SOLIDARITY
In June of 1871, shortly after the defeat of the Paris Commune, Eugene Pottier wrote the words to a poem entitled L’Internationale, dedicated to the memory of Gustave Le Français, a fellow member of the Council of the Commune. One of the elected representatives of the 2nd Arrondissement, Pottier (1816 – 1887) was forced to flee first to Britain, and then to the United Sates. He was tried in his absence by a Council of War and sentenced to death for his involvement in the Commune. He did not return to France until 1887, and died in poverty later that same year.
Born of the massacres of Bloody Week (May 21 – 28, 1871) during which 25,000 to 30,000 men, women, and children lost their lives at the hands of government soldiers, Pottier’s poem speaks nonetheless of hope and solidarity. It was later put to music by Pierre Degeyter at the request of the Lille section of the French Workers’ Party who had founded a choir called “La Lyre des Travailleurs”. Publicly performed for the first time in July 1888, the song was adopted in 1910 by the Socialist parties present at an international Socialist congress in Copenhagen as their anthem.
It is difficult to imagine how someone who had witnessed the defeat of the Paris Commune and the massacre of so many of his fellow citizens could speak eloquently of the need to continue the fight for democracy, equality, and free, non religious education for all children. And yet this belief in the possibility of progress through collective effort underscores all of his writings. It is one of the most recurrent themes of the nineteenth century. The horizon that one glimpses from the top of the barricades, as Victor Hugo imagines it in Les Misérables, is one of fraternity, equality, and idealism. I have long admired the courage of those who took to the barricades during the nineteenth century to proclaim their collective rights and fight for a better world, not just for themselves, but for future generations:
Du passé faisons table rase
Foules, esclaves, debout, debout
Le monde va changer de base
Nous ne sommes rien, soyons tout !
While it may no longer be necessary in Canada to take to the barricades in defense of democracy, much remains to be done to improve our rights to equality and to affordable postsecondary education. As members of a faculty association, we have the right and the obligation to bargain for improvements to benefits and working conditions through a collective agreement, with the support of our national association, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, and its Defense fund. Created in 1978, the Defense fund provides unionized academic staff associations with a strike fund, and today rallies 37 member associations representing over 17,000 academics, with nearly $19 million in assets.
This means that even very small associations can negotiate with confidence and resolve, secure in the knowledge that they have solid support from colleagues across the country. Our ability to build a strong national association has only been made possible by the strength of our local associations.
Many people here at Acadia have devoted countless hours over the past year to suggesting improvements to our collective agreement and drafting proposed contract language. Three committees were formed almost one year ago, the Appointments and Working Conditions committee, the Legal and Technical committee, and the Financial Benefits committee. Each of these committees did a thorough review of collective agreements across Canada, proposed a set of principles, organized “town hall” meetings, and, on the basis of feedback received, finalized their proposals. The work of these three committees was then reviewed by another ad hoc committee to ensure consistency across and within the proposals. The result of this collaborative and consultative process was finally presented to the members and approved. At every step of the way, the process was transparent and collaborative. The collective work of all these individuals has resulted in a more solid set of proposals than any one individual working in isolation could have produced. Although to some this process may seem cumbersome, it has the advantage of involving a large percentage of our members in at least some aspects of proposal development. It has helped to build solidarity within our membership, as we are all now working towards a common goal, improving our collective agreement, not just for what each of us wishes for as an individual, but for all the members of our association. It is comforting to know, as I and the other members of your negotiating team sit at the negotiating table, that we are not alone, and that we have the support we need, both locally and nationally, to carry out the mandate you have given us.
In solidarity,
Janice Best