Inside LabourStart

The ITUC has announced its 3rd world congress will be held in Berlin during the week of 19 May 2014.  Maybe we could start planning now for a fourth or fifth LabourStart Global Solidarity Conference to be held in Berlin in the week leading up to the ITUC?  Any thoughts?

Having just returned from 15 days away on holiday, there’s a backlog of 222 emails to answer, plus 95 LabourStart tasks on my to-do list.  Your patience is appreciated.

Update one day later: Now down to 179 emails to answer, and 90 LabourStart tasks, as of 05:55 London time, 1.9.11.

I’ve scanned this in – sorry, but it’s a very large JPG image: first page, second page.

This only makes sense if you read the article.

.net Magazine, the world’s best-selling magazine for web designers and developers, has devoted two pages of the Summer 2011 issue (which went on sale today) to a make-over of LabourStart.  The makeover was done by one of the UK’s top design firms – twentysixdigital.  (Their clients include the Royal Marines and the manufacturers of Durex condoms.  Don’t ask.)

Unfortunately, at the moment, the article is not available for free online – though I’ve written to the editor asking him to make it available.

If that happens, I’ll share the URL with our English language mailing list and we can use their comments facility to have a discussion.  The only thing available online right now is a JPG image of the page – but without the explanation in the article, it doesn’t make much sense.

If you’re dying to read it, buy a copy of .net Magazine in a shop or online.  (The digital version costs £4.16; the UK the print version costs £5.99.)

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.

We’ve been approached by a colleague who is working on something like that, a very interesting idea. We’ll have more details by the end of the month, including any role LabourStart might play.

We’ve been approached by the Illinois Labor History Society for help – they’re holding a major event (actually a week of events) in Chicago around the Haymarket Martyrs Monument.  They need a speaker from outside the USA and Canada (and they may have funds to pay for travel), they need donations, and they need letters of support and solidarity.  Perhaps some of you can help?  Please check out their website .

We’re taking some steps to ensure that we have comprehensive coverage of the nationwide day of protest in the USA today.

This includes special posts to this blog, to our Facebook page, Twitter, etc., as well as a mass mailing highlighting international support for American workers who are in the fight for their lives.

Please make sure to post any news you come across about this day of action.

I’ve just gotten back from a couple of days in Turkey where I spoke at Saturday’s conference on unions and new media, held in Istanbul and organized by TAREM, a pro-union NGO.

I had the opportunity to also meet with the general secretary of TUMTIS, the union currently in a fight with UPS over union recognition, as well as a comrade from the metalworkers union.  We’ve done online campaigns on behalf of both unions.

I also had the chance for extensive discussions with the international affairs person at DISK, the country’s more left-wing national trade union center.  Among other things, he told me that every time he meets trade unionists from elsewhere in the world and mentions he’s from Turkey, they tell him they know about Turkish unions and their struggles from LabourStart.  While I was there, he met up with two representatives of KMU, the leftist union center in the Philippines, and when the heard he was meeting with me, they sent regards and mentioned LabourStart’s support for their campaigns.  All confirmation of the effectiveness of the work we do, especially our campaigns.

I also discussed continuing cooperation with TAREM – including the possibility of holding our 2012 Global Solidarity Conference in Istanbul.  They welcomed this idea with enthusiasm.

Notes for my talk follow: (more…)

I’ll be in Geneva all this week doing some work for the IMF and IUF.

I should have access to email, but please only contact me in case of emergency.