Jun
16
2011
0

We launch a Canada-only (for now) campaign

Canadian flag.

Oh, Canada.

At the request of the postal workers’ union (CUPW), we’ve launched this campaign.

At the moment, it’s Canada only, and even before we did our 8,000+ mass mailing this morning, it already had nearly 500 messages sent.

This could be a big one, part of a broader issue of the Tory government assault on unions.

We’re talking with others (including the CLC and UNI) about expanding, and possibly going global with this.

Written by admin in: Campaigns |
Jun
15
2011
0

Publicizing the conference registration form

It’s now time to begin actually registering people for our conference.  Today I’m beginning publicity for the English language version of the form (still waiting to hear from the Turkish comrades about a translation).  Here is how I’ve publicized this form today:

  1. Personal status update on UnionBook
  2. Posted to my personal Twitter feed
  3. Posted to my personal Facebook status
  4. Posted to my pesonal Linked In status
  5. Posted as a LabourStart tweet
  6. Posted to the LabourStart Facebook page
  7. Posted to the Wall of the LabourStart Facebook group
  8. Posted as an ad across the top of UnionBook
  9. Wrote to all 80 who indicated on Facebook that they would attend
  10. Wrote to all 151 who indicated on Facebook that they might attend
  11. Posted to the wall of the conference Facebook event
  12. Wrote to all 4,373 members of the LabourStart Facebook group
  13. Wrote to nearly 700 LabourStart correspondents
Written by admin in: 2011 conference |
Jun
14
2011
0

Conference registration – now working

I cracked the problem of the conference registration script this morning – we’ll begin publicizing this far and wide tomorrow, but feel free to register today if you want: http://www.labourstart.org/2011/?page_id=57

Written by admin in: 2011 conference |
Jun
13
2011
0

Monday morning updates

Campaigns: I’ve done a mass mailing to our English list announcing the two new campaigns (Russia, El Salvador) and the release of Rosalba in Colombia (subject of a campaign of ours last winter). We also promoted Amnesty International’s Iran campaign, the ITUC annual survey, and a contest sponsored by UCS.  Last week we suggested a super-campaign to the ITUC based around their annual survey, but we’ve gotten no answer from them. We’ve gotten permission to close down the Chile campaign after 3 months and have asked permission to close down the Botswana one as the strike is now over.  Once again at the request of the RMT union we launched a UK-specific campaign and did a mailing to the more than 5,000 UK subscribers on our lists.  Nearly 700 messages have already been sent.

Conference: Work continues on the conference registration – I’ve gotten stuck on a bit of code and have been asking for help.  Made some progress today and hope to have this settled tomorrow so that we can begin registering people.  The problem has to do with the interaction between the Perl scripting language and a MySQL database.  I tested out Ustream, which integrates with Ning (UnionBook) as a way of doing video podcasts for the conference, but while it worked, the advertising was incredibly annoying, so I’ll be trying out different software instead.  Had a long Skype conference call with the Solidarity Center about the participation of Middle East and North African trade unionists at our event.

Fundraising: As the USA was lagging far behind other countries, I wrote to some of our friends in the American labour movement and have gotten some positive responses.  The total raised so far (including some money which has been pledged but not yet received) is £15,341 — a nearly 40% increase over last year.

UnionBook: I wrote to all UB members telling them how things were going with our drive to recruit new members – trying to reach a goal of 5,000 by 4 September.  While the site is growing, it’s not growing fast enough to meet that goal.  18 new members joined today, and another 18 yesterday.

Jun
09
2011
3

90 trade unionists killed in the last year

The ITUC has issued its annual report on the violations of trade union rights.   It’s important that we do all we can to promote this — in all our languages and in all countries.  Here are some of the things I’m doing today:

  • Promoting this in a LabourStart mass mailing later today
  • Posted it to the LabourStart page on Facebook
  • Posted it as a tweet – as LabourStart
  • Posted it on UnionBook – and then automatically through my personal account to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

Other correspondents have already made sure it’s a top news story on LabourStart today.

What have you done?

Jun
08
2011
1

Fundraising drive sets new record

Including four pledges by unions in the UK and Australia, we’re now just over £13,000 — which is £1,500 more than we raised in 2010.  Let’s keep up the momentum!  Here are the breakdowns by country:

  • Australia – £5,791
  • Canada – £3,119
  • UK – £2,007
  • Other – £1,104
  • USA – £525
  • Germany – £180
  • Ireland – £154
  • New Zealand – £121
Written by admin in: Fund-raising |
Jun
06
2011
0

New campaign launched: Botswana

It’s here.  Please spread the word.

Written by admin in: Campaigns |
Jun
05
2011
0

Our active campaigns

These are the active campaigns at the moment on LabourStart with the total number of supporters and launch date for each one:

  • Iraq: Union leader forcibly relocated – 3,111 (30 May)
  • Swaziland: Protest mass arrests of trade unionists – 2,210 (21 April)
  • Bahrain: Stop the attack on the trade union movement – 4,425 (19 April)
  • Chile: Government Reneges on Mine Safety Standards; Demand Reform – 3,280 (09 March) – closing down this week

(The other Iraq campaign is about to close down – it got 3,808 messages since 10 May.)

Written by admin in: Campaigns |
Jun
03
2011
1

2011 fundraising drive nears £7K mark

The last few days have seen some substantial donations come in.  The total currently stands at  £6,992.

As a result, here are the new breakdowns by country:

  • Canada £3,056
  • UK £1,507
  • Other £954 (£854 from the Education International)
  • Australia £497 (an additional £2,616 pledged and invoiced)
  • USA £523
  • Germany £180
  • Ireland £154
  • New Zealand £121

Last year we took in £11,500 – so we need to raise at least £2,000 more to beat that.

Written by admin in: Fund-raising |
Jun
02
2011
0

Mansour Osanloo free at last

One of the largest campaigns we ever ran on LabourStart was back in 2006 when we demanded that the Iranian government free jailed trade union leader Mansour Osanloo.

Today, more than four years later, Osanloo is finally free.

You can hear  a recording of Osanloo’s voice (1 minute in Farsi followed by English translation) when I interviewed him on his visit to London several years ago.

He was arrested shortly thereafter.

Written by admin in: Uncategorized |

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