It combines a history of the growth of electronic forms of communication by unions with a practical approach to using and understanding them. Written in an accessible way, the book assumes no technical knowledge and internet jargon is clearly explained.
The book contains detailed information on how trade unionists worldwide have been using technology at national, regional and local levels, giving many examples and websites to visit. It finishes with a chapter on the future and the development of the new internationalism that Lee believes the internet has given birth to.
"This book will fire many branch activists and national officials with the enthusiasm to join the new technological revolution."
By contrast, the employers with whom they deal now have at their disposal the most powerful electronic communciations systems that money can buy, and the power that goes with them.
Computer networks enable information, and increasingly, work, to be shunted around the globe in seconds, often to the detriment of workers. These developments present a new challenge to trade unions and Eric Lee's book suggests how they can respond.
It is the first to attempt a history of trade union use of computer networks. Although it tends to be slanted toward the North American experience, it also draws on examples of the International Trades Union Secretariat. [sic]
Inevitably, the pioneering work of linking union branches with their headquarters through computer networks took place in countries such as Canada, where geographical problems were greatest.
Although many British unions had begun to computerise their membership records and accounts in the seventies, the real take-off for networks came in the late eighties when unions were at their most beleaguered, and few were able to give priority to this new development. Some, however, most notably the GMB, have invested heavily in both computer technology and in training their activists to use it. In recent years, the TUC has also shown a lead in providing its own electronic bulletin board and Web site.
Thus, after a slow start, British unions now appear to be embracing the new technology and are likely in future to make growing use of networks when communicating with branches and, potentially, reaching out to new members.
Lee's book proposes a number of practical uses for union networks, including notice-boards, conferencing and strike bulletins, all likely to improve internal strategy.
His real enthusiasm however is for the international potential which he terms the "emerging global labour net". He genuinely believes that the new technology can provide the basis for a new internationalism.
It would be one in which individual trade unionists can talk and build links worldwide. He suggests "world company councils" linking together union representatives in global corporations, an application which could undoubtedly be of value in Europe-wide works councils as, ultimately, could be his proposal for an international labour university.
Eric Lee writes with commitment and in a jargon-free way of the potential of computer networks to strengthen the movement worldwide. This book will fire many branch activists and national officials with the enthusiasm to join the new technological revolution.
This quote begins the Introduction in author Eric Lee's new book on the
Labour Movement and the Internet. He begins by outlining the history and
rise of workers International's in the last century which helped create
both the modern trade union movement and the modern socialist movement.
Many of the workers struggles at that time were to build international
links of solidarity to support strikes not only in their own countries but
of their fellow workers in other countries. The First Workers International
which Marx and Engels were part of, used the mail to stay in contact and
distribute information about these struggles.
Lee contends that today the Internet allows unions and workers to think
globally and act locally as the phrase goes. Lee's new book outlines the
growth of the Internet and how labour activists have been on the cutting
edge of this technology from the very beginning. While many unions have
only discovered the Internet over the past two years, as the World Wide
Web, a graphic interface, became popular, the fact is that labour activists
have been active on the Internet since the early 1970's!
It is a wonderful resource for union locals and individual activists and
has been released at just the right time. Lee discusses not only the
history of international workers movements such as the International
Confederation of Trade Unions but also what is happening in cyber space.
While not a 'how to manual' Lee explains what email is and how it works,
what Newsgroups and List servers are, what HTML is and how it is key to the
world wide web (it allows graphics to be used, while earlier versions of
the Internet such as Newsgroups are text based). And he gives credit where
credit is due, in particular to those Europeans who helped expand the
Internet to the public from its narrow confines in the US Military Academic
establishment.
Not surprisingly Canadian labour unions have been at the forefront of using
the Internet for communications. In 1981 the BC Teachers Federation
(www.bctf.org) began using the Internet for communications and bargaining.
Not much later the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) launched the
worlds first labour conference on Solinet. Solinet today has two sites in
cyber space; the old text based Solinet and a new World Wide Web site which
was launched last November (www.solinet.org).
And one of the reasons is the size of this country makes use of computer
technology for communications an invaluable tool for unions and activists.
Lee documents the BCTF and the rise of Solinet as well as the rise of the
new labour networks in the United States and Europe. These networks have
become vital for workers to communicate globally about their struggles
locally.
And how important is that? It has allowed Merseyside dock workers in
Liverpool who have been on strike for two years now against the sacking of
their members to declare the World is Our Picket Line. Using the Internet
via the Labour Network in England (www.labournet.org) these striking
workers have been in communication with other dock workers world wide,
which has led to picket actions in the United States, Australia, Japan,
Europe and in January an occupation in Montreal. Montreal dock workers this
past January not only occupied port authority offices protesting their
allowing ships using Liverpool to dock in Montreal but they documented
their occupation complete with photographs on the Internet. In May Montreal
will host the third international dock workers convention, which has arisen
from the struggles in support of the Merseyside workers.
Locally UFCW has a web page (www.e-view.com/ufcwstrike/) up outlining their
strike and struggle against Safeway's. This space was donated by a local
webmaster. It reproduced UFCW's ads in the newspaper as well as having
updates on pickets and bargaining. An email address from one of the UFCW
members is listed for solidarity messages. Publicity about the Safeway
strike was sent around the globe to labour sites on the Internet and UFCW
has received messages of solidarity from B.C., the United States and even
England.
While email and news groups have existed on the Internet since the early
1980's it is with the growth of the new graphic interface of the World Wide
Web over the past few years that has seen more and more unions come on line.
Eric Lee's book contends that like the Internationals of the past century,
the Internet can be used to create a new workers international, with rapid
communication between unions, rank and file members and other social
activists.
However one of the major drawbacks to this communications medium is that it
is centered in the industrialized countries of the West. In developing
countries access to telephone communications is expensive and limited let
alone computer communications. The challenge facing labour and social
activists is how to get computer technology and access to our brothers and
sisters in developing countries. South Africa for instance has a very
active web site, run by the Confederation of South African Trade Unions
(COATSU), while workers in Nepal use an American web site donated to them
by labour activists, to get their messages out.
When Korean workers launched their General Strike in December against new
repressive labour laws in South Korea, they also simultaneously launched a
web site that gave day by day accounts of their struggles and mobilized
labour activists into support via the World Wide Web.
Eric Lee gives a truly global overview of where we are as labour activists
using the Internet, what the drawbacks are and where we could go. He also
gives lists of addresses, on the net where information can be found. This
is truly an Internationalist effort on his part. Eric himself lives on a
Kibbutz in Israel where he maintains a very active Internet site. He is
editor of the International Federation of Workers Education Associations,
which is situated in England. Eric produces their newsletter from Israel
and uses the Internet to get it to England.
The limitations of writing a book like this of course is that it is out of
date even before it is published. But Eric is resourceful and has created
an interactive web site based on the book. He has included updates of sites
as well as being a promotional site for his book. He recently ran a
conference on Solinet on Labour and the Internet and he has weekly awards
for labour web sites. This can all be found at his site at:
www.solinet.org/lee/
Eric Lee is optimistic that like the International in Marx's time the
Internet now allows workers of all countries "improved means of
communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the
workers of different localities in contact with each other." A new
International is forming in the heart of capitalism's New World Order.
Not to be left out the Alberta Federation of Labour has joined this new
International with their web site (www.afl.org.). The only Canadian
provincial federation of Labour to have such a site. Can the other
federations or the CLC be far behind in tapping into this resource? We hope
not.
The concepts of Cyber-Unionism and Cyber-Internationalism, were foreseen by a few pioneer Labour activists. They pushed hard for over 25 years for computer communications to be used as a tool for strengthening the Labour movement and transforming society. Levinson wrote "International Trade Unionism" in 1972 which discussed computer communications for the global movement only 3 years after the Internet was invented and at a time when it was still a state secret. In the 1980s there were a number of unions using computer communications. However it is the explosion of Internet usage since the 1990s that has created the technological conditions in which the dreams of the past, of an ideal means of communication able to get the workers of all countries to unite, are now a reality.
The speed of development of Internet exposes the immense international power of the working class, no longer will it be possible to prevent the workers everywhere from combining at all levels. Trade Union leaders are suddenly presented with the means to challenge the power of International Capital. If they fail to do so they may be bypassed by informal networks, adding a new fluidity to the battle for ideas within the workers movement. The International Labour movement can and will become conscious of itself, of it's immense power, through complementing it's past work forms with Internet communications. The networked structure of many of the International organisations such as Amnesty and Greenpeace, reveal both the advantages of such a structure of Internet combined sections and the present infancy of the Labour movement's efforts by comparison.
The potential however is truly awe inspiring, individual trade unionists, the official national unions and International union federations will establish an internet publication and communication presence. The publication and exchange of communications at all levels will suddenly reach a critical mass which will transform quantity into quality. Information tools will become information weapons in what may well come to be called The First Trade Union Information Wars. These Information Wars will be fought against the Mass Media, the State and the Multinationals. The power to defend workers in repressive regimes will be enhanced, as will the power of the workers to exercise control over decisions made by the Multinationals, the State and the Mass Media.
World councils of the workers will emerge, firstly collecting data for the defence of their members, then organising collective action. This idea is shown to be technologically possible with the Internet of today. Union solidarity, or the lack of it, that has operated within the confines of the nation state will be challenged, the birth of a new militant International Trade Unionism combined on the Internet is on the order of the day. More radical Unions worldwide will network together and discover cothinking organisations amongst International Unions with whom they can communicate and act, often far more effectively than fellow Unions inside the confines of the nation state.
The relationship between the advanced Informationised nations and those with few telephone lines is also raised by Eric Lee, he raises the demand that the Unions in the advanced countries should campaign for Internet provision in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the former USSR and Eastern Europe. The Unions in the ex-colonial world require an adequate telecommunications infrastructure and training in both Internet and computing. Of course this demand is applicable in advanced industrial countries too, e-mail for all and Internet for every shop steward should now be part of the programme of every workers organisation.
Any book about the Internet is out of date almost as soon as it is written, thus the constant updating of this book on the Web provides an example of another wonder of the net. It is a little disappointing that the full text of the book is not available on the net, as its depth and importance are not fully revealed in the excerpts on the net. The web is obviously a means by which Left wing news and literature can flourish, Mao's famous phrase "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend" (which was never his real intention) is all of a sudden as nothing, for now we could say a "hundred million" and soon a "billion".
My only criticism of the book, is that the vision is if anything understated, we need sweeping, bold projections about the future. This may be due to the nature of the beast under dissection. Internet cannot be segregated from society, the impact upon education has barely been felt...yet. The entire educational structure of today will face transformation, as should the demands of the workers in relation to work organisation, planning, accounting and administration in general. Internet is a tool which can lead to the abolition of the distinction between mental and physical Labour, or as now as a tool for increasing that same distinction. Who uses it and for what purposes? That is the question every trade unionist and socialist must ask. The political impact of the increasing level of intercommunication will first be felt in certain nodal points, where high density Internet usage coincides with radical protest movements, for example in Universities, in certain Strikes and in anti-Imperialist struggles. The Internet allows the Left to affect public opinion in a way unknown in the past, imagine a million youths across Europe networked together, organising protests of thousands in every major city, able to bring their presence to bear on history as a one body. The means for doing this exist already!
Multinational Capital and the State have moved with extraordinary speed to adopt computers and communications as at the centre of their global ambitions. Internet is considered as important for US Capitalism as were the Space and Nuclear Programmes. When Internet is embraced by the Left and the Trade Unions, the balance of forces between Labour and Capital can shift radically back towards organised Labour. Organised Labour can realise its potential, for both in numerical terms and specific weight it has more latent power than ever before.
The developments in computer networking, the staggering growth of the Internet and the fact that workers all over the world are able to communicate with each other much more effectively, efficiently and cheaply than they ever did before presents some truly democratic and empowering possibilities to the labour movement.
Eric Lee is the editor of the International Federation of Workers' Educational Associations newsletter and a long-time trade union labour activist. He is also an expert on electronic communications in the labour movement. This new book covers the politics of the electronic revolution and what the labour movement is doing with this new technology.
Lee provides valuable advice for unions on how to get connected to the Internet and exploit this technology. He also explains all the terminology involved.
Lee charts the international labour movement's use of computer communications from Chip Levinson's (Secretary General of the ICF) writings in 1972 about the possibilities for union education up to the international solidarity that the Liverpool dockers' web site has helped build.
Lee is a socialist first and a mouse potato second. He gives a detailed history of how strikers in several disputes have used the Net to rally support and get their message across, including the use of on-line newspapers. The use of web newspapers by strikers at the San Francisco Chronicle and Detroit News is compared and contrasted with the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters paper, The Organizer.
Lee looks to the broad labour movement for the emergence of the next workers' International and believes that the Internet will play a key role in this. It's not hard to
imagine. Accounts of great revolutionary periods in history hold tales of left-wing paper distributors running out of copies in minutes and huge crowds gathering around fly posted papers. For the first time in the history of the working class, millions of people across the world could have virtually instant access to text, pictures, sound and
video of the latest conquests and defeats. Discussions about the direction of a new international wouldn't need to take place between a small number of comrades from a few countries but could take place among the millions.
If you want to sample the electronic offerings of the far left then the LLB links page is a good place to start. Don't be put off this book if you know nothing about computers.
Lee gives very clear explanations of all the key features of the Internet, e-mail, newsgroups and the World Wide Web. For a novice or a seasoned surfer, Eric Lee's book and the excellent Rough Guide to the Internet 2.0, are essential reading.
Surveys show that the word Internet is among the most frequently occurring in contemporary conversation. Its a bit like synergy. A lot of people don't know what it means.
Eric Lee's book is tailor-made for the interested union activist and required for more senior officials - especially those who allocate budgets to branches.
Published as part of Pluto's new Labour and Society series the book argues that the Internet provides an innovative trade union framework for communication. Lee lays out the basic features of electronic mail, the World Wide Web, bulletin boards and user networks for the reader blessed with an ignorance of these matters. Direct and easy to read it gives just as much information as is needed to get started.
The internet's key features - accessibility, relative cheapness, lack of hierarchy and regulation - make it an ideal medium for a labour movement grappling with globalisation and the transnationals. Unlike many technophiles Lee is as interested in the political economy of global communications as the technology. He zeroes in on the potential a decentralised, difficult to police system presents for a movement which - in most parts of the world - is vastly under-resourced.
Vast amounts of information and financial resources can be sent around the world in the blink of an eye.
International solidarity and communication between workers has never been more essential, and this book by Eric Lee seeks to show what has happened up until the present day; what is happening now, and how the Internet can develop for the labour movement in the future.
Eric Lee began his working life in the USA, and studied industrial and labour relations at university. After moving to Israel in the early 80s he became a computer programmer while serving on the central committee of the United Workers Party (Mapam). Today he is editor of "Workers Education", the quarterly journal of the International Federation of Workers Education Associations. He first discovered the Internet in early 1994, and has found it to be an essential tool ever since.
"The Labour Movement and the Internet" explains how the Internet works in language that just about anyone can understand. All the terms such as Email, World Wide Web, Cyberspace, modems, and newsgroups are shown not to be as strange and mysterious as they at first appear.
Most of the trade unions and trade union federations in the technologically advanced countries use Electronic Mail (Email) to disseminate news, and communicate with each other, their members, and the mass media. Often they have their publications and archives available via their World Wide Web pages. The more sophisticated of them including audio and video.
Many political parties use the Internet too, and that includes the New Communist Party, which has built up a good reputation on the Internet as an information resource for the working class, and solidarity movement. The site includes many feature articles from the New Worker illustrated by maps and colour photos; links to other Labour movement, progressive, and international Communist sites; and a weekly digest edition of the New Worker amongst other things.
Many organisations maintain Email lists to which anyone can subscribe free of charge, or occasionally for a nominal amount. These can be either to pass on information, such as the lists operated by Sinn Fein or the TUC, or as discussion groups. The Labour movement discussion lists are run by some of the unions especially in countries where long distances are a problem, or where many of their members work in technological fields such as education and computer programming.
Thousands of discussion lists are run by universities and organisations on every subject imaginable, ranging from ice hockey to politics.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) runs an excellent service called SoliNet where one can find Labour movement news from around the world, and discussions on topics concerning trade unionists. It also runs regular "Cyber-seminars", including one on the subject of this book, led by the author himself.
Detroit newspaper workers, who have been engaged in a long running dispute, run their own "online" newspaper with local news and entertainment features, as well as stories about the strike.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions have been using the Internet to give an accurate background, and day to day reports of their strike action.
At the moment their is nowhere near as much access to the Internet in Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia, but that situation is changing rapidly. COSATU, the South African trade union federation, and the South African National Union of Mineworkers already make extensive use of the Internet. GEFONT, the Nepalese trade union federation is linked to the movement around the world via Email. Eric Lee says that there is a lot of trade union and political activity in Russia on the Internet, but I have yet to find any of it in English. Maybe I should look harder.
One of the main problems in some countries is antiquated telecommunication systems, which will hopefully improve with time. The other problem is the cost of computer equipment, which means that access will be restricted to organisations and individuals working in hi-tech organisations such as universities.
At the present time it can be very difficult to navigate around the WWW to find the wealth of information and Labour movement news. It is no problem to find the Reuters, AP, or CNN versions of the news. Our movement needs to get together and co-ordinate information to a central starting point. This is technically possible; it just needs the will to do it. Communists are even less organised than their Labour movement sisters and brothers, and should be thinking seriously about starting up their own international news and solidarity agency on the Internet.
The Internet gives workers the opportunity to organise and exchange ideas and solidarity on a global scale that has never been possible before.
Eric Lee's book is an essential read for any activist thinking about "getting online", or any organisation wanting to make effective use of the Internet.
"A useful guide book for activists."
As I have indicated, problems pop up when Lee attempts to draw political
implications from this new technology. Thus, Lee writes, the technical innovations of the new world order "is giving birth to a new internationalism. Participants in the international labour movement have begun to transcend their own local and national limitations and feel themselves to be part of a global community based ... on ... a vision of a new society" (p186).
The idea that a technical development in and of itself automatically
engenders a developed political
expression - in this case an 'International' that Lee explicitly likens to
the First, Second and Third - is
caricature of materialist thinking. I am reminded of the earnest comrades
who seriously asked
Krupskaya what "change in technique" had prompted the Bolshevik/Menshevik
split in 1903.
Thus, Lee confuses the forms of new technology - which objectively break
down national
boundaries - and the political content of much of the traffic on the
Internet. The WWW is a
potentially useful tool to fight for genuine internationalism, nothing more.
In that context, we are pleased to announce the opening of a Communist
Party of Great Britain
website which will go online at 12 midnight of May 1. This site will be a
useful auxiliary propaganda
instrument in the fight for a new Communist International - it most
certainly will not be a
replacement. Ordinary folk on the other hand remain trapped. We are trapped by
our lack of access and control, lack of access to media, means of
communication and the ears of government. We are also divided by
multiple practical, ideological and cultural differences. It is
possible, occasionally, to get really impressive solidarity, for
example the Liverpool docks' strike(1)
but to make this permanent and on-going is much more
difficult. The internet opens new vistas for cheap communication,
conferencing and publishing. Eric Lee poses the question: can this be
used to reinvigorate the world "labour movement."?(2) He first goes through the various tools available; E-mail, on-line
databases, discussion groups, usenet news groups, on line chat and
publishing, including the World Wide Web. As this article is not an
explanation of the internet, I certainly won't intimidate you by
going into any of these in any more detail. Suffice to say that his
introduction is precise and easy to grasp, better written than many
textbooks on the net are. The book then deals with the history of how "telematics"(3) have been used by the labour movement.
This was new and fascinating territory for this reviewer. Our bosses
love to give the impression that workers react to new technology with
mistrust and suspicion. What would they say about a character like
Chip Levinson? Levinson was the general secretary of the International Chemical
Workers' Federation in the 1970s.(4) He
spent much time wrestling with the problem of the growing power of
transnational corporations (TNCs). In 1972 the internet was a top
secret military project known as ARPNET (The Advanced Research
Projects Agency Network) linking a few military and science research
institutes in the U.S. Knowing nothing of its existence didn't stop
Levinson speculating on the idea of internationally linking unions
using computers. In his book International Trade Unionism he wrote
that; "Only a computerised information bank could possibly
keep bargainers and union strategists tuned into the strengths and
weaknesses of companies and provide them with the current data on
financial facts and figures, productions, inventories, wages, hours
of work, vacations, pensions and all the other factors involved."
Though the technology still hadn't come on stream (he hoped to use
telex machines(5)), like a true pioneer
he was already formulating concepts that could only become reality in
the future. The first practical, working "Labournet" was set up in 1981 by
Larry Kuehn. He was the president of the British Columbia Teachers'
Federation, a union representing 40,000 secondary and primary
teachers across a sprawling province in Canada. Kuehn and Arnie
Mayers, the union's communication officer, bought 11 "dumb" terminals
for the 11 members of the union's executive. These were just
keyboards and thermal printers (no screens even) connected by 300
bytes per second modems (about 1% of the speed of a typical 1990's
modem). After 2 years all the union's locals(6) were hooked up and the system stayed in
operation until 1990. It got plenty of use. The union launched a province wide strike in
1983. Strike news rushed up and down the lines, got printed and
photocopied and handed to picketers. The teachers quickly found
themselves to be much better informed than their bosses, discussions
and conferences could be held over the lines and a news service
(which could be given on disk to local papers) and contract database
were launched province wide. The system proved so effective that the
bosses paid it the ultimate inverse tribute, quickly rushing out to
get one of their own! Many such networks and bulletin boards were set up in the 1980s
and plenty are still going strong. Initially all these networks were
closed and served by central computer(s) or servers which had
information and space for conferences and news groups. Bulletin
boards like this are dialled through a modem and telephone line,
generally for the price of a local call. Many, like Fidonet in
America, now also have links to the internet. Since about 1988/89 more and more people are dialling into the
internet itself through "service providers." You dial directly to
these organisations and they, for a charge over and above your phone
call, hook you into the net. OK, a very brief technical explanation. The Internet is not
thousands of computers linked by modems and phone line. The net
itself has a massive thick fiber optic backbone capable of conveying
millions of messages including sound and video images at extremely
high speeds. Your phone call connects you to your "service provider"
who then has a direct line onto the internet. Most modern use of
electronic communication focuses on the internet itself, though
thousands of local networks exist independently of it and some can
hook into, it though they may not get all the available services.
The author discusses some of the current internet use by unions
and union federations and also how it has been used by strikers to
explain their case and has often led to real solidarity actions in
other countries. Eric Lee himself set up "New International Review"
in 1977, but his politics would appear to be, at best, social
democratic to judge from his occasional disparaging use of the term
"hard left". So there is no information here on revolutionary or
syndicalist union federations. Unfortunately, he focuses entirely on
the large reformist federations. None the less there are some
startling examples of how much can be done with the new technology.
One such is the International Transport Workers' Federation. This
London based Federation is made up of 400 unions in 100 countries,
representing about 5 million workers. It was one of the first to
adopt E-mail and use on-line databases in the mid 1980s. They have
gone to the time and expense of leasing their own internet connection
and could set up as service providers in their own right. ITF
inspectors can now telenet into their on-line database from any net
connected machine and get information on ships covered by ITF
agreements. They were also the first international secretariat with
their own web page
(http://www.itf.org.uk). Their
monthly publication is now available to download in 5 languages. They
also use the page to publicise major disputes involving other unions
as they happen. The Federation is now in negotiations with the International
Marine Satellite Organisation to lease satellite time allowing
internet access to seamen in virtually every cargo ship in the
world!(7) There are now several examples of use of the internet, especially
the Web, in disputes. The Liverpool dockers web site is perhaps the
best known example. This was set up for the dockers by Greg Coyne,
the moderator of the Union-d(8) list in
Britain. Initially he says in the book, it was: "more of a stunt than an organising tool." However the site has been a success bringing in not just
solidarity mentions but action by the likes of the Japanese dockers'
union and the San Francisco Longshoresmen's union local. There is little doubt that the internet offers massive advantages
for transnational organisation. The bosses have not been slow to
grasp this. These advantages are mainly to do with cheapness and
potentially high circulation. On-line publishing simply involves getting space on an internet
connected server and then adding some "tags" to your text graphic and
sound files. Gone are the cost of paper, printing and
circulation.(9) A second area which is rapidly becoming a reality is cheap on-line
conferencing, where international meetings can be held without the
time and expense of travel. It is already possible to have live
discussions using Inter Relay Chat (IRC) software. With cheap digital
cameras, faster connection speeds and cheap software, face to face
video conferencing won't just be the property of big business. It is, of course, only fair to point out two drawbacks to the net.
Firstly, transmission is insecure and most messages are easily
traceable.(10) Secondly, and probably
more importantly, the internet is very much a plaything of the well
off and middle class, with the USA being hugely over-represented and
many parts of the world hardly getting a look in. Even in those
countries where there is good connectivity it is still very much a
plaything of college kids. The author has some grand visions for the years to come. One is
the idea of an on-line daily labour paper with archiving and a live
discussion forum. He also dreams of an accredited Labour University
offering courses from negotiating a contract to labour law and
history. As union rights are under attack all over the world, unions have
to respond promptly to violations and in a co-ordinated way, like
Amnesty International's "Urgent Action Network". He gives an example of how this might work. A trade union activist
employed by a leading TNC disappears, presumed kidnapped, in Brazil.
His union send all his details and a photo to HQ in Rio. The
photograph is scanned, and the information entered into a standard
form, and the lot is emailed to the International Secretariat in
Europe. The information is sent to two mailing lists. One is for all
Portuguese speaking unions world wide, the second for workers in the
TNC concerned. Letters are sent and articles are written, phone calls
are made, Company HQ is picketed. Within hours a phone call is made
to someone in Brazil and the activist appears bruised and battered
but alive. Pipedreams? Perhaps, however email is already used in this way
(though without quite such speed and co-ordination). The net was
central to highlighting the case of the
EZLN who
otherwise might have been wiped out quite early on in their history.
A book combining the Labour Movement and the internet could be a
potentially boring one! This certainly isn't the case with Eric Lee's
book, it is well written and non-technical. The slant though is
reformist throughout, and he always makes great play on the role of
leaders and executives.(11) Overall, though, a good and important read. If you haven't the
£15.00 handy why not get your union branch or local library to
order it for you and have a look at the Web site
(http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2808/)
(1) An even more impressive example was the International
Gathering in Chiapas in the Mexican Jungle last Summer. This was
facilitated by ordinary poor peasants in Chiapas who, despite living
in appalling conditions themselves, took the time to feed,
accommodate and organise all facilities for 3000 people from all over
the world to talk about capitalism and how to beat it! (2) His term! (3) "The interaction of all types of data-processing, electronic
information and communication" is how he defines this term in the
glossary at the back. (4) This is one of the secretariats which are the global
organisations of national trade unions. The ICF no longer exists
having since been incorporated into the International Federation of
Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions
(http://www.icem.org). (5)"Through a compatible programme these data banks could be
linked by telex to ICF headquarters and information rapidly
transmitted to affiliates on request.": Charles Levinson
"International Trade Unionism"(1972) (6) Union branches in USA and Canada (7) This use of satellites is also a possibility for unions in
developing countries - it's expensive but cheaper than building a
telephone network from scratch. (8) There are many such discussion groups on the internet. Some
are open Usenet groups, available to anyone with the right software.
Better discussion is to be had on closed groups of which Union-d is
one. On these lists the groups are moderated and you have to
subscribe. The discussion is E-mailed to participants and is usually
much more in-depth than on the open news groups which tend to have a
lot of noise but little discussion. For details on anarchist
discussion groups see the WSM site
(http://www.Geocities.com/CapitolHill/2149).
(9) The key to high circulation is to do a good "advertising" job
for your new site. (10) There is free software available such as PGP (Pretty Good
Privacy) but it's not that user-friendly and most people wouldn't be
bothered. Encryption is a big issue on the net as governments, like
the US government, demand the keys to the encryption codes. (11) For example, on page 103 he tells us that (in the USA) "more
important, at the end of 1995, a new leadership was elected in the
national trade union centre, the AFL-CIO, which promises to organise
millions of workers into trade unions and restore Labour's power and
prestige".....Don't hold your breath Eric!
Tribune (U.K.) - 4 April 1997
The following was written by David Norman.
Ever since the collapse of Robert Owen's Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in the 1830s, the problem of maintaining communication and disseminating knowledge in a dispersed and largely voluntary organisation is one that has preoccupied British trade unionists. Most unions in Britain today still depend heavily on the printed word, whether branch circulars or union journals, to communicate with their members.
"A wonderful resource for union locals and individual activists and
has been released at just the right time"
Labour News - Convention issue 1997
The following review was written for the magazine of the Alberta Federation of Labour (Canada) by Eugene W. Plawiuk. Eugene's website can be reached at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5202.
"Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real
fruit of their battles lies not in the immediate result, but in the ever
expanding union of the workers. The union is helped on by the improved
means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place
the workers of different localities in contact with each other"
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto.
"Timely . . . investigates the most important question for the world labour movement"
WNR - April 1997
Heiko Khoo's review appeared in WNR, a daily email based online news service. To get on the list to receive WNR every day, write to Heiko Khoo, heiko@easynet.co.uk.
This timely book investigates the most important question for the world Labour movement, the globalisation of capital. It shows the need for international information networks serving the Labour movement, charts the steps taken so far and provides a vision of future developments. Lee's book studies the impact of communications on the Labour movement and the various Internationals, from the letters carried on ships between members of the 1st International to the Internet. He traces the immense technological change and it's past, current and possible future effect on the Labour movement.
"Valuable advice for unions"
ITF News - December 1996
ITF News, published by the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), appears in English, French, Spanish, German, Swedish, Japanese and Russian editions. It is accessible on the World Wide Web in Adobe PDF format -- from the ITF Web site. The following review was written by Richard Flint:
The Labour Movement and the Internet - New Internationalism, by Eric Lee, has been published just as more and more labour organisations and trade unions are connecting to the worldwide network at a growing pace (including the ITF itself and many other transport unions).
"Essential Reading"
Labour Left Briefing (U.K.) - April 1997
This article is accessible on the World Wide Web from the Labour Left Briefing Web site. The following review was written by Chris Croome:
The international labour movement is beginning to utilize what is potentially the most democratic tool for mass communication yet invented - the Internet. However this is
still in its infancy - it's been only two years since the first trade union in the UK opened a web site.
"Tailor-made for the interested union activist and required for more senior officials "
PTC Briefing (U.K.) - March 1997
This article appeared in the stewards' bulletin for the Public Service, Tax and Commerce Union in the UK. This is the largest Civil Service union and one of the main unions for computing staff in the UK. Thanks to Steve Davies for passing this one on.
For my mate in Moscow's trade union headquarters the price of a fax is prohibitive but e-mail is cheap writes Nick Wright. And when the PTC Journal was asked to contact Piraeus dockers for urgent solidarity action with the Merseyside waterfront workers the Internet made the link in seconds when ordinary phone calls got lost in the mono-lingual ether. Our pictures of striking French civil service workers come over the wire (actually over the fibre-optic cable and microwave transmitter but who the hell cares).
"An essential read for any activist thinking about 'getting online', or any organisation wanting to make effective use of the Internet"
The New Worker (U.K.)
The following review was written by Richard Bos:
On the eve of the 21st century the transnational corporations are dominating a rapidly developing global economy, underpinned by the "New World Order" expounded by US President Clinton.
Weekly Worker (U.K.) - 1 May 1997
The following review was written by Mark Fischer for the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
As implied by the subheading to this book, Eric Lee makes great claims for
the Internet. He picks up on Marx and Engels comment that the union of the workers is "helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry" (Communist Manifesto, cited p2). From
that, he suggests that "thanks to the Internet, a century long decline in
internationalism has already been reversed. For thousands of trade unionists who log on every day, the International has already
been reborn" (p186).
It is shame that Lee makes such grandiose and palpably untrue claims for
the World Wide Web (WWW) as the substantial content of his book is useful and thought-provoking. He attempts to "focus on how the labour movement can use the technologies described" (p15) and for the most part manages to be concise and interesting. The emphasis is on practical information for the novice, with answers to question such as 'What do I need to use email?' or 'How do I produce a homes page for the WWW?'. This a useful guide book for activists in political campaigns or trade unions thinking of going on-line to reach an estimated three million people across the globe.The Internet
Pioneers
The Present; onto the infobahn
Web strikes
Problems and Possibilities
The Future
The Verdict
FOOTNOTES
LabourStart is edited by Eric Lee, the author of The Labour Movement and the Internet: The New Internationalism (Pluto Press, London , 1996) and lots of articles about the same subject. The original content of this page is © 1998 by Eric Lee.