Labour Notes (you guys really should get
around to correcting the typo in your title) is
always the place to go for info and encouragement on issues, news and actions
that don’t get a lot or much attention elsewhere. So, thanks.
A good example is Ruth Needleman’s “Making
Global Solidarity Real’. But as much as
I appreciated her analysis, there’s one trend in global solidarity actions and
organizing that she doesn’t cover: the self-organizing that many workers are
engaging in that doesn’t take place through or with their unions’ institutional
connections. Those unions may support
these efforts, but they’re not directly responsible for them.
There’s a whole lot going on at the
workplace level as workers connect directly to other workers using the internet. The project I’m involved in, LabourStart,
regularly responds to requests by workers in one country wanting a contact
amongst their co-workers in another. GM
workers in Canada wanting to connect with GM workers in Korea was the direct
inspiration for this letter. The former
had read on LabourStart about the latter heading towards a strike in July. A quick e-mail and the connection is made.
Similarly, there are other efforts, like
RadioLabour (see www.radiolabour.net
or subscribe on iTunes) that work to try and raise the profile of struggles
around the world an in that way build an understanding of the importance of
international work by providing a 5 minute dose of solidarity in the form of an
internet radio show. Monday through
Thursday 40,000 listeners get 5 minutes of news about workers and their unions
from around the world, with a 10 minute weekly update each Friday.
Less than a month old is Revoluntionizing
Retail, a one-stop shopping site for retail workers looking to change their
working lives. See http://revolutionizingretail.org. Right now limited to North America, it has
the potential to grow into something much bigger.
As these volunteer-based ‘unofficial’ but
union-supported efforts are working at the rank-and-file level of the movement,
there’s some interesting ‘top-down’ (sometimes that can be a good thing) work
being done too. As Ruth noted in their article,
unions as organizations are becoming more and more international in their
organizing efforts. One effort she
didn’t mention is Union Solidarity International, a project of Unite (UK). It combines a real commitment of resources by
a union with a long history of international engagement with an understanding
that for global solidarity to have a real impact on our work as trade unionists
it has to reach deep down into the union and it has to have a direct and
discernible impact on the work of local unions.
So USI (see http://usilive.org) carries
print news, produces a weekly podcast and acts as a portal to Unite branches
(locals) looking to be twinned with a local union somewhere out there in the
world.
All great resources for anyone looking to
organize more effectively in their workplace on the need for globalization of
our kind, not theirs.
