Comparative studies of collective action by unemployed people remain rare. This paper compares the French unemployed people’s movement in 1997–“98 with the mobilization of Belgian unemployed people against "home visits." Emphasizing the similarities between these two cases, the author seeks to define their differences in terms of the institutional, social, and political context. He also focuses on unemployed people’s individual political activism and the resources mobilized by them, as well as by associations for unemployed persons. The author specifically highlights the difference in terms of the involvement of trade unions in the unemployed people’s struggles in both countries and its consequences for the nature of these mobilizations.