In 2022 and 2023 I helped to organize a Union. We grew from zero represented workers to a thousand in the course of a year. It was the most difficult and fulfilling year of my life, and I learned more than I ever could have expected. Here are some tips I don't see mentioned often.
The structure of our union has changed a lot as we have grown. A lot of us in the Union learned how to organize during 2020/2021 in the form of affinity groups or mutual aid groups. I think we learned the hard way that scaling up these types of structures doesn't work. A lot of us had ideas about heirarchy being bad as a result of things like police brutality, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and capitalism. The bottom line is that hierarchical structures are not automatically coercive. Hierarchical structures do not have to be run on a representational basis, they can use direct democracy. When they are being used to upset the power of exploiters, they are liberatory.
During the early days of our union, we struggled to create a functional division of labor. People saw participation in day-to-day work as part of the democratic life of the Union. This was amazing and empowering, but most people would also commit to helping with too many different areas. For example, the same person might help a new shop organize, write a newsletter, help with legal paperwork, and get involved with the collective bargaining. Most of us are just doing what we have to to get a paycheck. It's extremely exciting to find yourself in a position where you can help contribute in a way that feels free and creative.
The ideology in the Union as we were building it was that 'doing the work' was a qualification in decision making spaces. Consensus spaces were dominated by the people with the most experience and the best social skills. There was not a clear separation between execution and deliberation. This could have been seen as participatory democracy. In reality, it was participatory democracy for a few, and non-participatory oligarchy for the vast majority of people impacted by decisions.
Separating executive and deliberative spaces was the best thing that happened to our union in the first year. It also encouraged people to get more deeply involved where their skills were developing and leave the rest others, knowing that they could still be involved in decisions that impacted them. Fewer people felt like they had to be working half-assedly on a dozen things to have their say in the Union. More people had a voice. More got done. Make the big decisions democratically and trust a few people to get it done.
Fuck McAlevey, fuck Foster, fuck Burns. Theory is great but Secrets is still the unsurpassed practical manual. Read it cover to cover multiple times. Learn to have an organizing conversation. Workshop with your comrades. Do the exercises.
Five copies of this book are worth more than the library of Alexandria.
Volunteer organizing work is hard and thankless. We got the first material improvement in our lives out of our organizing work in October 2023. We started organizing, tens of hours per week, 18 months prior. A lot can happen in that timescale. Depressive episodes, breakdowns, family stress, low energy, burnout, etc. It can feel like shit to be accountable to people who aren't putting much work in, or any work in, or are flakey. You turn into them.
I had always been involved in writing for the union newsletter, since the second edition came out. The first months were extremely haphazard. Publication would be inconsistent. We'd go a couple months with nothing, then have a bunch of interviews and well done work. Scheduling meetings was a pain in the ass and then people would take on writing projects and completely drop the ball.
Eventually we chartered a committee and started working with a stable group of people. Comrade Stephanie and I started doing the newsletter together. We were no longer accountable to ourselves or to the membership, we became accountable to each other and couldn't help but realize how our actions impacted each other. Newsletters became consistent, well-written, regularly published. Good enough finally felt good enough, because we weren't writing for ourselves anymore. Work in pairs.
It's still around because it works.
There is no way to build a union without love. The work is too hard. The goal is too distant. People will disagree with you and essentialize your negative behaviours and hold grudges even though you are both prepared to fight for each other. It happens in a Union of two, it's going to happen when you organize hundreds. You need a huge amount of love in your life to be able to give enough to win.
It can be easy to fall into superficial organizing relationships. You are united by a goal and if you are lucky a shared strategy. But you need to have people in the Union with you that you straight up love. Because the bottom line is that this shit isn't worth the effort if you don't love the people you are organizing with and for. Pick your favorite organizer and get drunk with them, or something.
Give yourself time and space to love others. Prioritize your friendships. Set aside time for your lovers. Ask people to relieve your obligations so you can love someone, and do the same for them. It feels good immediately and creates a basis for you to contribute from, but it also keeps you from chasing validation in your organizing relationships. That's good for everybody.
Also, sing along to old union songs.