REBELLION IN THE RANKS sands of Industrial establlshments across the natlon workers have developed Informal underground unlons. The basic unlts or organization are groups composed of several workers, many ot whom work in the same plant area and are thus able to communlcate with one another and form a social entity. Led by natural on-the-job leaders, they conduct daily guerrilla skirmlshes wlth thelr employers and often against their officlal unlon representatlves as well. These groups are the power base for insurgence from below ... the informed work-groups are the micro organizatlonal units which create the phantom unlts that are behind ali wild cat strikes. They are the only organizations that cannot be bureaucratized ... > (Workers' control, p. 46, 57). «The coordination of such work-groups and plant commlttees united in city regional and national councll>, suggests Weir, «mlght be an alternatlve to bureaucracles elected every few years far removed from the tribulations and the llfe of the workers In the factorles ... • (!bid. p. 59). The fact that historians of the labor movement and advanced workers are beglnnlng to understand that nelther corporation or state ownership are satisfactory alternatives for workers' control, that the workers must dlvorce thelr unlons from the State and the employers, the lnsistance on decentrallzatlon of the union, autonomy and dlrect actlon demonstrate the relevance of llbertarian syndicallst ideas to the complex realltles of modern llfe. Whether the rank-and-flle movement wlll reach this stage In the !oreseeable future, or develop the capaclty to undertake a task of such staggerlng proportlons remalns to be seen. Upsurge of government workers WITH the tremendous expansion of Governmental functions in publlc services, social security, weltare programs and regulatory agencies embraclng almost ali aspects of social lite, there has been an enormous escalation or the work force. Federal, provincial (state), county and municipal governments are now the largest employers of labor. In 1953 there were 4,5 mlllion government employees, now, in 1975 there are 15,5 mllllon clvlllan, non-m1lltary workers comprlslng one slxth of the total labor force. The future ot the labor movement as an effective lnstltutlon depends, to very great extent, on the organization of government workers, technlcal-sclentltlc and protesslonal workers, education and servlce workers who now constltute the largest 105
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