Campaigning is in our blood – isn’t it? The answer must surely be Yes, but do we always campaigning for the things that we really truly want and need?

So, if you have lost sight of your campaign objectives, are bedazzled by spurious metrics, listen to this Organising For A Change podcast and feel better. We don’t have the answers, but we know the right questions to ask yourself to make sure you do.

We’re grateful to have the support of Thompsons, the leading trade union and social justice law firm, The General Federation of Trade Unions - delivering trade union education, building solidarity and the home of StrikeMap, Pellacraft, award winning and trusted supplier of promotional goods, and Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council. Thank you all.

Episode run time 19m14s. Organising For A Change is presented by Martin Smith and Simon Sapper. Music is by Scott Holmes. It is a Makes-You-Think production. Contact the show at organising@makes-you-think.com. This episode was published on 6 December. Organising For A Change will return early in the new year.

£104 million in recovered back pay, £41 million in members’ pay per year going forward, 5000 new members recruited and 164 days of Industrial action with employers who refused to engage. That’s the output, so far, for Unison’s campaign to recruit and organise Healthcare Assistants in the NHS. National officer Louise Chinnery tells how it was done and what’s been learned, and why she describes this work as “the single most amazing thing I have had the pleasure to be involved with”, in her 30 years of working in the union movement.

We’re grateful to have the support of Thompsons, the leading trade union and social justice law firm, The General Federation of Trade Unions - delivering trade union education, building solidarity and the home of StrikeMap, Pellacraft, award winning and trusted supplier of promotional goods, and Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council. Thank you all.

Episode run time 30m33s. The Organising For A Change podcast is presented by Martin Smith and Simon Sapper. Music is by Scott Holmes. It is a Makes-You-Think production. Contact the show at organsing@makes-you-think.com.

“Employers will often seek to divide people at work…by sewing doubt and fear. We need to replace that with anger, hope and self-confidence.”

This is the first of 5 principles of building unity, joined by a focus on workplace issues, building solidarity between groups in the same workplace, using bargaiing as a means of building and, crucially, making sure that structures and decision-making are democratic (and on this last point, reflecting that unity is not the same as unanimity ).

Peppered with anecdotes and illustrations from a combined 80 years in the union movement, this is a conversation of our times for our times.

As ever, our discussion is calm and measured. Where we disagree, we do so amicably.

We’re grateful to have the support of Thompsons, the leading trade union and social justice law firm, The General Federation of Trade Unions - delivering trade union education, building solidarity and the home of StrikeMap, Pellacraft, award winning and trusted supplier of promotional goods, and Battersea and Wandsworth Trade Union Council. Thank you all.

Episode run time 28m08s. Organising For A Change is presented by Martin Smith and Simon Sapper. Music is by Scott Holmes. It is a Makes-You-Think production. Contact the show at organising@makes-you-think.com. This episode was first published on 8 November 2024. Next episode drops 22 November.