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Troublemaking: Why You Should Organise Your Workplace
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Talks & Learning
A large crowd of IWGB union members fly red flags and let off pink smoke in front of a building, protesting
Image: A photo of an UCL protest

There are no unorganisable workers, only workers yet to be organised.

Writers Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock reflect on why organising at work is the first step in building another world. Joined by sociologist Gargi Bhattacharyya, this talk marks the launch of their publication Troublemaking: Why You Should Organise Your Workplace.

There has been an explosion of organising among workers many assumed to be unorganisable, from delivery drivers in London to tech workers in Silicon Valley. This publication is the culmination of years of conversations on picket lines, in community centres, and in union offices, with workers in Britain, the US, India, Argentina, South Africa, Brazil and across Europe.

The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A.
Gargi Bhattacharyya lives and works in London and is author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018), Empire’s Endgame (Pluto, 2021), We, the heartbroken (Hajar, 2023) and the forthcoming Futures of Racial Capitalism (Polity).

Lydia Hughes is a workplace organiser. She was the Head of Organising at the IWGB until 2021. She has been involved in organising with foster care workers, food delivery couriers, cycling instructors, cleaners, security guards, and game workers. She now supports socialist education initiatives and is active as a union member. She is an Editor at Notes from Below and Red Pepper.

Jamie Woodcock is a senior lecturer at the University of Essex and a researcher based in London. He is the author of books including The Fight Against Platform Capitalism (University of Westminster Press, 2021), The Gig Economy (Polity, 2019), Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and Working the Phones (Pluto, 2017). His research is available to read online and is inspired by workers’ inquiry and focuses on labour, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organising and videogames. He is on the editorial board of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism.