Union of Teachers, which has since evolved into the Educational Solidarity Network in the National Education Union: https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2012/06/06/rank-and-file-teachers-organise https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2012/06/13/rank-and-file-teachers-conference-forum-and-voice The National Minority Movement, a rank-and-file movement in British trade unions in the 1920s, led by Communist Party members: https://www.marxists.org/archive/higgins/1970/11/minmvmt.htm Teamsters for a Democratic Union: http://www.tdu.org/who_we_are John Moloney, a rank-and-file candidate for PCS Assistant General Secretary, standing on a platform including a commitment to only take an average workers’ wage, and on the policy that all full time officials should be elected: https://pcsindependentleft.com/2019/01/27/pcs-ags-election-john-moloney-speaks/