…Democratising Economics from the Workplace
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March 2014
 Work in Progress
This newsletter is produced by the New Unionism Network to promote workplace democracy, organizing, internationalism and creative thinking in the union movement. You are most welcome to pass it on. Better still, find out about joining us here.
Putting OCCUPATION back into unionism
Industrial unions replaced guilds and friendly societies during the first wave of new unionism - starting towards the end of the 19th century. Perhaps we lost something important along the way? Look at the way people talk about their work: we do jobs; but we are occupations. In our final paper on building global unionism, Guy Standing argues: "what we do and seek to do is more important than who we do it for." In fact, a revived focus on occupation within unionism might help us address some of our most difficult problems:
- How do we organize and bargain across borders in an age of globalization?
- How do we organize "the precariat", who come and go from workplaces before we can reach them?
- How do we rebuilt influence whilst struggling to survive?
What's more, an occupational layer might not require any major change to the underlying structure of industrial unions. This is an idea you need to think about! More
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