Activity

Adapted from "The triangle tool" in Educating for a Change.

Summary:
Using a simple analytic tool, this activity helps people become aware of the different factors -- structure, culture and participation -- that combine to make a union more or less democratic. It also emphasizes the role of the rank-and-file as well as the officers and staff.

Good for:

This handout goes with the Visions of Unionism diagrams. It is not "the answer," but it does reveal my thinking about the diagrams and my biases. It is very schematic, just a starting point for discussion.

When I used this activity, I included this text in a packet of materials. I did not use it in the actual workshop because the workshop was about helping the participants articulate their own visions of unionism, not debating mine (much as I would enjoy that!).

[img_assist|nid=138|title=Visions of Unionism 1|desc=The first image -- what do you see? Who are these people? What do we know about them? What do the arrows and circles mean? Why are some pointing in different directions?|link=none|align=left|width=450|height=348]

[img_assist|nid=139|title=Visions of Unionism 2|desc=The second vision: What do you see here? Who are the various people? What are they all doing? What are their relationships to each other? Have you ever experienced this type of unionism?|link=none|align=left|width=450|height=348]

put my line here, image first

[Put here the AUD handout -- who does what? Use it as a checklist activity that people can do, discuss in pairs and then share in group. Can also use it as an agree/disagree list.]

[WHERE DOES THIS BELONG? MAYBE BETTER TO PLACE IT UNDER ACTION, OR UNDER PREPARING FOR ACTION?]

Checklist of 13 Basic Principles of Democratic Organizing
(adapted by Matt Noyes from The Troublemaker's Handbook, by Dan LaBotz, Labor Notes 1989)

The Chart:

Spectrum of educational approaches in the field of labor education.

These models are intended to represent three distinct approaches to labor education. They are simplified and incomplete, but should reflect coherent methods that we have experienced in our work. The idea is to use these models to explore how we work now, and how we want to work, where we want our work to go.

For each category, please:

Circle the paragraph that best describes how you do your education work now.

By Matt Noyes, adapted from "Power" in Literacy for Empowerment: A Resource Handbook for Community Based Educators. Washington, D.C. : Association for Community Based Education, 1988. (ACBE credits this activity to Barbara Greene of the Mountain Women's Exchange.)

[illustration: workers placing stickers on a democracy and power line]

Summary: