Steve O'Brien, Cape Town
An International Labour Media Network and Cooperative (ILMNC) will be established following the "Workers' Education and Workers' Media in a Global Economy" workshop held on April 4-7.
Fifty people representing labour-movement media from all continents and various left-wing traditions and organisations attended.
The organiser, the Cape Town-based Workers World Media Productions (WWMP), is an experienced media producer. It collaborates closely with trade unions and the community radio movement to produce a one-hour radio show that reaches more than 15 million people each week. The program draws from both international and South African sources to broadcast workers' issues in five of South Africa's languages. WWMP has expanded to produce videos, some of which will be shown on the national broadcaster.
The workshop arose from awareness that the production and distribution of workers' media and educational materials had to be internationalised in response to neoliberalism. It was co-sponsored by the International Federation of Workers Education Associations (IFWEA), which has more than 130 affiliates in some 65 countries. In South Africa, the WWMP is an affiliate.
Media for activism rather then "infotainment" was a theme running through the workshop. When a group of filmmakers from the workshop went to express solidarity with people under threat of eviction in the working-class neighbourhood of Gympie Street, they arrived just in time to capture footage of an eviction then underway.
The workshop discussed problems associated with accessing and democratising the media and using new technologies. Dan Gallin, the chair of the Global Labour Institute in Geneva, in giving an overview of working-class media since the days of Karl Marx, reflected that union newspapers in particular have often evolved into mouthpieces for the union's general secretary. Joao Proenca, IFWEA president and general secretary of the General Union, UGT-Portugal, also stressed the need to use media to empower union memberships. South African delegates pointed out that despite being partly owned by the trade union federation, workers still found it hard to get coverage in one of the privately owned TV networks.
Delegates from other areas spoke of the different challenges they face. John Odah, the general secretary of the Nigerian Labour Congress, explained that many regions of Africa barely have electricity, let alone telephones and the internet. Juan Rosado, a trade union trainer from Colombia, gave an example of a union in Colombia that was not able to campaign against the mass sackings of 4000 workers because the executive lacked media training and could not agree on a common press release.
The preparatory committee elected to move the ILMNC proposal forward has the broad goals of finding ways to train and develop media skills and confidence among workers, harnessing new cultures and technologies and broadening the distribution and production of pro-workers' media. It is envisaged that the cooperative or network will include trade unions and federations, global unions, IFWEA affiliates, labour service organisations, labour media producers and journalists and labour educators. Green Left Weekly has been invited to participate.
The London-based Labourstart website, with its 400 international contributors, was seen as a positive example of how new technology can build practical collaboration and international solidarity.
The workshop heard many other experiences of using media in imaginative and creative ways to build support and solidarity. However, much of this work isn't seen or heard beyond the immediate communities where it is produced and doesn't tap into the growing audience for labour movement media. This situation could be about to change.
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Green Left Weekly spoke to some of the participants at the workshop on their labour movement education and media work.
Steve Zeltzer, producer of the Labor Video Project, San Francisco
Broadband Internet and satellite presents an opportunity for the labour movement to stream audio and video on the web. This means that we can help to link up workers, for example Hilton Hotel, MacDonald's or Wal-Mart. Bosses certainly don't want workers in different countries to share information about their contracts, let alone link and organise global campaigns. We are planning to develop a 24-hour labour TV channel using local and international labour movement content. Videos can also be shared by DVD. This makes it easier to organise international labour film festivals like we have seen in Korea and which will happen shortly in Turkey.
Myoung Joon Kim, Labor News Productions, South Korea
We help workers to make their own videos and have produced about 90 in recent years. Some of these have been shown at the international labour film festivals we have organised and participated in. We have also intervened in the formulation of national policies regarding new media and have been able to win access to public and satellite TV. Workers now have certain time slots where they can raise their issues.
Ana Luisa Cernov, Social Observation Institute (IOS), Sao Paolo, Brazil
Four-thousand delegates will discuss the media at the conference of the Central Union Federation in June. Workers are fed up with the control and bias of Brazil's eight media families. There is a proposal to establish a committee of prominent intellectuals to monitor the distortions of the media monopolies. In addition there are moves underway to take over one of Brazil's leading dailies so that the progressive movement has its own mass voice.
Edison Raffaele, Central Union Federation (PIT-CNT), Uruguay
With the Broad Front (FA) government in power, the trade union movement wants to campaign independently in favour of laws that it supports, for example, the new union law that the bosses oppose. With the cooperative movement and the national university we are currently involved in a campaign to establish a community TV station next year. We are also discussing linking up wth the Venezuelan based Telesur project.
Namrati Bali, Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA), India
SEWA organises some 800,000 women working in the informal sector in India. It has evolved into a sort of combined trade union and social movement. As 93% of employment in India is in the informal sector it is very diverse and requires different forms of outreach and organisation. For this reason, we use radio shows, song, dance and storytelling. Our video unit produces films that we show in the villages by our "mobile theatres", a VCR and TV in the back of a jeep. We help women to produce their own video by providing equipment and training.
May Ghabin, Democracy and Workers Rights Centre (DWRC), Palestine
With the checkpoints in Palestine it is very hard to transport printed materials. To overcome this we are setting up four Cyber Cafes so as to make the same information available to workers. We run study circles which help to educate workers on their legal, human and health rights
Juan Rosado, National Union School (ENS), Colombia
ENS was founded in 1992 in Medellin in Colombia. We run courses as well and produce printed, video and internet distributed materials so as to educate workers on their rights, how to organise and how to use the media in its different forms. Although the situation is improving, Colombia still has a grave human rights problem. Over 70 unionists a year are murdered and many more threatened. Rural school teachers, many of whom are women, are particularly vulnerable.
From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
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