what is trade union Bureaucracy ? A theoretical Account —

‘Union bureaucracy’ is an important yet vexed term in the study of trade unions and in radical politics. At worst, it can be a label pinned by left-wing activists on those union officers whose actions or beliefs are seen as repugnant. This usage confers the label of ‘bureaucrat’ on some union officials but not on those whose behaviour is seen as praiseworthy. The term is also used in a more serious way. Many critical analysts (and others) have drawn attention to the existence of a layer of full-time union officers and staff and argued that this group of people – ‘the trade union bureaucracy’ – plays a conservative role in unions. There are many versions of this kind of analysis of ‘the bureaucracy,’ some much more insightful than others. Yet there have been scarcely any recent attempts to refine and present a coherent theory of union bureaucracy.2 Unfortunately, it remains the case that in the study of unions, as John Kelly (1988) argued over two decades ago, ‘Rarely is the term “bureaucracy” defined or its use justified on any theoretical grounds, and it is normally unclear which of several different definitions is actually being employed’ (p.155). Moreover, theories of ‘the trade union bureaucracy’ understood as a group of people can function as blinkers to a critical understanding of the character of union activity itself. A focus on official leaderships can lead us to ignore or neglect how union activity happens, how the relations among members and between officials and members are organized. To put the same point