Inside LabourStart

While many global union websites are slow to return to normal after the holidays, we’ve kept LabourStart going all the way through.

Android app: We have taken the first step to building an Android app for LabourStart. We expect this will take several months as there’s a steep learning curve. If successful, we will aim later in the year to create an iOS app as well. For many people, their phones (especially low-cost Android phones) are the way they connect to the net, so it is extremely important that we be accessible there as well.

News: In the first 9 days of 2025, our correspondents posted 705 stories — an average of 78 stories per day, or one every 18 minutes. This year we have set the goal to triple the number of active correspondents.

Recruiting new correspondents: We have sent out targetted emails to our South African (459) and Irish (1,722) lists. The latter received a message from us two days ago. So far, no new correspondents have signed up and we are checking to see if there’s a technical problem.

Inside LabourStart: This blog — which you’re reading right now — allows people to sign up to receive emails every time it is updated. Today we have 100 subscribers, nearly all of them our volunteer correspondents. We are going to increase the number of people receiving those updates and as a first step, we’ve added a sign-up box on the right side of this page.

LabourStart-branded merchandise: With our cool new logo, it’s time to make things like t-shirts and mugs available. We found a wonderful co-op in the USA which we could work with, but they need to sort out world-wide shipping first. We’re working on this.

Goals for 2025: In addition to the things mentioned above, in 2025 we will reduce our long-term to-do list (over 80 tasks, some quite old) by one per week on average. We’ll publish at least one book (we have three in the pipeline in draft form). We’ll continue our work with a new generation of activists. And we’ll fight hard for workers’ rights — everywhere in the world that they are threatened.