Editing Organizing model (section)

==History and context==
Trade unions originally existed to organize their members democratically, and during their early growth, they typically put a strong emphasis on active recruitment and militant rank and file action, including strikes.  By no means did they always unambiguously act in the interests of their members, but they were perceived as organizations that existed to struggle for collective action.  Particularly since the end of World War II, however, the trade unions have tended more and more to act as service providers for their members: providing legal advice, training and so on; eschewing mass-based, militant action.  During the '60s, '70s and onward, this trend deepened, with union density among the workforce falling all the while, until it could be measured at between 10% and 20% in many industrialized countries.  In the context of this history, the organizing model is in principle not so much a new conception, as an attempt to recapture the essence of the [[labor movement]].

The 1980s saw various attempts, in the United States, to compensate for falling union membership.<ref name="Hurd" /> Richard Hurd says that through the adoption of the "Organizing Institute"<ref name="Hurd" /> in the US, the organizing model was able to spread to other countries, as it "...served as a prototype for Australia's Organizing Works and Britain's Organizing Academy."<ref name="Hurd" /> Bob Carter explains the logistics how the organizing model spread across the world.<ref name="Carter" /> Carter says that "After a visit to the US of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), the influence of the organising approach spread to Australia and New Zealand and back to Britain via MSF."<ref name="Carter" /> Carter asserts that the organizing model started in the US, went to Australia and New Zealand next, and then went to the UK.<ref name="Carter" /> David Peetz and [[Barbara Pocock]] state that the ways these various countries implemented the organizing model were quite different, and the model looked slightly different based upon these minor discrepancies.<ref name="Peetz">{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8543.2009.00736.x|title=An Analysis of Workplace Representatives, Union Power and Democracy in Australia|journal=British Journal of Industrial Relations|volume=47|issue=4|pages=623–652|year=2009|last1=Peetz|first1=David|last2=Pocock|first2=Barbara|author-link2=Barbara Pocock|hdl=10072/30100|s2cid=153724721 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>