Issue 24: Dispassions: Class Struggle in Arts & Culture
Aug. 1, 2025



This issue of Notes from Below is on worker organising in arts and culture. Whether we call it the ‘creative economy’ or the ‘culture industry’, a vast array of jobs underpin today’s systems of cultural production.

In this issue, workers in Britain, France and Canada reflect on the current state of organising in the crisis-wracked sector. In struggling against the threat of redundancies and cost-cutting, and fighting in solidarity with Palestine in their workplaces, we see that new forms of organising are emerging to combat the inertia of old structures.

We hear about work and organising in theatres, galleries, museums and game design studios, and learn about how mass campaigns are being orchestrated across disparate ‘creative’ jobs to build a collective sense of power.

This issue is dedicated to Marina Vishmidt.

A outsourced security guard uses a vuvuzela on a protest during a joint strike at the Science Museum and Natural History Museum. In the background, other workers and supporters carry strike placards.

Making a Scene In Arts and Culture
by Notes from Below / Aug. 22, 2025

Photo of gameworkers carrying a purple and pink IWGB Games Workers union banner on a protest.

Video Game Worker Unions and Revolution
by Austin Kelmore / Aug. 22, 2025

Photo of a theatre stage.

Comedy of Errors: Work and Organising in a Theatre
by Jez / Aug. 22, 2025

Workers holding a banner saying "Louvre en greve" outside of the Louvre in Paris.

Mere Shells: Fighting Outsourcing in France’s Museums
by Valentin J., Ethel L. / Aug. 22, 2025

A large protest crowd gathered outside the Louvre, holding a pink banner that says "Cultures En Lutte"

Cultures En Lutte
by Louise Héritier / Aug. 22, 2025

Palestine solidarity protest outside the British museum. A banner reads: "30,000 dead, 200 cultural sites destroyed"

Organising Workers for Palestine in Culture
by Allan Struthers / Aug. 22, 2025

Fighting Against Redundancies at the Tate
by Cristina Petrella / Aug. 22, 2025

Arts and Culture Workers block on a London Palestine solidarity march. BECTU-Prospect flags can be seen being held, and a large Palestine solidarity banner is held by the group.

BECTU-Prospect’s Organised Rank-and-File: Building the Base
by Comrades in BECTU-Prospect / Aug. 22, 2025

Schooling & Culture journals along with other journals and pieces of paper sprawled across a light wooden table.

Quit That Job: An Artworker’s Perspective
by Louise Shelley / Aug. 22, 2025

Cover of "Grievances" magazine. One side has a graphic that says "The real stakes are here, in these struggles, not at a biennale."

The only polemic left in the art world is worker power
by Steff Huì Cí Ling / Aug. 22, 2025