Inside LabourStart

The Palestine campaign now has 3,605 supporters after only 6 days online.  It is only 32 behind the Georgia campaign, which has been online for  27 days.  One or two points to note – just random observations, really:

• The other campaigns were launched at the initiative of large and powerful national trade union centers and global union federations (IMF, AFL-CIO, ICEM, PSI, etc.).  This one was launched at the initiative of a very small, independent union (WAC Ma’an).  Sometimes, small is beautiful.
• Sometimes, the nationality of the workers involved is decisive. I’ve noted before that campaigns targetting countries like Botswana and Swaziland are unlikely to draw widespread support (at least from outside the region – Southern Africa).  But some countries are always in the news, and people from all over the world therefore feel a genuine, spontaneous sympathy for the workers in that country.  Palestine would fall into this category.
• The addition of Hebrew has done little to expand the campaign – there are only 32 messages that have been sent out in that language.  The Arabic campaign, which has been repeatedly edited and fixed, is not yet drawing any support at all.
• The Canadians are once again in the lead – a result of there being so many of them on the mailing list, which is in turn the result of a very successful campaign that interested their labour movement (the postal workers’ strike and lockout).  They are followed close behind by the UK and USA, and together these three countries account for a clear majority of the messages sent.  (Australia is, unfortunately, now lagging far behind.)