FOCUS □ TRADEUNIONEDUCATION Labour education and new media Laboureducation happens everywhere unionistsmeet or communicate MARC BÉLANGER isthe news producer atRadioLabour Never labour have in so the education. many history people of New the been labour media, involved movement and old in have so manypeople been involvedin labour education.New media, and old mediare-created innewways,areallowingtens ofthousands, ifnotmillions, ofworkers to learn aboutunionsand theissuestheyaddress.Asthe global corporate campaignto end unionismin our timegathers even moresupportfrom compliantlegislators and uninformed workerswe haveatourcommand enormously powerful tools to fight backwithinformation and sharedlearning . Withthe new media applicationscoming intoplayunionists canbuildon their traditions of collaborative learning focusedon actiontocreate popularmovements in supportof humanand labourunionrights. The formal coursesunionshavebeen conductingas partof unionschoolsand in partnership with educational institutes haveconstituted a large partof adulteducationin countries suchBritain and the UnitedStates.Conductedover days, week-ends, weeks and even months theyhave been organised in venuessuchas hotels,union halls,labourcollegesanduniversities. Asmuchas theyhavecontributed to thenumber ofworkers educated,theirreachhas been limited because working people are restricted in theamountof timetheycan be away fromwork or family responsibilities. Today however, computer communications allowsworkers totakecourses online anytime, fromanywhere.In the UnitedStates workers studying withtheNational LaborCollege can earnBachelor ofArts degreeswithmajors in subjects suchas labour education, health andsafetyand unionleadership. In theUnitedKingdom the Trades Union CongressCTUC) operates UnionLearnwhich provides online certificate course in subjectssuch as organising, union administration and leadership. Workers can study forTUC Diplomaswhichare accredited by the country's National Open CollegeNetwork. Formal courses- credentialed and non-credentialed - havebeen a majorsourceoflaboureducationforworkers . Buttheyhave alwaysbeen secondary inreachand influence totheinformal learningthatoccurs amongstworkersin the workplace and unionvenues.The labourmovement has always relied on worker-to-worker training and learning to organise, bargain collectively , builddemocratic structures, and represent working people in civilsociety. Todayhowever thisactivist learningis augmented and supported bytheinternet. Workers cannowaccessthousandsof information sources,social networking sites,onlinelabourTV and radio servicesand emaillists24 hoursa day. Theycan decide to educate themselves on particular issues when convenient, orlearnwhatthey needtolearnina just-in-time basis during, forexample,collective bargaining sessionsorstrikes. The mostimpressive growth in onlineactivist learning hascomefrom theproliferation ofunion web sites.SinceUNISONin theUK createdthe first unionwebsitein 1995 thousandsof other unionsiteshave been created.It is safeto say thatall majornationalunionsin thedeveloped countries have web sites.The news thesesites present, theinformation they provide, thehistory they describe, areallenablers ofactivist learning. Anexcellent exampleofa labourwebsitewhich educatesand promotesaction(the goal of all laboureducation)is the one operatedby the International Trade Union Confederation CITUC). Itis cleanlydesigned, fullofinteresting content,and most importantly, constantly updated .Unfortunately mostunionsin developing countries still struggle tofind thefunds andtechnicalexpertise to createand maintain websites. Thisis a shamewhichcouldbe easilycorrected ifunionsinthedevelopedworldpartnered with unionsinthedeveloping worldto provideserverspace andwebsitetemplates. Websitescreatedby individuals and organisationsallied to unionshave also contributed to activist learning. Perhaps thebestexampleofthis is LabourStart, a news and campaigning service created byEricLee in 1996.Initiated mainly as a news aggregator staffed by volunteers LabourStart hasbecomea powerful campaigning serviceforthe international labourmovement. Visitors to itssite,and members of itsemaillist areaskedto sendemailsto employers and governments in supportof workers'causes. The growth ofLabourStart has been nothing short of amazing. Thenumber ofuniquevisitors toitssite (www.labourstart.org) in a recentmonthwas 640,000.By readingnews storiessuggested on thesite,and participating in LabourStart's action campaigns,morethana half-million people a monthare engaged in activist learningabout labourstruggles aroundtheworld. Another uniquewebsiteproducedbyalliesof the labour movementis the New Unionism Network created byPeter Hall-Jones in2007.The network consistsof unionstaff, academicsand local unionmembers. It providesinsightful articles about unionsin themostvisuallycreative manner inthelabourmovement. Itisa significant sourceofactivist learning. Themost obvioussources ofonlinelearning are searchengines suchas Googleandencyclopedias like Wikipedia.By providing a way to display content from all themajorunionwebsites inthe worldGooglehascreated a grand bookoflabour information and history - a messy, disorganised, uncoordinated book, but an enormously useful one nevertheless. Its news aggregator, Google News,providesa valuableway of seeingwhat INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 8Volume 19Issue 1201 2 FOCUS □ TRADEUNIONEDUCATION mainstream media are reporting about unions. (Thoughnotas usefulas LabourStart wherethe newsstories arehand-picked byunionactivists). Wikipedia's contribution tolearning is evenmore obvious. Ithashundreds -possibly thousands -of entries aboutunions.ItsOrganised LabourPortal produces valuablearticles whichcan be used as orientations tovarioustopics.The Portal is operatedbyabout120volunteers . Notto be lostin all theallureof thebigger, fancier websites, isplainoldemail.Organisations suchas theInternational Chemical, Energy and Mineworkersfederation ('ICEM') and the EuropeanFederation of Public ServiceUnions CEPSU')arejusttwoexamplesoflabourorganisations whichuse emailincolourful, well-organisedwaysto keep in touchwiththeir affiliates. LabourStart's poweras a campaigning serviceis basedon itsdatabaseof60,000emailaddresses. Even more significant sources of informal activist learning are thevarioussocial networks whichhavebeendeveloped.Thefirst socialnetworkinthelabourmovement was theSolidarity...