Hey American! Start an Unemployed Workers Union!
Hey American! Start an unemployed workers union! Now you may be saying what? Unemployed workers union? Yes, you heard me an UNEMPLOYED WORKERS UNION! Unemployed workers are still workers and like all workers they need representation and organisation of their own. What for you might ask? Well as you probably already know, half of Americans are unemployed, America is a country with an extremely byzantine welfare system, that pays incredibly poorly too given the riches of the country and a country with an enormous homelessness crisis just to name a few reasons.
Another reason a union is necessary is the unemployed are often represented by people other than themselves. There is a dire need for institutions of, by and for unemployed and under-employed people. Many charities are headed by upper class people and are run in a hierarchal fashion giving the unemployed little say over their demands (not to mention the religious strings attached). The most egregious example being Bill Gates a billionaire who claims to talk for the poor! That is like if George Wallace became the president of the NAACP! Our struggles are best represented by us. Our advocacy must be of, by and for us. It is because of this lack of representation that our there are so many classist stereotypes about the unemployed.
Furthermore, the predicament of the unemployed strikes at the heart of the contradictions inherent in capitalism. Full employment breaks it! An attack on welfare is an attack on wages and job security. What kind of “efficient system” leaves millions without anyway to meaningfully participate in their community and what kind of society leaves so many in poverty. No one should be in poverty.
Now at this point I hope you are convinced of the moral and material necessity of an unemployed workers union but you might be thinking when has that ever happened? Well similar organisations have appeared in America before but, one place it is happening right now is Australia.
The Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU) was founded in 2014 (Australia has a long history of unemployed unions but that is another story) as an organisation of, by and for the unemployed. Under it’s constitution only Unemployed and Under-Employed members have voting rights. The union has a number of demands (Job Guarantee, raising rate of welfare payments etc.) and has asserted the voice of the unemployed in the media challenging stereotypes and neoliberal dogma about those out-of-work.
The union also runs an advocacy hotline assisting unemployed people with the byzantine and punitive welfare system in Australia. The hotline provides an avenue for unemployed people to help each other as it is run by unemployed people.
The union remains democratic by having a number of branches across the country in which it makes decisions and launches political actions from. The size of the digital infrastructure is impressive considering the limited fundraising ability of the union. The union is testament to the talent that is wasted by our economic system.
Americas size is enormous so, I cannot imagine the scale an unemployed union could achieve there. So, what are you waiting for get out there and create something! Build a website/platform and organise! Who knows what could be achieved.
Why am I saying this? I am not American and I cannot fight their fight for them but, the plight of all unemployed everywhere is important. Capitalism doesn’t see borders and neither should we. We are all workers; we all have a common enemy! In the spirit of global solidarity, I invite you Americans and those from any other country to take up the fight and build an unemployed workers union! All people are worthful and the cause of the unemployed has value in and of itself. Unemployed workers of the world unite!
