How to Move Things with Unions?

The chapter examines labour organizing among art workers in the post-Yugoslav context, focussing on Slovenia and Croatia, where freelance art workers, facing exploitative labour regimes and the systemic invisibilization of their work, are reclaiming collective power through unionization. Drawing on militant participatory research, the chapter investigates recently established unions like Zasuk and Skupa and the challenges of organizing self-employed workers in the cultural sector. It highlights the paradox of art, where artistic labour is ideologically elevated as individualized creativity while economically devalued, perpetuating exploitative labour practices shaped by class dynamics that hinder collective action. By arguing that art work is value-generating labour rather than an essentialized act of creativity, the chapter demonstrates how unionization serves as a critical intervention against the ongoing economic devaluation of artistic labour. The chapter underscores that transformative change in the cultural sector depends on worker agency and collective action, rather than advocacy alone.