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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Capitalism and the "Fisheries Crisis": the Case of Fish Farming - Article﻿</title>﻿

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﻿<b﻿>﻿Capitalism and the "Fisheries Crisis": 

﻿<br﻿>﻿The Case of Fish Farming 

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by TJ Baker﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, June - July 1998﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿</center>﻿


"A global fisheries crisis." Those are words that are increasingly being used to describe the state of the fishing industry. In Canada they are backed up by blockades and protests demanding that the TAGS program be renewed in Newfoundland. Or threats of another Alaska ferry blockade in BC if a Canada-US salmon treaty isn't reached. Or the recent re-staging in Victoria of the Full Monty as the "Full Mifflin" (after former Fisheries Minister Fred Mifflin) to make the point that fishers are being "stripped of their dignity" and have lost the "shirts off their backs."

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The "fisheries crisis" represents a growing awareness that the largest multinational fishing companies are strip-mining the world's oceans of their life and decimating fish stocks species by species with alarming rapidity. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The recently-formed World Forum of Fishery Workers is a response to the increasingly inescapable reality that the current course represents the extinction of wild fish stocks and with it the communities and livelihoods that depend on them. Spearheaded by India and the successful struggle there to overturn an IMF-imposed arrangement that allowed foreign factory trawlers special access to the fish in India's waters, the World Forum proposes fisheries management alternatives based on fisheries management by fishing communities - the self-management of fisheries by fishery workers. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

This agenda has struck a chord across the world, North and South; from India, to Canada, to the Philippines, to New Zealand. It speaks against the traditional approach of national governments whereby fisheries management means managing the process by which the largest corporations are given the most favourable conditions for operating. It is an exciting development that combines localism and regional autonomy with internationalism. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

﻿<b﻿>﻿The Threats of Aquaculture ﻿</b>﻿

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

That said, there are many challenges facing this movement and the aspirations to maintain the way of life associated with fishing. Not least of these challenges is aquaculture (fish farming). Aquaculture, particularly when it involves ocean-penned fish, has long been recognized as a prime threat to fishery workers, at least in British Columbia. There are well-documented environmental concerns of the spread of disease to wild stocks, pollution from farm sites, and the threat of escaped exotic species establishing themselves in the ecosystem and displacing indigenous marine life. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

But less-remarked upon is the potential realignment of class forces in the fishing industry that aquaculture represents. Fish farming is one means of replacing independent commodity producers - fishers who own their own boats, gear, etc. (the means of production) and sell their goods in the market - with proletarians (waged workers). Just as weavers and artisans were displaced and transformed into factory-bound working classes by the Industrial Revolution, eliminating an entire way of life, huge changes to fishing that threaten aboriginal and non-native communities and their traditional ways of life are underway. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Aquaculture is only one factor in this process. Increased mechanization and government policy have played a more substantial role in creating upheaval in the industry. But aquaculture represents the cutting edge in its embodiment of the complete proletarianization of fish production. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

The significance of this proletarianization is monumental. Aquaculture brings the production process under the almost-complete command of capital. Excluding disease, it all but eliminates the vagaries of nature, standardizes the product and regulates its supply. More importantly, it constrains labour. No longer does capital find itself at the mercy of the highly refined skills and knowledge of fishers, or of their traditions of class consciousness and class struggle. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Along with this control over production and the labour process comes the asset of mobility. Aquaculture is a form of production that, within limits of geography, can be shifted to take advantage of lower wages, lower taxes, minimized standards and regulations, etc. Fish production can join the "race to the bottom." The explosive growth of the farmed salmon industry in Chile illustrates this process. The multinational corporations that dominate aquaculture take advantage of that country's low wages and lax environmental protection. The growth of the Chilean industry is then used to pressure British Columbians to make regulatory concessions in order to stay competitive. 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

A dramatic example of the flexibility of aquaculture to utilize labour in its most exploited form is outlined in the Nov/Dec 1997 edition of AQUACULTURE MAGAZINE. The article "Fish Belong In Prison!" describes an aquaculture/fish processing development planned for the Pinckneyville state prison. "Currently the cost of raising fish in Illinois is so high that private processing companies cannot afford to buy the fish." However, with this new development "We'll be able to pay Illinois farmers $1.00 per pound for catfish because inexpensive prison labour will be used to process the fish." A Union Responds 

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

While the threat that aquaculture poses to fishery workers is clear, the challenge of meeting the threat is fraught with contradiction. Nevertheless, it is a challenge that the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union (UFAWU-CAW) finds itself enmeshed in. Faced with a dramatically shrinking membership, the union has responded by affiliating with the Canadian Auto Workers as well as embarking on an organizing drive of both fish farms and plants that process farmed salmon. The union has had some successes in its organizing, most notably in Campbell River, BC

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

However, this organizing effort, while most welcome, puts the union in a difficult position. With it, it is no longer feasible to simply condemn aquaculture in the defense of its fishing members. In fact, because it now represents fish farm workers, the union is obliged to defend the industry in some form and acknowledge its existence as legitimate. This reality has produced conflict in its own ranks of fishers while eliciting predictable squeals of hypocrisy from aquaculture business people.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

Typical is the editorial in the Feb. 1998 issue of NORTHERN AQUACULTURE entitled "West Coast union solicits members from industry it's trying to destroy." Peter Chettleburgh writes that "It boggles the mind" that "union organizers have been traveling the length and breadth of Vancouver Island trying to solicit memberships for an organization that has repeatedly - publicly - called for the removal of our industry from these shores. What's even worse is that union organizers are allegedly using misleading tactics in their rush to win over new members, impressing plant workers with samples of union contracts that just can't and won't work in the aquaculture business."

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In fact, the UFAWU has taken a reasonable and realistic stand on the issue. It readily acknowledges that the industry is here to stay, while calling for improved regulation and manag﻿ed growth. It also points out that aquaculture workers need the protection of a union.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿

In the midst of a painful transformation of fish production, the union is changing to address new circumstances. This involves difficult choices and concessions, but these are inevitable when one chooses the road of pragmatism over purism. But hopefully this road will lead to more power in the hands of aquaculture and aquaculture-related workers, so that these workers are able to exert an influence over the production process and better fight for social and environmental progress.

﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


﻿<font﻿ ﻿size="1"﻿>﻿TJ Baker lives in Vancouver and works in a currently non-union plant that processes mostly farmed salmon. ﻿</font>﻿</font>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿


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