File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9804, message 205


Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 19:22:19 +0200
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: M-I: The power of internet protest


Forwarded from Michael Eisenscher at Conference "labr.party"
<labr.party-AT-conf.igc.apc.org>, via marxism-thaxis.

Cheers,

Hugh

_____________________

Want to know about the power of internet international solidarity?

I went to the Wharfies Website <http://www.yll.org.au/mua/index.html>
where you can generate automatic email messages to the government, company,
union and media.  I sent off a rageful message to the Prime Minister.  An
hour later I received a call from a radio station in Melbourne.  It appears
that the union has forwarded copies of messages generated through their web
site to the media.  The person who called wanted to know who I was and how
I came to send the message.  He said they had received hundreds of them
from all over the world.

I explained what I had done and my association with the Neptune Jade
incident and told him there is a global solidarity network prepared to
take action in defense of workers as needed.  I also told him that Brian
McWilliams and other union leaders were arrested last week for sitting in
at the Australian Consulate in SF.  He informed me that there was a "riot"
going on right now at the docks.  I told him, "Good, I hope they tear the
place to pieces and throw it all in the Bay."  He said actually it was a
police riot.  There are hundreds of cops with nightsticks attacking the
pickets.

He will call me back later to do an interview.  I said I could not speak
for anyone but myself, but he said he was interested in the angle of
individuals around the world linking up and doing solidarity actions, like
my E-Mail.

Let's keep the heat on!  Every Australian consulate in the country ought
to be targeted for some kind of action.  We ought to ask store owners to
remove Australian beer from their shelves.  Every identifiable Australian
company ought to be fair game.  The government needs to get the message
that their union-busting collaboration with Patrick Stevedoring will have
international consequences for every company product and government
facility that originates in or is owned by Australians.

Let's not let this drag on for two years, like the Liverpool struggle
did. We need rapid direct responses NOW.

BTW:  I was advised by someone at the ILWU that Patrick Stevedoring went
into the British Courts and succeeded in getting an injunction against
the International Transport Federation barring them from initiating or being
involved in any international solidarity actions on behalf of the MUA.
That injunction applies only in England, however, and nothing prevents
individual unions from taking their own actions.

In solidarity,
Michael


Here's the URL again.  Go there and send your own message.

<http://www.yll.org.au/mua/index.html>






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