Submitted by x344543 on Thu, 03/23/2006 - 12:43pm
Reposted from Laborstart.Org - Not officially endorsed by the IWW; posted in solidarity.
We can only do these campaigns if we can send out emails for free. If we need to pay for each email we send out, we won't be able to match the amount of money corporations can spend.
Right now, America Online (AOL) and other internet service providers are considering imposing charges on email sent to their subscribers. This is no problem for Wal-Mart and McDonalds -- but it is a problem for those of us fighting against Wal-Mart and McDonalds. We must bring pressure to bear to compell AOL and others to change their minds, and to keep email free.
This is why LabourStart was proud to join the AFL-CIO, the Communication Workers of America, the United Farm Workers, Working America, and American Rights at Work as one of the 50 original sponsoring organizations backing this call:
http://www.dearaol.com/
There are now over 500 groups will have endorsed this campaign -- is your union among them?
Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 8:23pm
The latest news from communitcateordie.com
Welcome to everyone who has registered with the CoD for the past few months. If you haven't been to the site recently, here's some recent must-read blog posts:
Opening Labor's Minds to Internet Communication by Wayne Langley http://www.communicateordie.com/node/257
Cleveland AFL-CIO President's Blog Provides Stage for Union Bashing by Steve Dondley http://www.communicateordie.com/node/253
New Web Site Brought to You by Union Busters, Inc. by Steve Dondley http://www.communicateordie.com/node/243
Using internet-driven tech for more than just publishing/publicity? by Franciso Cendejas http://www.communicateordie.com/node/213
Submitted by x344543 on Sun, 01/15/2006 - 5:41pm
Well the results are in. Although disappointing that the IWW didn't win the competition for its centenary year, it is notable that the IWW beat all AFL-CIO union sites hands down.
In this year's competition, 6,848 votes were cast for hundreds of trade union websites around the world. 5,578 (81%) of these confirmed their choice by email and only those votes are counted in this year's competition -- the first time we have ever undertaken this precaution.
This year, among the top 10 websites we have four from Canada, two from the USA, and one each from South Africa, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. These ten websites come from unions representing a total of nearly 3,000,000 workers. The winning site this year received more votes than any other site ever received in one of our annual competitions.
Submitted by x344543 on Fri, 12/16/2005 - 5:56am
Disclaimer: Eric Lee's article is reposted here not as an endorsement for iww.org as Labourstart Website of the Year--although iww.org is a candidate, and is mentioned in the article. It is posted here to emphasize the growing impact that the Internet, labor websites, and labourstart.org have on organized labor. The Internet--while currently dominated by capitalist interests nevertheless hold enormous potential for those of us fettered by capitalism (at least 99% of humanity) to emancipate ourselves from its yoke.
For the ninth year in a row, LabourStart is once again organizing the Labour Website of the Year competition.
Submitted by x344543 on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 3:06pm
LabourStart TV has been a huge success.
Since our launch early this week, thousands of trade unionists from all over the world have visited the site and viewed some of the videos we are linking to.
And we couldn't have picked a better week to launch. This week saw what was probably the largest mass protests in Australian history, with over 500,000 union members taking to the streets.
Within hours, we were linking to short videos taken from mainstream and trade union sources, documenting this extraordinary day of action. In the end, we had no fewer than 16 videos about the Australian events. You can see them all here:
http://www.labourstart.tv
This is great -- but is not enough. We need to move on to the next stage.
In order for LabourStart TV to have the impact we'd like it to have, people have to know about the site. Now, the traditional approach is to ask people to publicize our site. You know, tell your friends, pass this email on, and so on. That's fine as far as it goes. But we want to go further. Much further.
Imagine if you're a union member somewhere in the world, and you've got Internet access but you've never heard of LabourStart or LabourStart.tv.
And imagine that a day like November 15th comes along, with its hundreds of thousands of Australian union members staging an epic protest.
Wouldn't it be great if your own union website -- your national or even branch website -- were to automatically feature links to those 16 videos I was telling you about? And to do this in real time as well?
As of today, this is no longer something to dream about. It is now possible.
You can have links to the latest five videos showing on LabourStart.tv by simply copying and pasting a single line of code to your union's website.
Once you've pasted the code, your site will feature links to union videos from around the world, automatically updated every 15 minutes, throughout the day, seven days a week.
And all completely free of charge, of course.
Full details are here:
http://www.labourstart.org/lnw.shtml
There's also an explanation on the very top of the LabourStart.tv page, at http://www.labourstart.tv .
Some of you will be thinking -- but I'm not a webmaster! What can I do? In that case, please -- pass this on to the people in charge of your union's website. That site will be enriched by the addition of links to current videos.
Once you've done this, let us know and we'll make sure to add your union to the list of 645 union websites around the world which already use LabourStart's existing newswires.
Thanks -- and have a great weekend.
Eric Lee
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