Tunisian Nobel Recognizes role of Labor Unions, the Left in Democratic Transition

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http://www.juancole.com/2015/10/recognizes-democratic-transition.html

Tunisian Nobel Recognizes role of Labor Unions, the Left in Democratic Transition
By Juan Cole | Oct. 11, 2015

How many American news reports about the Nobel Peace Prize given to the Tunisian Quartet that pushed the country toward democracy and compromise will mention that two of the four organizations so honored are national labor unions of workers? A third was an attorneys’ guild.

The four groups, who came together in summer, 2013, are The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), The Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers.

When Western reporters writing for corporate newspapers ponder why a transition to democracy has been difficult for some countries (and not just in the Arab world), they almost never suggest that it is because workers are not unionized enough or that unions are not sufficiently engaged in civic life. The sleight-of-hand of the editors for the rich is to focus on difficulties presented by “tribe” or sectarianism. But what institutions in the Middle East actively overcome these primordial identities? Labor unions and peace and human rights groups.

With rates of unionization in single digits in the United States and would-be presidential candidates such as Scott Walker running on union-bashing (he had to withdraw from the race), it is hard for Americans with their plutocracy to imagine a place where unions remain active, networked and able to push society in progressive directions. But few social scientists think Germany, e.g. would be nearly as successful as a society without its labor unions. The dominance of oligarchs and lack of workers’ rights in some parts of the former East bloc probably played a role in their political failures and violent struggles.