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Review:
The labour movement and the internet
For business, international solidarity is not a far off dream but
an integral part of its day to day existence. In capitalism there is,
of course, competition, but it is in all their interests to promote
low wages, high unemployment, ease of movement of currency and so
forth. These days production is located where it is cheapest and
products are sold where they will make the most. They have access to
communication and information exchange beyond the dreams of most
people and they can move millions of pounds at the touch of a button.
They make good use of their international banking 'solidarity' to
maintain an impressively stable climate where the rich get more
powerful and the vast majority become more dis-empowered. They are
numerically much smaller than us but extremely well organised, well
informed and -most importantly- aware of their own interests as a
class.
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
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.
Pioneers
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!
The Present; onto the infobahn
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)
Web strikes
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.
Problems and Possibilities
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 Future
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.
The Verdict
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.oocities.org/CapitolHill/2808/)
FOOTNOTES
(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!