Unionising Workshop | Flaxman Lodge | 2004 by Antipool

Documents from the Unionising Workshop June 7-13 2004 The Unionising Workshop took place at Flaxman Lodge in London and was organised by Jakob Jakobsen in collaboration with Emma Hedditch, Marina Vishmidt, Anthony Davies, Karoline H. Larsen, Kristina Ask and Flaxman Lodge

UKK (Young Art Workers) was founded in Denmark in 2002 as a response to the (cultural) policies of the right wing government that came into power in 2001. The UKK was organised as an association open to membership for artists, critics and organisers involved with art production. The development of the policies of the UKK was based on a series of subcommittees engaging in various questions such as Art and Public Space, Art and Economy and Art and Education. A committee called Art Workers against the War also appeared in 2002 to protest against the ‘War on Terror’. The committees worked independently and were not obliged to represent the ofﬁcial policies of the mother organisation. Any member of the UKK could open a subcommittee and any member was allowed to join any of the committees. Today the UKK has achieved representation at the Danish Arts Council and other institutional bodies of the Danish art scene. The UKK are still an ‘activist’ organisation based on free labour and has about 300 members.

The Art Workers’ Coalition (AWC) was an umbrella organisation that originated with a speciﬁc event on January 3, 1969, when the kinetic artist Takis removed a work of his from the ‘Machine’ show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This event sparked a debate on artists’ control of their own work and the moral rights of artists. The AWC quickly broadened its perspective to engage in the question of representation of women and black artists in institutions and media and protested against the continuation of the war in Vietnam. On April 10, 1969, an Open Hearing on Museum Reform and the Program of an Open Art Workers Coalition took place in New York. The Open Hearing gave space to statements from artists such as Carl Andre, Dan Graham, Hans Haacke, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Lee Lozano et al. Even though many of the artists involved supported a formal trade union organisation, the AWC stayed as an informal structure with a weekly general meeting of about 60-100 participants and a structure of committees working independently. The Action Committee, the Alternate Structures Committee, the Legal Committee and Women Artists in Revolution (WAR) were some of the committees. The AWC ceased its activities in the mid-1970s.

The Artists’ Union (AU) in the UK was officially founded in May 1972 after a year of preparation by a group of artists. The general aim of the AU were to raise awareness of the role of artists in society as a force for social change. Towards this end, the AU worked to improve the moral rights of artists and the artist’s right to work with the motto: ‘Art is Work’. The AU wanted to affiliate with the traditional workers’ movement through an affiliation with the TUC (Trades Union Congress) in the UK. The development of specific policies took place through workgroups such as the Women’s Workshop, Policy in the Trade Union Movement Workshop, Government Policy for the Arts Workshop, Artists in Education Workshop, and the Artist’s Role in Society Workshop. The first chair of the AU was Mary Kelly, with Gustav Meztger as the vice-chair. The AU ceased to exist in 1984, but already in the early 1970s the AU changed it workerist focus due to a vote among the members that rejected an affiliation with the TUC as a branch of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASRTMS).

Documents from the Unionising Workshop June 7-13 2004 In June 2004 a Unionising Workshop took place at the Flaxman Lodge in London. It was an attempt to bring together experiences and knowledge about the organising of cultural workers and workers’ solidarity in the cultural sector. Kristina Ask, Karoline H. Larsen and I arrived from Copenhagen with fresh experiences of the constitution of the Young Art Workers (UKK) in 2002. We wanted to discuss our experiences in an international context. During the workshop we got in contact with the Intermittents du Spectacle in France and were impressed by their direct action campaign which included interventions in live television broadcasts where they brought forward their demands for income security. Historically, we looked into the Art Workers’ Coalition (AWC) coming out of the civil rights movement in the US in the 1960s and the Artists’ Union (AU) in the UK in the early 1970s, who built their organisation on a trade union tradition. We had a conversation with Gustav Metzger, the first vice-chair of the AU, who told us that he viewed the AU as a failed experiment in organising artists as workers in society. And we broadened the perspective and talked about new kinds of precarity and casualisation of work in the neoliberal economy and about the different kinds of exploitation of our lives taking place through both wage labour and free labour. We watched films about the Soho night cleaners and the miner’s strike in the UK, training videos for workers in the workplace and a sci-fi about revolutionary consciousness on Mars. Finally we had a discussion with Alex Foti of the Chainworkers in Milan about the ambition of mobilising a popular front uniting service workers and cultural workers against neoliberal exploitation and profit. The Unionising Workshop was organised in collaboration with Emma Hedditch, Marina Vishmidt, Anthony Davies, Karoline H. Larsen, Kristina Ask and Flaxman Lodge

The Schedule of the Unionisng Workshop at Flaxman Lodge, London, June 2004

Jakob Jakobsen 2007

The Schedule of the Unionisng Workshop at Flaxman Lodge, London, June 2004

Jakob Jakobsen 2007

Image from the Unionising Workshop, screening of the Nightcleaners by Berwick Street Collective with Mary Kelly, 1976, 90 Introduction to the Unionisng Workshop (2004) - Page 2

Open Invitation to the Unionising Workshop (2004)

�� Flaxman Lodge, Flaxman Terrace, London WC1H 9AW �� online >>>

Workshop schedule ��

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Unionising Workshop �� On the AU in England (1971-1974), the UKK in Denmark (2002-2004) and a proposed Knowledge Workers Union.

Monday June 7– Saturday June 13 2004

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Introduction to the Unionisng Workshop (2004) - Page 3

Introduction to the Unionisng Workshop (2004) - Page 1

Image from the Unionising Workshop, screening of the Nightcleaners by Berwick Street Collective with Mary Kelly, 1976, 90 Introduction to the Unionisng Workshop (2004) - Page 2

Open Invitation to the Unionising Workshop (2004)

�� Flaxman Lodge, Flaxman Terrace, London WC1H 9AW �� online >>>

Workshop schedule ��

��

Unionising Workshop �� On the AU in England (1971-1974), the UKK in Denmark (2002-2004) and a proposed Knowledge Workers Union.

Monday June 7– Saturday June 13 2004

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Introduction to the Unionisng Workshop (2004) - Page 3

Introduction to the Unionisng Workshop (2004) - Page 1

The Artists’ Union (UK) Invitation to Introductionary Meeting (1972)

AWC Sit-in, New York art strike at the Metropolitan Museum, May 22, 1970. Photo: Jan van Raay The Artists’ Union (UK) National Membership Campaign (1972)

The Artists’ Union (UK) Promotional Poster (Early 1970s)

The Artists’ Union (UK) Invitation to Introductionary Meeting (1972)

AWC Sit-in, New York art strike at the Metropolitan Museum, May 22, 1970. Photo: Jan van Raay The Artists’ Union (UK) National Membership Campaign (1972)

The Artists’ Union (UK) Promotional Poster (Early 1970s)

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Statement from the UKK (Young Art Workers) in Denmark (2002)

Image from the founding meeting of the UKK (Young Art Workers) in Copenhagen on May 29 2002

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Invitation to the Open Hearing of the Art Workers’ Coalition in the US (1969)

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Statement from the UKK (Young Art Workers) in Denmark (2002)

Image from the founding meeting of the UKK (Young Art Workers) in Copenhagen on May 29 2002

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Invitation to the Open Hearing of the Art Workers’ Coalition in the US (1969)

Image from the Unionising Workshop during the telephone conversation with Alex Foti of the Chainworkers in Milan, June 13, 2004

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Conversation with Alex Foti of the Chain Workers in Milan (2004) - Page 3

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Conversation with Alex Foti of the Chain Workers in Milan (2004) - Page 1

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Conversation with Alex Foti of the Chain Workers in Milan (2004) - Page 2

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Image from the Unionising Workshop during the telephone conversation with Alex Foti of the Chainworkers in Milan, June 13, 2004

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Conversation with Alex Foti of the Chain Workers in Milan (2004) - Page 3

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Conversation with Alex Foti of the Chain Workers in Milan (2004) - Page 2

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