Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 11/14/2005 - 3:35pm
The launch today of LabourStart TV ( http://www.labourstart.tv ) may mark the beginning of new era in union communications.
We have had the ability for more than a decade now to put videos on the net. But unions, as usual, have lagged behind. Nevertheless, there have been examples of unions producing quality online video on a regular basis.
The outstanding example is probably the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) with its regular video news. The machinists' union (IAM) has also been producing videos on a regular basis and making them available through their website. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) now uses a digital camcorder to give members a chance to tell their stories, using web-based video as a recruiting tool. And in Vancouver, Working TV has been making its regular television program since the 1990s available through the net.
If you are a member of the CAW, IAM or RWDSU, you may have known this. But even then, you may not have known what other unions are doing. And if you're not a member of any of those unions, you probably did not know that unions can use, and have been using, this technology for some time now.
I'm reminded a bit of what the trade union movement was like a decade ago. If your union had a website back in the mid-1990s, you might have been able to find out what was happening -- in your union. If you wanted to know what was happening in the broader labour movement, there weren't a lot of ways to find out. To learn about union struggles overseas, you'd have to trawl through many different websites. Today, with LabourStart offering up hundreds of union news stories from around the world every single day, everything has changed. Union members can keep up with union news, and can feel themselves part of a much broader international movement.
This has clearly changed the consciousness of many trade union members who now regularly participate in online campaigns in support of fellow workers in other countries. Websites that offer up international labour news have contributed a lot to that change of consciousness.
LabourStart.tv aims to do the same thing, only with sound and moving images.
Right now, we're linking to a video of the Iraqi labour solidarity tour, produced for U.S. Labor Against the War. We're linking to a tribute video produced by the IAM to honor Rosa Parks. We link to three short animated films produced by British trade unions -- which we've mentioned before in these weekly mailings. We have links to several speeches given at the recent founding convention of the Change to Win federation. We're linking to extraordinary testimony given by Canadian nurses about the dangers of being stuck by needles.
I know that all of this is a bit new for many union members, so we've made it easy to view the films. There are links to the software you might need next to each film, depending on its file type. But for most people with modern computers, you just click on the link and the video starts playing.
Let's be absolutely clear about this -- like LabourStart, LabourStart TV does not create its own news content. We link to existing videos produced by unions.
As I write these words, we are showing links to 46 union videos produced in the last few months. By the time you read this, there may even be more. Already, you can spend several hours watching these videos.
Moving images with sound can do things that text cannot. We all know this. All of us watch television, play videos and DVDs, and go to the cinema.
We look forward to showing links to union videos in dozens of languages from around the world, showing workers in struggle and moving all of us to greater activity.
To do this requires that there be one place on the web that puts all of this together, that shows us what unions are doing and what can be done. The creation of such a place -- LabourStart TV -- does offer the promise of a new era in labour communications.
That is why I am so excited about LabourStart TV. Please visit today -- http://www.labourstart.tv -- and tell other members of your union!
Eric Lee
Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 11/08/2005 - 3:22pm
This week, we are launching LabourStart TV.
No, it's not a television station. (That would be nice, but we don't have the money for that just yet.) But it is a big step forward for us, and I think for the international trade union movement as well.
Basically, we will start collecting the web addresses of videos produced by and for unions the same way we now do with text-based news stories.
That sounds simple enough, and it is.
But we're doing more than just listing what's available elsewhere on the web.
We're telling trade unionists what other unions have done. We're showing cutting-edge technology that is now fairly widely used in our movement. And we're encouraging other unions to move forward and use the new technology.
A beta version of LabourStart TV is already online. It has no logo nor graphics, and the text is not yet finalized, but it will have these by the end of this week. You can already see it here:
http://www.labourstart.tv
(Don't you just love the simplicity of that address?)
As correspondents, you can already begin adding content now. We will be announcing LabourStart TV towards the end of this week and it would be great to feature content from unions in your country. Here's all you need to do to add shows:
Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 11/02/2005 - 5:40am
CBC workers should take over production facilities and lock themselves in.
By Yves Engler, Straight Goods - Industrial Worker, October 2005.
All progressive Canadians should support workers who are currently "locked out" by CBC management. They are fighting an important struggle over the future of public service broadcasting in an era when powerful political and economic forces would be pleased by CBC's demise. Private broadcasters would love to have the airwaves all to themselves.
But lost in the fog of advertising-driven media obfuscation is the reality that this battle is fundamentally about workers' power and independence.
CBC is trying to introduce an extreme top-down model in which a select few managers get to pick and choose whose contract will be renewed. Workers will have no right to their jobs. In the name of "flexibility" the CBC will become the modern equivalent of the scene in many films where Depression-era longshoremen crowd at the gate waiting to be chosen for a shift by all-powerful overseers. (Camera pans across a sea of hungry faces - a finger points at the lucky few. "You, you and you; the rest go home, that's it for today.") Everyone who has seen one of these waterfront movies knows how this system breeds corruption and concentration of power.
Submitted by x344543 on Tue, 06/28/2005 - 9:19pm
The following review was posted on the http://www.communicateordie.com/ site. Our responses to the (more or less positive criticism) are in italics -- intexile.
Submitted by Steve Dondley on Tue, 06/28/2005 - 3:39pm - Categories: Critiques
The International Workers of the World (IWW), the union that refuses to die, recently retooled its website and now has a 4 speed, dual-quad, Posi-Traction Drupal engine purring under the hood. Giddyup!
That's Industrial (--not International) Workers of the World, Steve.
What's amazing is that this small, independent union, with only about 1,200 dues paying members worldwide, now has a site more technologically sophisticated and interactive than most International unions hundreds of times its size. I took a brief look around the site. Here's my initial impressions.
Pluses
Forums
This is a must have for any union site. It demonstrates to workers that the union has interest in fostering communication.
Visual calendar
Again, another item that should be a staple of any union site to keep members apprised of upcoming events at a glance. The site also uses the newest version of Drupal's event module which lets you view only events you might be interested in.
Design
It's obvious a lot of time was spent customizing the default templates that come with Drupal to give the site its own indentity. Though the rather ominous color scheme doesn't work for me, it might work for the Marxist workers the IWW tends to attract.
The IWW has always used red as its color, long before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 or the Anarchist Revolution in Spain in 1936. The IWW is unabashedly radical and we are 100% honest about it. We see no reason why we should not onw the color (just as people of color, or G/L/B/T people own the language used to describe them).
Store
Drupal also has an ecommerce module that allows visitors to purchase products. Great way for generating more revenue and spreading the IWW culture.
We had the store on our previous site; it's not a Drupal Eccomerce module yet; but we'll have one soon!
Pay dues online
Awesome use of technology here. It's something the IWW needs, too, as they don't have dues checkoff on the job.
We've had this for awhile. The IWW was the second union in the world to even have a website (an Isreali Teacher's Union was the first), and we were definitely the first to allow people to join through our website.
Features ways to get involved
The site offers opportunities for workers to volunteer on various committees.
Multilingual
Again, this is truly awesome. Though this feature is standard in Drupal, they have made it very convenient. One click at the top of the screen and your site is rewritten in an entirely new language!
No, not quite; we wish that were true. Right now it must be posted in the chosen language to appear in that language. We're looking for that capability, though.
Central repository for graphics
The site has a central repository of graphics that can be used by the IWW's branch offices. However, I don't think the implemenation of it is that great (see "Need more user-friendly image repository" below).
See below for our response.
Minuses
Blogs
No blogs? Why not?
We're just getting set up! The blogs will be added soon.
No Photos
Clip art on a site can only take you so far. I'd like to see some photos of IWW workers in action
We can only post the graphics that our members send us. As time goes on, we plan to encourage and use photos of workers engaged in organizing campaigns and demonstrations.
Many pages are too long
The site should use better use of Drupal's book module and chop the pages up into more digestable pieces.
The current site is built within the shell of the old (which had the longer pages). Most of the content featured here is from the older site. As time goes on these older, longer pages may be reorganized as Steve suggests.
No success stories
Where is the evidence of what IWW has done to help workers? Maybe I missed it and its buried deep down in the site. If so, that material should be made front and center.
The successes exist. They'll be featured soon. Is not the truckers campaign (which is accessible through the link in the "News, Strikes, and Alerts" story--sticky near the top) one such example?
No appeal to mainstream audience
The material on site is geared mostly to Marxists. Maybe that's their intention but I think they should at least make some attempt at explaining their position to a more mainstream audience.
The IWW is not a Marxist organization and our attempt is not specifically to appeal to "Marxists". In fact our goal is to appeal to rank & file workers. However we're unabashedly radical and anti-capitalist (that doesn't necessarily make us "Marxist" by the way). The IWW is not going to lie and claim to be something it isn't. We're nothing if not honest!
Newspaper articles aren't online
The IWW has a newspaper. At least some of the articles should be placed online.
We'll feature news articles soon. Bear with us Steve!
Must search for the search
search box is hidden behind a graphic.
It's at the top of the flippin' screen--GAWD! (with apologies to Napoleon Dynamite!)
Uses Microsoft Word document for distributing files
I'm being a hypocrite here, but a union like IWW should definitely have made a commitment to open, non-proprietary document formats.
Say What? We use Trustix Linux on our servers, Drupal for this Content Management System, and PDFs. To what MS documents are you referring (other than a few attachments that others sent us?)
Needs more user-friendly image repository
The currenly repository of images requires you to click on the link before seeing. This is tedious and time consuming. Why not use Drupal's excellent image module to display them?
Again, this is because we built this site within the shell of the old--which obviously didn't have such a feature. We'll transition to the Drupal module soon.
All-in-all Comrade Dondley's criticisms are constructive and positive. Thanks for sharing them, and we'll do what we can to make the IWW website the envy of business unions and an inspiration to rank & file workers everywhere!
We have added the "Communicate or Die" blog to our collection of RSS feeds. We hope that they will return the favor!
The original post is featured here: http://www.communicateordie.com/node/57
Share