The Activist as Subject: Political Congruence and the PCS Activist. Martin Upchurch Matt Flynn Richard Croucher (Middlesex University Business School) Contact Professor Martin Upchurch Middlesex University Business School The Burroughs Hendon London NW4 4BT m.upchurch@mdx.ac.uk m.flynn@mdx.ac.uk r.croucher@mdx.ac.uk British Universities Industrial Relations Association Conference University of the West of England, Bristol June 25 th to 27 th , 2008 Abstract Analyses of union organising have focussed on the degree to which unions have shifted resources towards organising, and the content of organising campaigns including efforts to either widen or deepen bargaining agendas. Other studies tell the story of anti-corporate and community campaigning. A missing ingredient in many of these studies has been the question of individual leadership at branch and workplace level, including studies of how activists interpret their tasks both practically and ideologically. Trade unions need to operate within a politicised and oppositionist frame of reference when faced with neo-liberal restructuring. Organising success is more likely to occur when there is left progressive political congruence between activists and leadership. Such congruence can be developed and consolidated through repertoires of action which encourage activist participation and networking. In this paper we examine political congruence of activists and leadership in the PCS union. The PCS has been chosen as a left leaning union which has adopted the organising model, and which has exhibited recruitment success in the face of employment reduction. We utilise data from two surveys, one of 2100 members taken in 2001, and one of 220 activists taken in 2007. Data is supplemented by profile data collected by the PCS in 2007.