Striking the Heart of Neo-Capitalism?

Hungary's first major strike of the New Year makes an impact

After almost a week of strike action Budapest bus drivers are back at work, getting more or less everything they were demanding. This was the first major strike of the New Year and coincided with similar strike action by ground crew workers at Budapest’s major airport, Ferihegy. Unlike their counterparts at the Budapest Transport Company (BKV), the airport strike has not had an immediate and resounding impact, so there the strike continues.

The importance of the strike by the BKV bus drivers was that it was the first major test following the central government's massive austerity budget introduced at the end of last year. This budget cut deep into the pockets of everyone, and many felt that 2010 would see a wave of labor unrest break out throughout the country. The BKV strike was thus seen as a possible catalyst for this wave of unrest.

Indeed, at the very beginning events seemed to be moving in such a direction. Railway workers held a symbolic four hour sympathy work stoppage and the teacher’s union also expressed their solidarity with the BKV workers. In the end, however, such actions did not go far. The work stoppage by the railway workers had little impact; most trains ran on time anyway and many commuters were not aware there was even a problem. An expression of sympathy by the teachers, meanwhile, was more bark than bite.

This is not to say that there wasn't widespread sympathy for the BKV workers. Unfortunately, in Hungary and the rest of Central and Eastern Europe the public has been terrorized into silence when it comes to industrial action of any sort. Hence the notion of a general strike or public support for striking workers is very difficult to organize, if not impossible. Nevertheless, many feel that what is needed to counter the deadly grip that neo-liberalist capitalism is mass industrial action on the scale of what occasionally occurs in western European countries, namely France and Germany.

The fear on the part of the political and business elite in Hungary of this ferment and rebellion is very real. The success of truck drivers in Slovakia earlier this month which forced the government in Bratislava to scrap its plans for an electronic road-toll system no doubt had an effect. Despite the Fico government's determination not to give in to the demands by the truck drivers and to belittle the demonstration as an insignificant movement caused by a small group of troublemakers, Bratislava in the end was forced to concede defeat. The success of the truck drivers in Slovakia was in large part due to the support they received from the general public.

A similar situation seemed to play out in Hungary with the BKV workers over a week later. Despite the best attempts by state and corporate media to demonize the striking workers, most people were sympathetic to their cause. The anger by the public was felt more toward the management of the BKV who happened to be embroiled in an extensive fraud and embezzlement scandal. Thus, the modest wage increases and other concessions demanded by the BKV workers were seen as justified considering the massive amounts of taxpayer’s money looted by managers at the transit company.

In addition to attempts at directing people's anger and frustration toward the striking workers, other means were also employed by the authorities in order to try and break the strike. Scab workers were used and a marked police presence under the guise of increased security was employed to intimidate workers. Police vans equipped with audio and video surveillance equipment were parked outside the garages where the striking workers congregated. Supposed bomb threats were used at times to clear the premises and make workers stand outside in the cold for hours.

Although much was made on state and corporate media about the disruptive effect on the lives of ordinary people that the strike would cause, in actual fact there was little such chaos. There wasn't a marked increase of traffic in Budapest and while the mass media continually broadcast images of people cramming into the few buses and trams which were running, many were able to make alternative arrangements. Unlike ten or twenty years ago when such a strike would have paralyzed the city, with so many Hungarians now owning cars such a strike may be an inconvenience but not a major obstacle.

Realizing as much, the authorities attempted to suggest that Budapest's pollution problem was being caused by the strike as the air quality in the city last week was so bad that it had on several occasions approached the smog alert limit. Yet air quality in Budapest is an endemic problem and that at this time of year smog is, sadly, a routine occurrence. Indeed, considering that there were less buses on the roads and that more people were optimizing the use of their vehicles (i.e., car pooling), and coupled with the fact that some even stayed at home due to fears of traffic chaos, the air quality in Budapest was perhaps better than if there wasn't a strike.

Toward the end of last week, the lame attempts on the part of the authorities to belittle the strike obviously had little or no effect, and in some cases even backfired. By Friday reports had emerged that the BKV was actually profiting from the strike. The company was reported to be saving over 50 million HUF per day (approximately 200,000 Euro). Hence, some began to speculate that the firm stance on the part of management was motivated by having the strike last as long as possible so as to save as much money as they could by not providing little or no service to the public. Rumors even began to circulate that management and union leaders were in cohorts to this end. The BKV has been chronically mismanaged for years, if not decades, and toward the end of last year the company was only saved from total collapse through a government bailout. This bailout, of course, came with a price: the company was forced to raise ticket prices by 4% in January of this year.

The failure by the authorities to demonize the strike and intimidate workers, coupled with rising public anger toward the authorities and the suspicion of the management's true objectives, led to what seemed irreconcilable differences to be suddenly resolved over the weekend. This, however, doesn't overcome the much larger problem of social unrest and dissatisfaction which is prevalent throughout the country. How much the end of the BKV strike takes away the impetus for others to air their grievances in solidarity with one another or, conversely, emboldens them to try and achieve success on their own remains to be seen.