The gay and lesbian group of the British public sector union, Unison, recently visited South Africa. Yolande Africa and Kim Jurgensen asked them about the difficulties of taking up homosexual issues in the labour movement.
Unison in Britain is the amalgamation of three public sector unions into a single 1.3 million member union. Unison has a uniquely organised structure which includes what are called "self organised groups". There are four of these groups which organise Women, Black, Disabled, Lesbian and Gay members.
Kursad Kahramanoglu, Unison’s International Officer, explained the set up to Shopsteward. "Each group has two full time officers and has a national conference every year which is attended by 500 members. There is also a national committee which is elected from the thirteen regions. Within each group are elected members of other groups. For example, in the gay and lesbian group you would have black and disabled representatives. The committee has 38 people and meets five times a year."
Kahramanoglu emphasised the importance of taking up gay and lesbian issues because they are "human rights issues as well as trade union issues". Why organise separately? According to Kahramanoglu, this is not a divisive strategy, nor is it separate from the broad organisational direction (which set up these "groups" in its rule book (constitution)).
He explained that history has shown people need to be able to organise into their own groups. He gave the example of women in the union, who make up two thirds of the membership. He argued that because they have their own group the chances of meeting the 2002 target of two thirds of the leadership being women are much higher. "It is also a fact that gay and lesbian issues are taken seriously now. There is a clear message being sent out that it is ok to be gay", Kahramanoglu added.
He admitted it was difficult in the beginning though. "There was a backlash that this is not a trade union issue because it’s about a persons’ private life. But in Britain there is no law against homosexual harassment so this clearly is a trade union issue." He said one of the responsibilities of the trade union movement is to bring about change. "It would be criminal if this legal aspect is not taken up."
The other legal issue the labour movement is campaigning to change, is the age of consent. For gay men it is still 18 whereas straight men can legally have sex at 16 (interestingly, lesbianism is not a recognised concept in England). Over 2000 gay men are prosecuted every year on this issue.
Shopsteward asked him what advice he would give South African unions in taking forward gay and lesbian struggles. He answered that in South Africa, as in all countries, there is a "hierarchy of oppression". Progressive people are more tolerant of gay and lesbian oppression than they are of say, gender and then racial oppression. That is part of the reason why we so often hear trade union leadership say there are no homosexual people in their organisation. "How do you expect people to ‘come out’ if the conditions are not conducive?", Kahramanoglu pointed out. "The single most important thing gay and lesbian people can contribute to the struggle, as individuals, is to ‘come out’" as this will show there are homosexuals in all parts of society.
Trade unions need to advance the philosophy that discrimination is discrimination, no matter who the victim is. "It is very important that union leadership speaks out on this as a political issue," he said.
