Pretty much everyone in the unions nowadays says they’re for “rank and file organising”. But what is it?

Socialists have a distinctive approach to organising within our unions. We often support efforts to replace conservative or do-nothing union leaderships. But rebuilding union power has to mean building organisation, politics and collective combativity at a workplace and delegate level.

In 1915 the Clyde Workers Committee stated: “We will support the officials just so long as they rightly represent the workers, but we will act independently immediately they misrepresent them.” This sounds very simple. But anyone who wants the option of “acting independently” of the officials will need some sort of already existing organisation. This is where an approach of rank and file organising comes in. And historically, the strongest such organisations have relied on a core of radical, politicised militants.

Join us for this accessible introduction to the socialist approach – both political and industrial – to building the power of rank and file union members.