Nederlandse binnenschippers en het probleem van de solidariteit

Samenvatting

Dutch Barge-masters and the Problem of Solidarity. From 1900 onwards scores of barge-masters associations have come into being in the Netherlands and have perished according to a similar pattern. Only a few of the associations still in existence today can pride themselves on a relatively long 'live'. Their number is, however, a great deal smaller than the number of unions that have been disbanded after a short period of time. The purpose of this article is to make clear why barge-masters so far haven't been able to be mutually supportive on a long term basis and a vast scale - an ideal which many of them have pursued for decades - and, in connection with this, why the fate of their unions has been (and is) so unstable. It is argued that this rather peculiar phenomenon has to be related to the internal differentiation of the barge-masters population and their ambivalence concerning the proper strategy to follow in periods of economic recession. Barge-masters neither own similar ships nor are they all active on the same market. That explains in part their inability to form a united front towards consignors, ship brokers, politicians etc. and the unstable fate of their unions. More important, however, for an understanding of the swift rise and fall of their associations is the fact that there exist two survival strategies: a vertical and a horizontal one and that bargemasters tend to shift from the one to the other according to the economic situation. The vertical strategy implies keeping good relations with shippers and shipping agents in order to get work from them, while the horizontal one implies the forming of a solidary front against them in order to force them to bow for the wishes of the barge-masters population. In times of economic crisis one tends to follow the second strategy more than the first and to establish or join 'horizontal' unions, but as soon as the economic tide changes many barge-masters don't care any more.