Organising for what? Where is the debate on the politics of organising?

Abstract

Many unions that have adopted ‘new’ organising approaches have tended to see organising as a ‘toolbox’ of practices rather than as having an underpinning political philosophy or objective. Adopting such an approach has left out the fundamental question of what are we1 organising ‘for’? Academics studying these developments have tended to evaluate organising outcomes against whatever objectives unions have set themselves and have not dealt with the question of what organising is and what it is for. It is important to examine the politics and processes underpinning organising activity and to keep in mind these fundamental questions. We (re)examine the political dynamics of organising and argue that there is a need for a more robust notion of power and the centrality of worker self-organisation in organising objectives.

Contemporary Union Organizing in the UK—Back to the Future?

“…Moreover, at the time of writing it would appear that this approach is now being adopted for future campaigns. This reflects a common criticism of union organizing where the broader political goals of inculcating worker self-organization (Simms and Holgate 2010) are sacrificed at the 'altar of quantitative recruitment goals' (Hurd 2004).…”

“…Importantly, while the view of local organizers reflected a political commitment to the role of selforganization in underpinning collective workplace power (Simms and Holgate 2010), branch acceptance of what they saw as the 'organizing model' appeared to be based on the need to address a growing crisis in representational capacity (Gall and Fiorito 2012). Although, branch representatives largely accepted that the creation of a more empowered membership who could be pro-active in collectively resolving their own disputes was a laudable aim, this was as seen as a long-term aspiration as opposed to a realistic immediate goal.…”

“…In response to these problems, many UK unions have turned to 'organizing' strategies based on developing grass-roots activism and leadership by building campaigns around key collective workplace issues (Simms and Holgate 2010;Gall and Fiorito 2012). However, assessments of such approaches in the UK are, at best, mixed.…”

“…As Simms and Holgate (2010) point out, union organizing covers a broad range of strategies and practices that seek to develop local leadership encourage self-reliance and forge collective consciousness around workplace issues. However, they also argue that the notion of a unified model of union organizing is problematic, obscuring the variation of approaches and the fundamental purpose of organizing activity.…”

“…Within any successful organizing campaign, the union must be able to win visible gains for members, whether this be through defending them in a grievance 6 hearing or negotiating improved terms and conditions. This suggests that, as Simms and Holgate (2010) have argued, attention should be focussed on the purpose as opposed to the tactics of organizing. More specifically, this paper asks whether, in examining the purpose of revitalisation strategies, we should look beyond the conventional dichotomy between 'organizing and servicing' and instead examine the extent to which initiatives strengthen the ability of the local union to represent its members' interests effectively as opposed to simply generating a demand for benefits that can only be remotely fulfilled through unions' professional administration.…”