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Jane McAlevey, union firebrand and organising visionary, dies at 59
Through her writing and teaching, her relentless focus on workers' power and high participation strategies transformed labour movements worldwide, write JON HEGERTY, JANE HOLGATE and JOHN PAGE
Jane McAlevey, 1964 - 2024
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JANE McALEVEY— senior policy fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, union organiser and educator, died on July 7 2024 at the age of 59 following a long battle with multiple myeloma.
Writing an obituary would normally focus on the person themselves, but we are under strict instructions from Jane to “keep it focused on the work, not me.”
Jane finally died last weekend when, coincidentally, 250 organisers from many different labour and social justice campaigns were gathering in Nottingham for the second New Organising Conference, determined to build power in and beyond the workplace.
It is almost impossible to overstate the influence that Jane’s work has had on every aspect of organising theory and practice here in Britain and around the world.
Jane’s leadership skills were developed as a student activist, a community organiser in revolutionary Nicaragua, and as an environmental campaigner, but it was as a workplace organiser that she became a global phenomenon.
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