Far away, in a drawer or in a historical archive, it would have to be for consultation that outdated left-wing tradition, which was a theoretical principle of the workers’ parties: according to him each party had to create its own union, totally under the control of the party, being the “belt of transmission” of “the vanguard” towards the working class.

If we asked CCOO, it would theoretically be in favour of union autonomy. But who am I autonomous and on the Left-Ezkerra (I-E) of course! However, and that is the surprise, CCOO and I-E have a nexus of union: the party is the “transmission belt” of the union, not to the working class, but to the institutions of power. That has to do, of course, with being much stronger than the union than the party. Their political support, their vote nest, is more in the union than in civil society.

On the other hand, it is a very shared conviction of the left that a working-class union must think of the whole working class when it comes to embarking on any economic, social, cultural, administrative or political claim. This is an inescapable requirement of class unions, to the extent that it is capable of definition. However, certain groups of workers, federations/departments of class unions, often have more weight and strength than others. And often the demands of these federations do not take into account whether their claims do not hinder or even sometimes trample on the rights of another group. In a way, the law of the jungle rises among the groups of workers within the unions: you eat the strongest, you eat the others. That is the problem that CCOO has and its I-E kidnapping in Navarre, as witnesses of its position in favour of the double list for the oppositions of public education.

Concerning the position of CCOO. Drowned in pure corporativism, his party being one of the guarantors of the Navarre government, he has hijacked the autonomy of I-E and uses it as a “transmission belt” to transmit to the institutions of power the interests of the majority of one of its federations. The mere corporativism and, perhaps, the search for a new political map..., are some of the articles and opinions of the media. It's possible. But we must also take account of this other aspect of the case, which highlights the link between the union and the political party. They have not forgotten that outdated theory, they are supposed to overcome it, but they make their cue and even awkward the direction of the transmission: CCOO has, of course, become the party’s “avant-garde” in terms of jobs in Basque.