I'm watching a documentary called Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man (link) and it mentioned that Sankara banned trade unions. In one scene he also said, "Anarcho-syndicalists?", to which the crowd replied, "Down with them!". This struck me as odd, since anarcho-syndicalists would surely be leftists, and trade unions would be a source of political power for the proletariat — so I searched Prolewiki, and all that site seems to say about the reason for Sankara's ban of trade unions was, "[the unions] were reactionary and a tool of the bourgeoisie in Burkina Faso".
So what I want to know, essentially, is how did this situation come to be? Why were the trade unions reactionary in Burkina Faso, and how were they utilized by the bourgeoisie? And why would Sankara refer specifically to anarcho-syndicalists as something worthy of a "down with them"? And are there any lessons we can learn from Sankara about how to handle trade unions in a dictatorship of the proletariat in other countries, particularly in an exploiting country like my Norway, rather than an exploited country like his Burkina Faso?
"anarcho syndicalist" was a pejorative in a lot of places that didnt really have a hard meaning. the term was first popularize as a pejorative in france in the 1920s. he was most likely using it as an insult to reactionary trade unions as there was no anarcho syndicalist movement in burkina faso at the time. the trade unions were all run by reactionaries for the most part at the time so they needed to be removed. also hes has a joking tone in the speech.
Thank you for the reply. So essentially the issue with the unions was their leadership?
yes they mostly opposed sankara despite being helpful in throwing out the french. remember 90% of burkinabe were rural (sankara was most popular with rural people) at the time, the members of the trade unions were the most privileged part of the working class so they were pretty reactionary. sankara also destroyed tribal authority as well, it was all about removing these old corrupt institutions that were against the new revolutionary government more than any anti union sentiment. at least thats my understanding.
Interesting, thank you.
youre welcome i wrote a bunch about sankara in college! also check out the wretched of the earth as well sometime. it goes over how these dynamics work broadly.
I already did check out Wretched of the Earth a good while ago, but evidently my reading comprehension was shit at the time so I don't remember half of it. So I certainly intend to re-read it soon. Awesome to hear that you got to write so much about Sankara when you were in college. Is there anywhere I can look at what else you've written?
I would also check out Meditations on Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the earth by James Yaki Sayles. He wrote it in the context of educating cadres in the US so that context might help understanding better.
like published online? haha dont make me blush! i should make some effort post though..
You could publish on ProleWiki
that sounds cool! putting my niche hyperfixations to use.
Yep ProleWiki is great, if you think you could contribute feel free to apply for an editor account, or just browse before; you can publish your own essays too not only contribute to articles
ill check it out!