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Our Trade Unions
Looks at the world of work, class and trade unions and what comes next after the summer of 2022.
78 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 23, 2023
Trade unionism in Britain is a field heavy on practice, learned knowledge, and received wisdom - but light on theory. In some ways, this is the strength of the labour movement in Britain compared to our more cerebral continental colleagues. British unions rarely worry whether the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.
However, this paucity of introspection is also often a weakness, and a frustrating one at that. Our Trade Unions is therefore a welcome intervention, asking us to stop and consider the strategic position of the British trade union movement at this moment in history.
Flanagan's basic argument is that our trade unions are currently caught in a theoretical deadlock between service unionism and US-style organising models exported by 'gurus' like Jane McAlevey. He argues that service unionism helped the movement tread water in the 1990s/early 00s, but is doing nothing to arrest the collapse in density and bargaining power experienced in the last several decades. He further argues that US-style organising, based on professional activists having persuasive conversations, identifying leaders, and building campaigns around local issues, doesn't work at scale, and absorbs enormous resources for a relatively insignificant set of returns seen from the perspective of the movement as a whole.
Flanagan's proposal is that we take up the old cause and fight with the old weapons. We should commit to rebuilding a 1960s/70s style industrial unionism, based on high workplace density that is activist, not officer, led.
Easier said than done!
The form of trade unionism Flanagan advocates was built on a century of organising in industries characterised by large quantities of fixed capital, over which workers were able to exercise a high degree of control. It was also only able to come to fruition in the post-war era of heightened state direction of, and intervention in, the economy. Flanagan is gushing about the RMT, but never really acknowledges that the RMT's success is highly dependant on control over exactly that sort of state-backed fixed capital, in the form of the railway itself.
The book's prescription is that British trade unions must stop looking to the United States (and what Flanagan characterises as a failed trade union movement) and start looking to how unions in Africa have managed to build mass organisations from scratch in politically and economically toxic environments. He argues unions must become narrowly focused on a limited set of strategic objectives, i.e. a massive increase in membership, density, and activism. All other union functions should be stripped down to accommodate a huge organising drive, aimed especially at Amazon, which he identifies as today's front line in class struggle.
The argument, at times, feels a little contradictory. Flanagan is dismissive of the failed attempt by US unions to organise Amazon, Bessamer, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it to no avail. He wants unions to ignore the false profits of 'guru' style organising, but for unions to nonetheless throw all their considerable resources at organising.
The pamphlet would also have benefited from a thorough editing job. There are quite a lot of spelling errors, some repetition, and section headings rarely correspond to their actual contents, as the author frontloads each section with so much contextual information that the actual point usually arrives several sections later. A decent editor might have encouraged Flanagan to lay out all this important historical analysis in a lengthier introduction, leaving him freer to get straight to the point later on.
Overall, Flanagan's report on the state of our trade unions is useful, insightful, and essentially correct. It's neither fair nor possible to ask it singlehandedly fix the problem of deep structural crisis triggered by four decades of neoliberal restructuring, hostile government, and the fourth industrial revolution. However, Our Trade Unions is a necessary intervention to trigger a conversation every single trade unionist should be having every single day.
However, this paucity of introspection is also often a weakness, and a frustrating one at that. Our Trade Unions is therefore a welcome intervention, asking us to stop and consider the strategic position of the British trade union movement at this moment in history.
Flanagan's basic argument is that our trade unions are currently caught in a theoretical deadlock between service unionism and US-style organising models exported by 'gurus' like Jane McAlevey. He argues that service unionism helped the movement tread water in the 1990s/early 00s, but is doing nothing to arrest the collapse in density and bargaining power experienced in the last several decades. He further argues that US-style organising, based on professional activists having persuasive conversations, identifying leaders, and building campaigns around local issues, doesn't work at scale, and absorbs enormous resources for a relatively insignificant set of returns seen from the perspective of the movement as a whole.
Flanagan's proposal is that we take up the old cause and fight with the old weapons. We should commit to rebuilding a 1960s/70s style industrial unionism, based on high workplace density that is activist, not officer, led.
Easier said than done!
The form of trade unionism Flanagan advocates was built on a century of organising in industries characterised by large quantities of fixed capital, over which workers were able to exercise a high degree of control. It was also only able to come to fruition in the post-war era of heightened state direction of, and intervention in, the economy. Flanagan is gushing about the RMT, but never really acknowledges that the RMT's success is highly dependant on control over exactly that sort of state-backed fixed capital, in the form of the railway itself.
The book's prescription is that British trade unions must stop looking to the United States (and what Flanagan characterises as a failed trade union movement) and start looking to how unions in Africa have managed to build mass organisations from scratch in politically and economically toxic environments. He argues unions must become narrowly focused on a limited set of strategic objectives, i.e. a massive increase in membership, density, and activism. All other union functions should be stripped down to accommodate a huge organising drive, aimed especially at Amazon, which he identifies as today's front line in class struggle.
The argument, at times, feels a little contradictory. Flanagan is dismissive of the failed attempt by US unions to organise Amazon, Bessamer, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it to no avail. He wants unions to ignore the false profits of 'guru' style organising, but for unions to nonetheless throw all their considerable resources at organising.
The pamphlet would also have benefited from a thorough editing job. There are quite a lot of spelling errors, some repetition, and section headings rarely correspond to their actual contents, as the author frontloads each section with so much contextual information that the actual point usually arrives several sections later. A decent editor might have encouraged Flanagan to lay out all this important historical analysis in a lengthier introduction, leaving him freer to get straight to the point later on.
Overall, Flanagan's report on the state of our trade unions is useful, insightful, and essentially correct. It's neither fair nor possible to ask it singlehandedly fix the problem of deep structural crisis triggered by four decades of neoliberal restructuring, hostile government, and the fourth industrial revolution. However, Our Trade Unions is a necessary intervention to trigger a conversation every single trade unionist should be having every single day.
January 30, 2025
A thought-provoking pamphlet considering the dearth of writing on unions and their actual practice in the UK.
The author is an established activist who sets out the very many problems facing the British trade union movement, and suggests that existing attempts to fix them have been insufficient. He makes a compelling case that the success of the summer of 2022 would not be sustainable, looking back now from 2025.
Flanagan strongly believes we should look to unions in Asia and Africa and suggests empowering members (ahead of professional union organisers or offering services) is the way to consistent growth, power and success. However, it the exact way he maps this out (a technique he calls "spider webbing") probably would run into legal issues in the UK context and doesn't vary that much from existing practice.
He isn't completely dismissive of "digital organising" strategies and tools but is clearly skeptical of their role. For me it isn't imaginative enough though, or wary enough of how much connectivity is changing the workplace.
All that said, this is one of the most considered things I've read on British union practice and clear-sighted in diagnosing our very serious problems. Worth the read.
The author is an established activist who sets out the very many problems facing the British trade union movement, and suggests that existing attempts to fix them have been insufficient. He makes a compelling case that the success of the summer of 2022 would not be sustainable, looking back now from 2025.
Flanagan strongly believes we should look to unions in Asia and Africa and suggests empowering members (ahead of professional union organisers or offering services) is the way to consistent growth, power and success. However, it the exact way he maps this out (a technique he calls "spider webbing") probably would run into legal issues in the UK context and doesn't vary that much from existing practice.
He isn't completely dismissive of "digital organising" strategies and tools but is clearly skeptical of their role. For me it isn't imaginative enough though, or wary enough of how much connectivity is changing the workplace.
All that said, this is one of the most considered things I've read on British union practice and clear-sighted in diagnosing our very serious problems. Worth the read.
January 28, 2025
Really interesting book that puts forward a useful critique of the paid organiser model, a lot of the issues highlighted by Flanagan are also reflective of the organiser model in community unions. There is a lot to take from this with a clear plan of how to reject the service model, the organiser model and push unions back to being militant rank and file organisations that they used to be.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews