{"id":80579,"date":"2012-05-09T14:12:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T14:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bigsmoke.org.uk\/?p=80579"},"modified":"2012-05-09T14:12:25","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T14:12:25","slug":"becky-wright-how-do-we-move-from-campaigning-to-organising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bigsmoke.org.uk\/?p=80579","title":{"rendered":"Becky Wright: How do we move from campaigning to organising?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Becky Wright is the Director of the TUC\u2019s Organising Academy which is responsible for the development and delivery of the TUC\u2019s training programme for union organisers and officers.\u00a0She regularly blogs on Stronger Unions (www.strongerunions.org<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The local elections are over, France and Greece have seen people vote for an alternative and as\u00a0pundits scramble to analyse and say what it all means, I want to take a step back and consider the role that organising and campaigning plays in building for change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Campaigning can be tricky.\u00a0 You have a position and you want someone else to agree with you. \u00a0You try all manner of tactics to press your positions.\u00a0 Send out press releases and hope that there\u2019s space in your local newspaper.\u00a0 The trudge can be relentless and sometimes no end in sight.\u00a0 Sometimes we win, sometimes we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

But what happens when the dust has settled and the campaigning is over? \u00a0What does it really mean to win or lose?\u00a0 In these times, that is the greatest challenge we face.<\/p>\n

Whether it is for elections, for a plastic bag free area or for better, more equitable pay and conditions, we need to reorientate our view of success of campaigns to incorporate organising more fully.<\/p>\n

By doing that, we move away from gimmicks, from relaunches and branding for its own sake.\u00a0 To win on the issue is important, but equally so is building a sustainable grassroots who continue to campaign, demand change and build for it.<\/p>\n

What am I talking about when I talk about organising?\u00a0 In the trade union movement, we debate about what it means for us to organise, and I\u2019m not here to be prescriptive on how others view it, but to explain how I view campaigning is also to talk about my approach to organising.\u00a0 For me, organising is about empowerment and hunger for change; creating a sustainable organisation that can weather success and failure.\u00a0 To do that, we need to work on the issues that people care about, stand up for our values and, crucially, deploy our resources in the most effective way possible.\u00a0 Campaigns can rise and fall, but people and their power remains if we organise rather than just campaign.<\/p>\n

How do we move from purely campaigning to organising?<\/strong><\/p>\n