Organising for a mass-based organisation is the lifeblood of every movement. It enables the organisation to transcend time in pursuit of a vision for change. For trade unions, organising means recruiting as many members as possible to sharpen the union’s strength vis-à-vis employers, capital owners, and those in power. However, organising is often interpreted merely as mass mobilisation to increase bargaining power.
Mass mobilisation is certainly important, but organising goes beyond physical and numeric presence in demonstrations. Organising is about deeply presenting each worker as a subject, an agent, fully involved in every step of the struggle—actively engaging them in building new leadership that breathes life into the organisation. So that the organisation not only “exists”, but stands firm in principle, lives its vision, and remains vibrant in every movement to realise that vision. At the same time, it must be open-minded, critical, modern, inclusive, and ready to transform itself.
For social movements, organising means building collective strength and developing grassroots leadership as key assets for the movement’s sustainability. Organising is not only about growing one’s own organisation as an instrument for struggle. It means building collective strength across various social movement groups for structural transformation. Otherwise, each group will fall into the trap of organisational siloing, reducing the power of collective change to merely the success of their own group.
Organising entails involving every individual worker regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other background—because the working class is one collective force, regardless of the identities attached to them as human beings. An organiser must maintain an open perspective in organising and understand that if even one worker is neglected, the collective power of the working class will collapse.
Women Workers: A Vital Force in the Working Class
Women workers are one of the most important forces to be organised and involved in every movement, as subjects and agents. The strength of the working class lies in the unity of entities as workers that transcend the identities attached to them, including gender. However, the unequal social structure of society has produced gender-based oppression, complicating working-class unity.
As labour informalization expands, women workers are often not recorded as workers. They work flexibly, on a daily freelance basis, informally, without contracts or work agreements. Care work, such as child-rearing and elder care, is disproportionately assigned to women, limiting their ability to participate in the “public” sphere, which is often seen as more important. Recognition of care work remains a distant dream—deemed valueless, yet relied upon without pay to sustain society. The unequal position of women in the social structure and workforce is a form of marginalisation.
Organising women workers must be seen as bringing forth women’s agency—within the family, society, organisation, or community. Organising women workers in trade unions is not new—it is marked by the formation of women’s committees and departments on women’s issues, as well as policies such as a leadership quota for women. While these departments have enabled women workers to be more visible, they still feel insufficient for expanding the ranks of women leaders in the labour movement. Gender issues are often perceived as the sole concern of women’s departments—making them seem exclusive to women. It is difficult to make it a priority for the entire organisation.
The ongoing need to internalise values like gender equality in everyday organisational and individual conduct underscores the importance of developing and testing methods for organising women workers.
Methods of Organising Women Workers
Most women workers are absorbed into labour-intensive industries and informal work. As informalization accelerates alongside the weakening of the manufacturing sector, women workers are almost certainly absorbed in garment workshops, small traders, online shopping platforms, domestic work, and migrant work.
Even in labour-intensive industries, they often take on informal side jobs to meet daily needs, all while juggling heavy domestic care responsibilities. Therefore, organising women workers means being sensitive to the anatomy of women’s work across both productive and reproductive spaces.
It also means being able to place oneself in the position of women, who are vulnerable to exploitation not only at work but in social spaces where their bodies and minds are not considered their own—where those with power feel entitled to seize control over women. Without the lens of gender and class, the potential of women as agents—and their vulnerabilities—may be misunderstood.
Based on my experience of organising women workers and still learning to organise women workers—especially in labour-intensive sectors such as garment, textile, footwear, and small workshops—there are several methods that are relevant to apply and develop:
Workers Housing Discussion Circle
In a meeting forum of a mass organisation with diverse genders (cisgender and gender minorities) and a female participation rate of nearly 100 per cent, the discussion could still be dominated by one male leader. Meanwhile, other participants seemed to be there only symbolically, not fully present.
This example is not limited to one or two communities but is often normalised—as if physical presence alone suffices, even when women’s and gender minorities’ voices are not fully represented in ideas and discussions. This indicates that quotas as an affirmative policy must be paired with ongoing deep-organising processes that are continually upgraded, renewed, and transformed.
In a moment of opportunity to talk about the reasons behind the “silence” during decision-making meetings, several issues surfaced: lack of self-confidence, feeling unqualified in the topic of discussion, and feeling unintelligent. What they feel is valid, because as an oppressed group, they develop a complex sense of inferiority. This is not a personal problem—it is a structural one that affects each individual worker differently.
This is where organising plays its role: breaking through the inferiority, replacing it with confidence; breaking down fear and transforming it into courage to make decisions and take political action—both personally and collectively. Liberating oneself is an important part of empowering workers to embrace knowledge, expand their vocabulary for questioning and critical thinking, engage in dialogue, and ground themselves in facts in order to better analyse their conditions. This kind of process is a lifelong journey. Therefore, every individual organiser must also organise themselves, ensuring their feet stand firmly on truth and commitment to social change. Never stop learning.
Workers’ housing discussion circles are one method of organising that is rooted in two-way dialogue, fostering natural conversations that become a mutual learning process for both sides. Workers’ housing discussion circles can also be seen as women workers’ circles based in their residences or territorial locations. These circles create safe spaces that are close to the daily lives of women workers—connecting their everyday work problems to social realities such as family, health, children’s education, and daily expenses. Within these circles, experiences are shared, discussed, and analysed collectively as a learning process, and can lead to collective solutions.
A single learning circle might consist of 5–10 people, internalising new values like equality, solidarity, courage, critical thinking, and more. In fact, gathering and discussing daily problems is a strength of women workers in informal spaces that are often excluded from formal decision-making forums. When formal forums in society and organisations are so masculine, women tend to speak more through storytelling—in traditional markets while shopping, in social spaces while taking care of children.
These informal residential social spaces are the ones approached, embraced, and consolidated as a base of transformative power. These informal social housing spaces are approached by organisers, who also act as facilitators—not to lecture or preach, but to listen empathetically and guide conversations toward greater meaning, creating memorable moments that stick in memory.
The workers’ housing discussion circle can be held regularly — weekly or monthly — but the key is sustainability: adapting to the rhythm and collective energy, which can sometimes wane and sometimes surge with enthusiasm. The power of storytelling and the map of problems that emerge from conversations can invite individual participation and lead to tangible outcomes such as small action plans, needs assessments, or even short writings containing women workers’ stories as campaign materials.
Housing discussions can also be supported by online groups. However, it must be noted that there are disparities among workers’ social classes regarding access to internet technology. This digital divide leaves some workers, especially those outside Java or Jakarta, lagging in their access to knowledge, information, and education. Thus, online groups serve as a tool to support the primary method of housing discussions. Face-to-face interaction can never be fully replaced by online interaction in terms of quality.
Developing Organisers and Facilitators
To be an organiser means having skills in empathetic listening, managing meaningful conversations, being open-minded, engaging members voluntarily, being non-judgmental, and possessing integrity. Whether through housing discussions or one-on-one conversations, these are learning platforms for organisers to hone their skills. Learning in class through an organizationally developed module is certainly important—and becomes even more crucial when refined through field organising, which is shaped by the various dynamics of workers’ lives.
It is this field dynamic that will enrich the organiser training modules, enabling them to continuously adapt to changes in the labour landscape and social conditions. A basic module typically includes: (a) facilitation techniques; (b) understanding gender & women workers; (c) strategies for building groups. This module can be further developed to meet field needs. Organisers will continue to learn how to facilitate conversations and dialogues that build critical awareness and egalitarian values—such as courage, gender equality, and inclusive culture.
Based on my experience, here’s an example of prejudice against lesbian workers in the midst of the working class:
A female worker complains about her friend who is in a lesbian relationship:
“I feel uneasy and uncomfortable seeing them (the lesbian couple).”
“Why? Are you comfortable seeing me with my partner (a heterosexual couple)?”
“Comfortable, because that’s normal.”
“Has our lesbian friend harmed you in any way? Like cutting your wages? Yelling at you at work?”
“No.”
“Have they helped you when you were in trouble with the boss?”
“Yes, they’ve helped advocate for us and supported me when I struggled.”
“So if our boss were a lesbian and cut our wages—would it be because she’s a lesbian or because she’s an exploitative boss?”
“It’s not because she’s a lesbian.”
“What about our lesbian friend?”
“Well, they’re our friends.”
“Should we stop liking them because they’re lesbian? If they had issues with the company, should we help? Or should we force them to be like us (heterosexuals)?”
“If they have issues, we should help—as fellow workers. Forcing them to be like us? That’s not right, either.”
“So they’re our comrades, right? Maybe we’re uncomfortable with their expression, but as long as they don’t oppress or take others’ rights, they are one of us—fellow workers, fellow oppressed humans.”
“But I’m still uncomfortable.”
“They might be uncomfortable too, feeling different—perhaps even discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.”
“Then what?”
“Well, whenever we feel uncomfortable, we need to ask—is it because they’ve harmed us or taken our rights? Or is it because we have a prejudice? Acknowledging our own prejudice is okay. If you’re still uncomfortable, give space to have a talk—just like we’re doing now.”
This conversation is a daily dialogue within an organisation that is open to the diverse backgrounds of its members—regardless of sexual orientation, gender expression, race, religion, and so on. Discussions on sexual orientation may still be considered taboo, but that doesn’t mean they should be avoided.
In fact, an organiser has the greatest opportunity to learn when faced with sensitive topics. An organiser’s openness to a range of issues creates a safe, comfortable space for anyone to share their thoughts and feelings. The organiser is the centre for grievances, anxieties, and problems—but it must be remembered: the organiser is not the centre of all solutions. Problem-solving lies in the hands of the working class themselves—in the hands of the collective.
The organiser plays a key role in turning complaints into hope and courage, gathering them into a collective fighting spirit and drive to move together. Some may consider managing conversations and dialogues a long, exhausting process. There is no shortcut to raising awareness. Once we desire a shortcut—like top-down instructions without listening and dialoguing with the grassroots—we simultaneously dull the strength of the working class. We don’t need a mass of obedient and submissive workers; we need a mass of workers who are critical and capable of leadership.
Organising is Teamwork
Organising work is not individual work. It is teamwork. It is a collective work. In a team of organisers, there are those who produce content or conversation materials, and those who convert content into texts, videos, or posters.
A working team is also a support system that sustains each other in the face of field challenges that constantly emerge and drain each team member’s energy. Each person in the team is an organiser with the skills to listen to one another and to decide when to pause and rest when needed. As the core strength of organising, the team must ultimately know how to manage themselves and the team—organising problems, conflicts, and resources into strengths that enable long-term sustainability.
Support Systems for a Healthy and Safe Team
A good collective is one that can become a safe and healthy space for every individual within it. Paying attention to each organiser in the team to prevent burnout is important because organisers are on the frontline, constantly interacting with workers. Organisers need their own safe space to share worries, complaints, and thoughts. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the organisers’ team’s space as a safe environment free from violence and harassment.
Maintaining the integrity of the core organisers’ team is one of the most important aspects of sustaining collective health and the trust of both the collective and its members. Therefore, it is necessary for the collective to reflect on their work, take responsibility to prevent violence and harassment internally and be committed to resolving cases of violence and harassment within the organisation, even when the alleged perpetrator is a comrade or fellow member.
Every Organising Experience is Knowledge
There is no blueprint method for organising. Every organisation or community is a collection of experiences of important struggles. Just as we understand that every individual has their own story, every organisation too has its own story that deserves recognition. The experiences and stories should be documented by providing space to write them down as valuable. Only then can mutual learning take place: bringing together collections of struggle experiences into complementary stories. And it’s okay if they’re incomplete.
There are a few organising principles informed by my organising experience:
- Collectivity, where every decision-making process is done collectively, thus representing the power of the community.
- Bottom-up leadership, where members are trained not merely to be followers, but leaders—subjects who are conscious and firm in their choices, not just tagging along.
- Critical thinking and awareness, gained through political education and living dialogue, are needed to understand the structural roots of the problems they face.
- Collective action, where actions are planned and implemented together.
- Independence, which means building an organisation that does not rely on external parties in terms of thought, action, or finance.
Let’s create space to meet and listen to one another—a kind of space that’s increasingly rare amid the constant noise of never-ending issues being reproduced. In the face of the rapid social dynamics around us, we often want to rush into producing change, but we tend to forget that everything that moves fast is carried on the back of human labour that is never instant. When we’re tempted to take shortcuts, we must always remember there are no instant ways in the work of social change.
