Troublemaking: Why You Should Organise Your Workplace

The book "Troublemaking" highlights the explosion of organizing among workers assumed to be unorganizable, drawing lessons from around the world. It emphasizes the need for action, building the rank-and-file of unions, and democracy in organizing, as the first step in building another world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 25 April 2023
Publisher: Verso Books

The past few years have seen a remarkable surge in organizing among workers, often considered unorganizable. This movement has emerged from years of conversations on picket lines, in community centers, and union offices across Britain, the US, India, Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and Europe. Troublemaking: Organizing Precarious Workers, edited by Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock, brings together insights from these global struggles.

One of the key takeaways from the book is that no worker is unorganizable. Examples from Mumbai's precarious waste collectors, London's cleaner organizing at LSE and St Mary's Hospital, and France's sans-papier workers demonstrate that demanding more at work can lead to significant victories. Struggles such as The Water Wars in Cochabamba, Bolivia, showcase how workers can use their power beyond the workplace.

Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock draw several lessons from these movements about the importance of organizing at work as a means of building another world. They propose three principles for organizing:

The Need for Action: Struggles can change the world, but they also change the people who participate in them. Instead of resorting to action as a last resort, we need to use action as a catalyst for building a movement.

The Need to Build the Rank-and-File of Unions: Power comes from organizing at work, not from trusting others to do it on our behalf. Building a strong rank-and-file is essential for building a powerful movement.

Democracy Matters in Organizing: Organizing is not just about winning, but also about developing the confidence and skills to build another kind of world. Democracy is not just about elections, but about building a movement that is accountable to its members and responsive to their needs.

Troublemaking: Organizing Precarious Workers is not a how-to guide, but a set of principles for the politics of organizing. It encourages workers to think critically about their own experiences and to use their power to create change.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in organizing, whether they are precarious workers, union members, or activists. It provides a roadmap for building powerful movements that can challenge the status quo.

Weight: 174g
Dimension: 197 x 130 x 15 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781839767104