We in TIGMOO love our folk art. Enamel badges and glorious banners are a kind of comfort to unionists – showing us our place alongside the millions who’ve taken that route before.

As unions merge or modernise though, the painted banners of old, with the quasi-heraldic panels showing members’ trades, union heroes and famous incidents are giving way to large, bold logo prints and slogans (though to be fair I guess it’s also as some of them are now precious antiques that we need to preserve a bit better than hoicking them around Clerkenwell in the rain).

Banners are for the already converted though. Not too many non-members bother to watch union marches (well, Saturday’s one did clash with the footy), so they’re more about building community within the movement than convincing people outside.

The other stalwart of union art, the enamel badge, has another purpose. Small and generally quite tasteful, more resembling a medal or badge of office than a sloganeering button badge, these discreetly let people advertise the fact that they are proud to be a member of their union.

People wear them less these days, but they’re actually needed more than ever. The majority of workers in the private sector can go through their entire working lives without contemplating joining a union. In fact if you asked them, they might well think that they didn’t know anyone who was a union member. But they probably do – More than a quarter of the workforce are unionised. It’s not the kind of thing you talk about down the pub though, unless it’s in the context of what’s going on at work.

Wearing a badge lets the non members know that they *do* have union friends, and that maybe it’s not such an alien thing to be a member after all. It lets unions into everyday life, albeit to a small degree, and that’s something that’s missing these days.

Anyway now we’ve got a high-tech replacement for the enamel badge, in the form of a Facebook application to add a discreet union button to your Facebook profile. I like it (I would – I helped with it!) as it lets me show my allegiance without being preachy. If you want one, you can get it at www.my-union.org

Come to think of it, I don’t actually have an enamel badge for my current union (NUJ). I wonder if they do them? I guess I’ll have to find out by asking the NUJ facebook group 😉