Building bonds beyond the workplace

The South Island Workers’ Culture and Education League on combatting worker isolation

South Island Workers sign being made at an art build in January 2025. Photo by Isla Dion-Taylor.

The popular history of organizing typically centres the experience of trade unions due to their importance in the history of political and legal battles against the excesses of capitalism. What is often left out of these histories – and contemporary organizations, in my experience – are the social and community networks that bolster labour in the cultural sphere. The alienation and isolation of workers is a key function of capitalism, which is why any struggle against capitalism must also struggle against these factors. Historically, working-class people haven’t limited their organizing to the workplace. They have founded workers’ educational associations, sports leagues, and cultural organizations.

The South Island Workers’ Culture and Education League is trying to bring back this tradition. They describe themselves as “a group of union and non-union workers building connections and solidarity between workers through culture, community care and education.” Their work is meant to identify and find ways to help remedy the natural alienation and isolation of workers under capitalism. I had the opportunity to speak with a few members of the group about its origins, goals, and what it means to be building solidarity beyond the workplace.

The Panel:

Peter Janz (he/him) is a labour activist and dual member of the British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) and the Industrial Workers of the World. He is a longtime busker and loves using music to bring community members together.

Rochelle Pennells (she/they) is a change and communications professional and an active member of the BCGEU. They are an equity and anti-racism advocate driven by justice and passionate about building community through deep human connection. A budding percussionist, Pennells believes deeply in the power of rhythm to drive social connection and the labour movement.

Sean Phipps (he/him) is an elementary school teacher and a member of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association. He enjoys camping, biking, and playing on his (very) amateur soccer team.

Shona Dion (she/her) is a labour activist and community builder. Her current goals include building bridges between labour and [the broader] community. Dion is also an active member of the Victoria Labour Council as a MoveUP delegate.

Tara Ehrcke (they/them) is a secondary teacher and member of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association. They like reading, cooking, hiking, and working with others to make a better world.

What is the origin of the South Island Workers’ Culture and Education League (SIWCEL)?

Sean Phipps: The group was founded in the summer of 2024 by trade unionists who had met through Labour 4 Palestine. We were looking for a place where people from different unions and different movements could come together to build relationships and share ideas while also being welcoming to workers who aren’t part of the existing left-wing activist scene.

[We started] with the singing group (United We Sing), which one of our members had found a few months before.

Since then the group has grown to also include a monthly education series (the Workers’ Café), a book club, a recreational league soccer team, and is in the process of establishing a children’s group based on the Woodcraft Folk, an anti-militarist alternative to Scouts [a U.K. organization originally founded to support the British military].

The structure of the group is fairly open. Each of the different projects [e.g. outdoors club, choir] is run independently. There is an organizing committee that meets once a month to discuss infrastructure questions, like setting up the website or finances. Most of our events get between 10 and 25 people and there are around 100 or so people in the general orbit of the group.

Rochelle Pennells: We’re hoping SIWCEL will help to organize working-class people without making yet another demand on their time and busy schedules. As someone who comes from a collectivist, community-driven culture, I know firsthand how relationships and social community gatherings can become an enriching space for people looking to belong to something larger than themselves in a safe, inclusive setting. [We share] music, struggle stories, food, and friendship.

What inspired you to get involved with SIWCEL? What keeps you coming back?

Tara Ehrcke: My first connection was with the hiking group, because I love hiking and I knew some of the folks who participated and thought it would be fun to hang out with them. I’m a teacher and have always enjoyed learning and sharing ideas. I’ve been dismayed lately at the general lack of intellectual debate within left movements [of which I have been a part]. So SIWCEL seemed like a good place to establish an educational space. I’ve been an activist since the 1990s, and I have found that in the last 10 years or so, the climate of open debate feels like it disappeared. Our workers’ cafe is an experiment in how to have open discussions where we can disagree but also be learning, because we will definitely need the lessons of the past to help guide us through what is ahead.

I have been yearning for connection with a community of working-class people. SICWEL, and United We Sing in particular, offers that community: a group of disgruntled workers channelling their frustration into song, rhythm, and music, sharing stories and witnessing each other in our journeys of labour activism, truth, and justice.

Phipps: I had spent many years as part of a small, hyper-active left-wing group and became very critical of that organizing model. I felt that the group was very sectarian. It had very little to offer people who weren’t willing or able to be full-time activists.

Around the same time I moved to a new city and had my first kid. I no longer had the same time to commit to activism but still wanted to be active on the left. I was reading about the role culture and leisure groups had historically played in the socialist and labour movements as a way to create a shared political identity and build relationships of friendship and solidarity between workers. I remember chatting to my partner about this and they said, “Don’t just think about it, do it!”

Peter Janz: I knew quite a few of the founding members of SIWCEL through different actions in the community and meeting on picket lines. Finding a way to come together in a more organized way to create community seemed like a logical next step.

Shona Dion: Despite being a union member since 1998, I always felt like an outsider. I grew up in a trade union family and worked in the building trades environment for the majority of my working life, but my environmental activism divided me from this world. I earned the moniker “granola” for my lifestyle choices. What SIWCEL did for me was allow me to show up as my full self, within the labour community.

The more interconnected we get through our interdependence, the stronger we become together.

Pennells: As someone who was not born and raised in Canada, I have been yearning for connection with a community of working-class people. SICWEL, and United We Sing in particular, offers that community: a group of disgruntled workers channelling their frustration into song, rhythm, and music, sharing stories and witnessing each other in our journeys of labour activism, truth, and justice.

How do organizing culture, education, and recreational events strengthen the workers’ movement and the left?

Phipps: By building relationships with other people around shared interests, we are better able to imagine what collective action for a better world could look like. I think it’s very hard to build solidarity, either with your co-worker down the hall or with people half a world away, if you see yourself as an isolated individual. I think the experience of being part of a collective can challenge that – to instead see relations with other people as not only enjoyable but essential to our own freedom and flourishing.

Dion: Workers within organized labour and outside of that formal environment already have lived experience and knowledge but lack the language to make sense of what they already know is happening around them. Very few spaces exist where workers can casually come together to understand their own viewpoints and learn from others. SIWCEL offers multiple entry points to engagement that can serve a complex community of workers.

Pennells: Capitalism strives to divide us by keeping us busy and struggling. We come together to build strength, look out for each other, learn together, grow together, uplift one another, and build solidarity doing the things we love – art, outdoor activities, music, learning, and more. The more interconnected we get through our interdependence, the stronger we become together.

What examples inspire you from the past and from other places? What tradition do you situate yourselves in?

Phipps: I think there are a lot of examples we can point to that inspire us. During the height of the socialist and communist movements in Europe, you had this whole world of workers’ sports, education, and leisure associations.

Other examples that inspire me are the popular schools of the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil; the Casas del Popolo [communist-run community centres in Italy]; the Woodcraft Folk in the U.K., an anti-militarist, all-gender alternative to Scouts; and the original Ramblers Association in the U.K., which not only organized hikes for workers but also fought against the privatization of natural spaces.

Going further back, the bhakti and Sufi movements (7th to 17th centuries) created radically egalitarian spaces through poetry, music, and collective gathering that challenged caste hierarchy and religious authority. These traditions show that culture itself can be political infrastructure – and that solidarity is often built long before formal organizations exist.

Ehrcke: I’ll just add to Sean’s list the vibrant socialist Yiddishist political culture of the Bund in Poland, Russia, and Lithuania, to some extent replicated in the U.S. in the Jewish immigrant populations who ran the Workers Circles, although this example also points to a danger, in that cultural organizations are exposed to other political forces. These projects should complement and live in harmony with explicit political organizations, not replace them.

Janz: In my earlier days of organizing, I was influenced by Christian anarchist communities, where building human-to-human connection was an integral part of their organizing. Nowadays, I would take more influence from the Zapatista movement and the work they did to build a serious foundation built in culture and education before moving to larger political actions.

Pennells: As an Indian woman of colour, I’m inspired by traditions where labour struggle was embedded in everyday community life, not separated into formal institutions. 

A personal hope of mine is that in five years’ time we will be part of a network of workers’ culture and education leagues, with meet-ups, joint events, and some sort of publication or platform to share ideas.

A key example is the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), founded in the 1970s, which organized women in [India’s] informal economy – street vendors, garment workers, domestic workers – through co-operatives, savings groups, child care, and health collectives. SEWA recognized that for women workers, especially those marginalized by caste and class, survival, care, and dignity are central labour issues. Community institutions were not an add-on to organizing; they were the foundation that made collective action possible. 

Going further back, the bhakti and Sufi movements (7th to 17th centuries) created radically egalitarian spaces through poetry, music, and collective gathering that challenged caste hierarchy and religious authority. These traditions show that culture itself can be political infrastructure – and that solidarity is often built long before formal organizations exist.

What advice would you give to people wanting to do this in their own city, town, or region?

Phipps: I have three pieces of advice. The first is don’t let “the perfect” be the enemy of “the good.” It's okay if the first events are a bit ramshackle; you can always improve them over time. The second is to start small. At our founding meeting, we brainstormed a number of events. We ended up picking two: the singing group because it was already happening and the hiking club because it was fairly simple to put on. As more people got to know about us and got interested in the group we were able to take on more ambitious projects, like the education series. My third piece of advice is reach out to us! We would love to see other projects like this spring up or hear about ones that are underway. 

A personal hope of mine is that in five years’ time we will be part of a network of workers’ culture and education leagues, with meet-ups, joint events, and some sort of publication or platform to share ideas. If people reading this want to connect, our e-mail is southislandworkers [at] gmail.com.

Finally, If you are on Vancouver Island, SIWCEL will be at the Miners Memorial Weekend in Cumberland on June 12–14. Hope to see folks there!

Janz: Not everything will happen at once and the first couple of years might be a little slow, but the foundation has to be built at some point.

Pennells: People are more lonely and hungry for connection than you think. Having a space to connect, share ideas, break bread, and sing to process shared difficulty brings an unbelievable amount of hope and strength. Reach out to us, and to your local labour unions for support; at the very least for a common space to host gatherings. There’s lots of support out there, you’ll see as you start to look!

Is there anything else you think is really important to communicate?

Ehrcke: Part of being an alienated worker in the 21st century is this deep social isolation. I feel excited that we’re filling that void in a way that’s positive and ethical.

Phipps: I would really emphasize to people: it’s not that hard. Anyone can do it. If anyone reads this and is interested in doing it, they should give it a try. Sometimes it can feel hard to get out to things, but I’ve never regretted going to any of these events.