The bureaucratization of syndicalism in Morocco: A sociological study of the determinants, manifestations and implications

Abstract

The first section of this article states the circumstances that encompass the emergence of union organizations and their primary roles, as well as an analysis of the phenomenon of bureaucracy and its inherent characteristics, which swing between positive and negative aspects. The second section focuses on the manifestations of bureaucracy within union organizations and their unintended outcomes on union work, elaborating the experience of the union movement in Morocco. This movement suffers from the prevalence of bureaucratic manifestations within its union structures, where a bureaucratic character dominates union work due to the union leadership’s control over union decision-making mechanisms. This has led to the dedication of centralized decision-making, that results in the exclusion of more dynamic and active union elements and the weakening of their influence in guiding and strengthening union work. Undoubtedly, the spread of factionalism among workers and employees, through the rise of factional struggles and their organization into numerous coordination groups, can be the clearest evidence of the decline of union work in Morocco and other Maghreb countries. This decline is the effect of the proliferation of manifestations of union bureaucracy, which has directly contributed to decreasing the foundations and the pillars of internal democracy within union organizations