Solidarity across cyberspace: Internet campaigning, labour activism and the remaking of trade union internationalism

Bruce Robinson, null

doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.2.1.0152

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 2, Issue 1

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Solidarity across cyberspace: Internet campaigning, labour activism and the remaking of trade union internationalism

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Author(s): Bruce Robinson

Publication date (Print): Spring 2008

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

Global communication through the Internet has provided new possibilities for trade union solidarity action across national boundaries. Email campaigns are one form of this. Taking the example of an email campaign in support of imprisoned Eritrean trade unionists, this paper examines the social organisation and information flows underlying such campaigns. These throw light on the effectiveness of such actions, their capacity to overcome inequalities in access to ICTs and current debates on the role of the Internet in the remaking of trade union internationalism managing to develop a certain social power.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Spring 2008

Volume: 2

Issue: 1

Pages: 152-164

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.2.1.0152

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.2.1.0152

SO-VID: a2a74e8f-1a24-4741-92de-ea4e09a85030

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Bélanger, M. (2001) The Digital Development of Labour Organisations in Africa . Turin: ILO International Training Centre, Turin
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Carty, V. (2001) ‘The Internet and grassroots politics: Nike, the athletic apparel industry and the anti -sweatshop campaign.’ TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science , Vol 2, No 1:34–48. (Also at: http://www.zianet.com/boje/tamara/issues/volume_1/issue_1_2/2Carty_Nike_corp_predator.htm)
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Aoyama, Y. & E. Sheppard (2003). ‘The dialectics of geographic and virtual space.’ Environment and Planning A 35:1151–1156

[2] Bailey, C. (1997) Towards a global labournet . Accessed September, 2005 from http://www.lmedia.nodong.net/1997/article/w4–2e.html

[3] Bailey, C. (1999) The Labour Movement and the Internet . Accessed September, 2005 from http://www.amrc.org.hk/Arch/3401.htm

[4] Bélanger, M. (1994), SoliNet: A Computer Conferencing System Designed for Trade Unions . Accessed October, 2007 at http://www.net4dem.org/cyrev/archive/issue1/articles/SoliNet/SoliNet2.htm

[5] Bélanger, M. (2001) The Digital Development of Labour Organisations in Africa . Turin: ILO International Training Centre, Turin

[6] Bennett, W.L. (2003) ‘Communicating Global Activism.’ Information, Communication and Society , Vol 6, No 2:143–168

[7] Brunsting, S. & T. Postmes (2002) ‘Social movement participation in the online age: Predicting offline and online collective action’, Small Group Research , Vol 33, No 5:525–554

[8] Carty, V. (2001) ‘The Internet and grassroots politics: Nike, the athletic apparel industry and the anti -sweatshop campaign.’ TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science , Vol 2, No 1:34–48. (Also at: http://www.zianet.com/boje/tamara/issues/volume_1/issue_1_2/2Carty_Nike_corp_predator.htm)

[9] Castells, M. (2000) The Rise of the Network Society , Oxford: Basil Blackwell

[10] Davies, W. (no date) Trade Union Movement and the Internet; Lessons from Civil Society , London: IPPR

[11] Grieco, M. & M. Bhopal (2005) ‘Globalisation, collective action and counter-coordination’ Critical Perspectives on International Business , Vol 1, No 2/3:109–122

[12] Greene, A. M., J. Hogan & M. Grieco (2002) E-collectivism: Emergent Opportunities for Renewal . Accessed May, 2003 from http://www.geocities.com/e_collectivism/papers/madrid.html

[13] Herod, A. (1998) ‘Of Blocs, Flows and Networks; The end of the Cold War, cyberspace and the geoeconomics of organized labor at the fin de millenaire’, O Tuathail, Herod & Roberts (eds) An Unruly World? Globalization, Governance and Geography , London: Routledge

[14] Herod, A. (2003) ‘Geographies of Labor Internationalism’, Social Science History , Vol 27, No 4:501–23

[15] Hodkinson, S. (2001) Problems@Labour: Towards a Net-Internationalism? Accessed August, 2005 from www.globalstudiesassociation.org/conference1papers/Problems1.doc

[16] Kendall, L. (1999) ‘Recontextualizing “Cyberspace”: Methodological Considerations for On-Line Research.’ In S. Jones (ed) Doing Internet Research , Thousand Oaks & London: Sage Publications: 57–74

[17] LabourNet UK (n.d.) What is LabourNet? Accessed August, 2005 from http://www.labournet.net/whatis.html

[18] Langman, L. (2005) ‘From Virtual Public Spheres to Global Justice: A Critical Theory of Internetworked Social Movements’, Sociological Theory , Vol 23, No 1:42–74

[19] Lee, E. (1996) The Labour Movement and the Internet: The New Internationalism , London: Pluto Press

[20] Lee, E. (2003) Personal communication

[21] Lee, E. (2004a) How to win an online campaign . Accessed October 1st, 2005 from http://www.ericlee.me.uk/archive/000094.html#more

[22] Lee, E. (2004b) Why we don't give: Online donations and international solidarity . Accessed October 1st, 2005 from http://www.ericlee.me.uk/archive/000077.html

[23] Lee, E. (2004c), ‘Towards Global Networked Unions’, in Munck, R. (Ed.) Labour and Globalisation: Results and Prospects , Liverpool University Press, Liverpool

[24] Lee, E. (2005) Building International Solidarity, One Campaign at a Time . Accessed October 1st, 2005 from http://www.ericlee.me.uk/archive/000117.html#more

[25] Lee, E. (2006) Global campaigning: Beyond protest emails and solidarity messages Accessed October 1st, 2007 from http://www.ericlee.info/2006/02/global_campaigning_beyond_prot.html

[26] Lee, E. (2007) ‘LabourStart and Trade Union Internationalism: At the Tipping Point?’ Labor History , Vol. 48, No.1:73–79

[27] Lewis, P. (2002) ‘Unions and the Web: Where to Now?’, in Shostak, A. (Ed.) The Cyberunion Handbook: Transforming Labor through Computer Technology , Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe

[28] Martinez Lucio, M. & S. Walker (2005) ‘The networked union? The Internet as a challenge to trade union identity and roles.’ Critical Perspectives on International Business , Vol 1, No 2/3:137–154

[29] McCaughey, M. & Ayers M.D. (eds) (2003) Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice London: Routledge

[30] Miller, B. (2004) ‘Spaces of Mobilization: Transnational Social Movements’, C. Barnett & M. Low (eds) Spaces of Democracy , Thousand Oaks & London: Sage Publications: 223–246

[31] Monck, R. (2002) Globalisation and Labour: the new ‘Great Transformation’ . London: Zed Books

[32] Moody, K. (1997) Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the Globalized Economy , London: Verso

[33] Newman, N. (2005) ‘Is Labor Missing the Internet Third Wave?’, Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society , Vol. 8:383–394

[34] Nissen, B. (2002), ‘Concluding Thoughts: Internal Transformation?’, in Nissen, B. (ed.) Unions in a globalized environment: changing borders, organizational boundaries and social roles , Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe

[35] Renton, D. (2004?) The means to fight globalisation? Using the Internet to support rank-and-file trade unionism . Accessed September, 2005 from http://www.dkrenton.co.uk/research/edgepaper.htm

[36] Robinson, B. (2003) ‘Building a constituency for online activism: the Labour Start experience.’ Workshop on Social Movement Informatics , Leeds Metropolitan University, 2003

[37] Robinson, I. (2002) ‘Does Neoliberal Restructuring Promote Social Movement Unionism? US Developments in Comparative Perspective’, in Nissen, B. (ed.) Unions in a globalized environment: changing borders, organizational boundaries and social roles , Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe

[38] UNI (2007) IBM Union Protest: Second Life . Accessed September, 2007 from http://www.union-network.org/uniwebmasters.nsf/slibm?openform

[39] Walker, S. (2002) To Picket Just Click It! Social netwar and industrial conflict in a global economy , Leeds Metropolitan University School of Information Management, IMRIP, 2002–1.

[40] Waterman, P. (1998) The Brave New World of Manuel Castells: What on Earth (or in the Ether) is going on? Accessed September 2005 from www.antenna.nl/∼waterman/castells.html

[41] Waterman, P. (2001a) 16 Propositions on International Labour (and Other?) Networking . Accessed August 2005 from http://www.lmu.ac.uk/ies/im/people/swalker/labournetworking/pw16props-31–5-01.htm

[42] Waterman, P. (2001b) ‘Trade Union Internationalism in the Age of Seattle’, in Waterman, P. & Wills, J. (eds), Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms , Oxford: Blackwell