Inside LabourStart

I’ve been using Hootsuite’s delayed posting feature to try and keep the Canadian Twitter feeds active around the clock. Partly because the RSS feature in Hootsuite doesn’t work as well as I would like it to.

Just FYI, in case anyone else wants to do something similar, here are the texts I have been repeating. In English only as I am not confident enough of my own fluency, nor of Google’s.

ROUTINE:

Get (and leave if you want) your photos here! The global union movement’s photo album, a LabourStart project. ow.ly/9UIbb

Unionbook – the social networking platform for trade unionists. A LabourStart project. ow.ly/9UIsC

Union photographer? If you have a photo you would like to see as the LabourStart Photo of the Week, send to CanadaATLabourStart.org

Dress up your website or blog with LabourStart’s FREE newswires. By country or issue, or tell us what you need! ow.ly/9UK1b

Get Your Union Books at Labour’s Bookstore – a LabourStart-UCS project. ow.ly/9UKWQ

Union women daily news at LabourStart’s Working Women page: ow.ly/9UKAk

LabourStart’s mailing list about to hit 100k. Our costs 2 go up. Victim of our own success? If u or ur union can help: ow.ly/a3gyp

LabourStart will soon be available in 28 languages. Our Ukrainian edition is almost ready to roll.

Act NOW! All of LabourStart’s active solidarity campaigns are here: http://ow.ly/a8WvO

CAMPAIGNS:

URGENT ACTION NEEDED. Union leader held in Serbian solitary confinement. Send protest e-mail in 20 seconds here: ow.ly/a7p0m

Please retweet! URGENT ACTION NEEDED. Trade unionist in Iran facing execution at any moment. Send protest message here: ow.ly/9T1wU

Colombia: End harassment and killing of trade unionists. Join the global e-mail campaign here: ow.ly/a6mEs

Help end the months-long lockout at Acadian Coach Lines! Send a solidarity message here: ow.ly/9KCA7

I’ve been tracking my Twitter, FB and mail responses. Mostly anyway.

But even just for the few times I have remembered to tag the links I put out there it has been clear that e-mail is best response-wise, Twitter better than Facebook and FB rather dreadful.

… life goes on.  I’ve been invited to speak on a panel at a conference in Germany organized by the Hans Boeckler Stiftung (the foundation set up by the German unions).

The conference is on the subject of Trade Unions in the Democratic Process.  The programme (in German) is here.

On the panel with me will be representatives of the DGB (Germany’s national trade union center) and the ILO.

I’ve been asked to focus on “labour movements and internationalism with special regard to the Middle East”.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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 .