~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ eye WEEKLY September 29 1994 Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EYE NET EYE NET SOLIDARITY FOREVER! Our keyboards make us strong! by K.K. CAMPBELL Edmonton's Burns Meats company is demanding workers get docked when in the bathroom. Employees who have to go have to go first to supervisors. Detailed toilet records are kept. That is the ethic of the boss: screw human dignity, gimme the bottom line. If we lived in some parallel Twilight Zone realm -- where only the wishes of capitalists shaped society -- we'd still be living in versions of those horrid cities of the 1800s. (Read chapter 15, "Paleotechnic Paradise: Coketown," of Lewis Mumford's The City In History for a chilling look at what our urban working-class ancestors endured.) Why don't we live in that kind of city today? One major reason: organized labor. The raw machinations of capitalism depress the price of labor through unemployment, cyclical economic crises and developing technology. But wages have risen through the efforts of united workers. Since Canada's first Labor Day a full century ago, unionization has soared. Between 1971 and 1991, the Canadian labor force grew 64 per cent, while union membership grew by 84 per cent. It dipped in the '80s, but remains close to 40 per cent. The U.S., meanwhile, languishes around 16 per cent. We live in international times. And this has to apply to unions, too. But many unionists still live in the dark ages, fragmenting while capital internationalizes. What tools can help internationalize unions? The net, for one. Unfortunately, many labor Luddites view computer communications as nothing more than a threat to jobs. And when the jobs threatened are union "middle-management" positions, the Luddites stick their heads deeper in the sand. That's how workers end up with things like the AFL-CIO's Grand Vision Of The Net: a private message service for union bosses. Rank-and-file are locked out. Information is power. Some union leaders want to keep control. This spells info control. Wake up, gang -- it's a dead-end strategy. The net increases individual participation. Embrace and use that. So, on this 130th anniversary (Sept. 28) of the founding of the International Working Men's Association (or First International), eye Net looks at some of the labor communities forming on the net, and how to access them. SOLINET Rather than viewing the decentralization of work into scattered homes as the death knell of organized labor, SoliNet (Solidarity Net) sees telecomm as a medium to increase solidarity. Workers are closer than ever been before -- it's the same number of key clicks to Downsview, Detroit or Dnepropetrovsk. Information Week's Aug. 22 cover story was "Workers On The Net, Unite!", featuring SoliNet. SoliNet is owned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), our largest union. "Far as I know, this is the only computer network in the world owned and operated by a labor union," says Marc Belanger (belanger@web.apc.org), SoliNet moderator and CUPE's technical co- ordinator. SoliNet has hundreds of conferences on all sorts of labor issues. It was born in 1986, giving CUPE the distinction of making labor the first to create a national computer communications network. Belanger sees it both as a thing of pride and necessity. There are lots of anecdotes of how SoliNet results in practical action. My fave is from 1989: in B.C., school caretakers went on strike. CUPE used SoliNet to pass info around and it was learned Hell's Angels were coincidentally planning to meet in the area. The gang was invited to picket with the caretakers. They accepted. The news spread fast over SoliNet, including to the other side -- which suddenly decided to settle. Now that's solidarity. Telnet to SoliNet at solinet.org . It'll ask for an account name and password because, unfortunately, right now it costs $13.50 an hour (choke). But keep the faith because Belanger says SoliNet is a month or so away from free Internet access. At which point SoliNet will become labor's jewel on the net. THE WORKER'S WEB The Web is a Canadian founding member of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). It carries labor conferences on several topics. Web is at 401 Richmond (596-0212 or write support@web.apc.org). Or just telnet to web.apc.org . Again, you need an account. Lemme stress: these are quality posts. Material worth downloading and printing out. I have files stocked with the stuff. The Web's sister network in the U.S. is San Francisco's Institute for Global Communications, which operates LaborNet. Mail labornet- info@labornet.apc.org for details. Gopher to gopher.igc.apc.org 70; WWW at http://www.igc.apc.org/igc/ln.html . Lots of interesting items -- like a list of North American labor BBSes, including one for T.O. at 469-0611. The September PC Computing picked the Economic Democracy Information Network (EDIN) gopher as one of its 29 top info servers on the net. It called EDIN's labor section "fascinating." EDIN's delights can be found through gopher at garnet.berkeley.edu 1250 (or 1251). WOBBLIES There have to be radical options open to labor so business knows labor will only take so much. This is where radical labor groups fit in -- and can be found on the net. "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common," opens the preamble to the Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or Wobblies. IWW believes one big union should include all people of the working class, including the unemployed. Unions like AFL-CIO are led by collaborators -- rather as Malcolm X viewed "house niggers" as collaborators with slaveowners in exploiting "field niggers." Today's IWW is largely composed of radical members of other unions. Net.friendliest contact: Mike Ballard (miballard@leland.stanford.edu). Ottawa's IWW contact is Carlos Murray (indwrk@web.apc.org). The central IWW address is iww@igc.org . The 1-Union mailing list is largely anarcho-syndicalist -- it supports decentralized worker control (avoiding tiered union bureaucracies) in one big union. It's moderated by Mike Lepore (mlepore@mcimail.com), who also edits an electronic magazine called Organized Thoughts. To subscribe, send message "sub 1-union firstname lastname" (without the quotes) to listserv@lever.com . York prof Sam Lanfranco moderates a general interest mailing list for labor, called Labor-L -- "sub iern-l firstname lastname" to listserv@vm1.yorku.ca . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright Full issue of eye available in archive ==> gopher.io.org or ftp.io.org Mailing list available http://www.io.org/eye eye@io.org "Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421