The problem
We have a rich history of successful organising here in the UK, ranging from the historical efforts of the Chartists, the Suffragettes, the Match Women, the Grunwick strike and many more through to contemporary efforts such as the recent victory of Birmingham’s homecare workers, new organising and industrial action in the service sector and the swift movement building of Extinction Rebellion.
Despite this, access to effective training and development in organising techniques is limited.
Where mass working class institutions do provide education to their members and supporters, this education too frequently ignores peer-to-peer organising techniques, political context (i.e power relations) and the role of the vested interests that so often undermine our efforts.
In the meantime, debates on progressive politics are too often focussed on what we want, or what we are against, and too seldom focussed on how we build the power to achieve our aspirations.
Our solution
We are developing imaginative new training materials based on concrete examples of struggles here in the UK.
We are making them widely available online, and encouraging our movement to review and develop them through a process of 'open sourcing'.
We are recruiting and training a mass of committed community and industrial organisers. Training tens or 20s simply won't do. We need a programme that can train literally thousands of people in the techniques that can help them organise their communities or workplaces.
We are therefore building a volunteer network of trained facilitators who can deliver training to local community, political and trade union groups.
In summary we want to develop fantastic training material, train community activists in how to use them, and then network those trained organisers, so they can learn from each others experience.