The last 37 days – a lot to report …
I had wanted these to be fortnightly reports — but it’s hard to keep that going with so much happening. So, apologies for the delay. Here’s what’s happened in the last five weeks:
CAMPAIGNS
- We asked KCTU if we can close down their 3-month-old campaign; they’ve asked us to keep it going and we will.
- Launched two new campaigns on one day (Iran and Morocco), both concerning individuals we’d already campaigned for in the past.
- We closed three campaigns — Mastepan (Estonia), Nermin (Libya) and Ewado (Djibouti); we reported on both in the mass mailing that went out today. We also heard very positive news about a campaign we did with WAC in defense of a Palestinian trade union activist.
- We launched a very large campaign demanding justice for Giulio Regeni. This came at the suggestion of our Italian comrades, and was quickly followed by support from the IUF and a positive statement also from the ITUC. This campaign soared to 10,000 messages very quickly and continues to grow.
- We continued to support the ITUC’s Ratify the Protocol campaign.
RADIO
We’re now submitting weekly 2 1/2 minute reports to the Workers Independent News Service (WINS) in the US. This is in addition to our ongoing cooperation with Radio Labour, based in Canada.
FINANCES
We received a generous donation from Building and Woodworkers International.
EVENTS
I spoke at a meeting of communications staffers of European unions in Gdansk, Poland last week.
CORRESPONDENTS
We’ve resumed regular mailings to correspondents, which will take place every week — after a gap of nearly 10 months.
BOOKS
The complete manuscript for the next LabourStart book, The Strangers Among Us, has been received and we’re currently formatting it. We hope to have a book launch event at our conference in Toronto.
CONFERENCE
Speaking of which — we have a large number of workshop proposals and 371 people signed up to attend; there’s an organizing committee and an intern hired, and we’ll soon have an agenda.
PUBLICITY
At the suggestion of the British TUC, we submitted a nomination form for the SMK Campaigners Awards; they will decide by the end of February and their ceremony in the House of Lords will take place on 13 April.
TRANSLATIONS
We need a new Spanish translator as our comrade David has fallen ill; we got several dozen volunteers for the job.