my dream for the illustration industry is that we all begin to form autonomous unions and collectives, sharing clients and skills unconditionally, building robust mutual aid networks and eventually take the place of art school in its entirety

what if a union became so large and formidable that we contracted with certain companies to only hire union artists at a high, fair, fixed rate. complete transparency and equal power

what if we built enough power to challenge the neoliberal norms at NYT? what if no one had to go into student debt to become illustrators? what if the union could sponsor visas? what if the union had a health program we all paid into?

also this is @ every mature illustrator who gets on here to complain about young artists lowering the floor by taking low rates better be learning about unions and helping to build one so there's systems in place to actually help those artists thrive

we were all brought into this world to be individualist entrepreneurs but our fates are intrinsically tied together and we have to start from the bottom up. there is no future for us if we don't start building something right now

i think ultimately this will involve many interconnected collectives and unions that use tactical unity to make wins. decentralized, organic, with broad goals but specific strategy for different industries

a great place to start is here:

https://nwu.org/freelance-solidarity-project/