The politics of organising and education

Oscar Olsson

Paulo Freire

All education to be based on actual needs and experiences of workersAll workers have knowledge to bring to education

Active Learning

“The active learning approach to trade union training requires that courses should begin by drawing on the experience, skills, knowledge, attitudes and objectives of participants… through working collectively. As part of this process, participants are encouraged to apply the results of their course work to their local and/or industrial environment.” ILO Turin Centre, 1993

MEANWHILE…

Saul Alinsky

“The building of many mass power organizations to merge into a national popular power force cannot come without many organizers. Since organizations are created, in large part, by the organizer, we must find out what creates the organizer. This has been the major problem of my years of organizational experience: the finding of potential organizers and their training” Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 1971

• Professional trained organising teams• Strategic targeting of employers and sectors• Time-limited campaigns• Application of ‘leverage’

ORGANIZING MODEL

Other US Unions

Change to Win

Coalition

UK

“ORGANISING ACADEMIES”

DENMARK….

AUSTRALIA

Global Union Federations

GERMANYAFFILIATES

Donor Agencies

TRENDS

• Increased investment into professional organising departments

• Union development priorities: from worker education to organiser training

• Decline in TU education. Closure of union colleges.

• Adaptation of “new organising model” to local industrial relations and political context?

• New demand for political education?

“It is absolutely essential for our stewards and activists to be fully engaged in all aspects of organising, rather than separate Organising Units, To do this meaningfully they have to understand why companies do what they do, and how global capital works. If we maintain an insular, reactive approach, we will consistently lose” Jenny Formby, Unite the Union.