Member blogs

http://www.jamaicaplaingazette.com/node/2719

read more

This powerful speech by Reverend Graylan Hagler is undoubtedly the best speech of the 21st Century.

In just over 4 minutes, Reverend Hagler covers the major problems of America in the world and the major solution--grass-roots efforts by people like you. You WILL believe you CAN make a difference after watching this speech.

Reverend Graylan Hagler is National President, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice and Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ Washington, D.C.

Dear Friends,

Many thanks to all of those who have given us suggestions on how to proceed with the IBM Italy workers’ struggle that had remained unsolved after our historical Protest in Second Life on September 27th. By the time we went through all of the excellent and original ideas you gave us, some developments had taken place….indeed there are some very positive news we had to share with you:

1. Mr Andrea Pontremoli, IBM Italy’s CEO (who personally received all of your petitions by email) has resigned.

It seems our Virtual action had an impact on his role at IBM. IBM Corporation made a complaint to IBM Italy for the way they’ve managed the negotiations with the thousands of employees and how they’ve let it lead to such a harmful image for the company.

2. IBM Italy management have accepted to return to the negotiations’ table and has already met with the Works Council. We expect an agreement will -finally- be signed in the next week or two. IBM workers have now been waiting an entire year for the situation to unblock, so this is really fantastic news.

We would like to think that all of this has a lot to do with the incredible support all of you have given them over the last 6 weeks. Your involvement with the protest in Second Life, your news coverage of the events and your ideas to pursue fighting in “first” and “second life” have really helped tremendously.

You will never be thanked enough.

Again, we’ll keep you informed of the signing of the new agreement for IBM Italy workers!

IBM Protest organisers

Lazy Web - ACTIVATE!

Gobby is a free collaborative editor supporting multiple documents in one session and a multi-user chat. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other Unix-like platforms.

Except the Mac OS X install is miserable and not me friendly.

Please help

from email:
http://www.uniglobalunion.org/secondlife
http://ibmslprotest.blogspot.com/

More than 1’850 -real- people protested behind their computers in over 30
countries to show solidarity with IBM Italy workers.
The protest took place at 7 IBM locations, and in particular at IBM Italia
and the IBM Business Centre in Second Life.
Many Italian IBM workers joined the event after work, from 7pm to 10pm
Rome, Italy time.

It was reported that Second Life was having some technical difficulties,
which is why we believe we could have reached an even higher number of
participants.

IBM did not officially react to our protest so far.
However, they did shut down parts of their Business Centre to visitors (or
really, protesters).
A number of participants managed to crash an IBM staff meeting during the
afternoon - where they were immediately asked to leave and to "protest
outside".
Instead, they demanded to speak to Management. But the staff meeting, which
seemed to be about the new IBM website functionalities, was called to an
end.

The media coverage for this event was impressive.
The news about the protest was covered by blogs, radio and TV stations,
newspapers and podcasts in numerous countries.
Italy's national TV station highlighted the event in the evening news
during 5 minutes, showing screenshots from Second Life and its almost 2’000
protesters.

More information about this historical protest will come in the next days.

Guatemalan Banana Union Leader Murdered Posted to the IUF website 25-Sep-2007


Masked gunmen murdered Guatemalan union leader Marco Tulio Ramírez Portela early in the morning of September 23 as he was leaving his home for work. Marco Tulio was secretary of sports and culture of the banana workers union SITRABI, which organizes Del Monte workers. His brother, Noé Antonio Ramírez Portela,is the union general secretary.

Tulio's murder follows a pattern of rising anti-union violence and institutional impunity in Guatemala. In July, the SITRABI headquarters was raided by uniformed soldiers using official vehicles, who demanded information on union officers and members. The union filed a full report with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Special Unit for Crimes against Unionists and Journalists.

The IUF has called on the Guatemalan government to immediately undertake a full and open investigation into this latest union assassination. You can support the struggle against immunity - Click here to send a message to the authorities. Copies of all messages will be automatically forwarded to SITRABI.

What a joy Shakey Jake was. He was always on the move, much like Ann Arbor. He spirit and energy will always be a part of the town.

Rest In Peace.

This in from a friend of mine:

------
She's Geeky (http://www.shesgeeky.org)
A Women's Tech (un)conference
October 22-23 in Mountain View, CA.

This event is designed to bring together women from a range of technology-focused disciplines who self identify as geeky. Our goal is to support skill exchange and learning between women working in diverse fields and to create a space for networking and to talk about issues faced by women in technology.
-------

I posted about the event and gone into some more detail about my motivations and hopes here.
Please forward to interested people.

via Derek Blackadder :

As you may have heard, the union representing workers at IBM Italia is organizing what is likely the world's first online job action. In September the RSU will be calling on its members and supporters around the world to join in a picket at IBM's 'offices' in Second Life, the online virtual world.

You can sign up to receive an e-mail when the date and time for the picket are set and learn how to use Second Life by visiting a site set up by UNI, the global union federation for the service industries at:

http://www.union-network.org/uniwebmasters.nsf/slibm?openform

For more information about the job action and its potential see:

http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature7.cfm?REF=443

=============
Derek Blackadder
LabourStart Canada
www.LabourStart.org
1-905-373-1897
Skype me as: dblackadder

Where Mainstream Fails, YouTube Delivers Dick :

"It's not exactly a stretch to say the White House has public relations issues. For the most part, though, footage that could be held against them has been dug up by the Daily Show more than the mainstream media. And then came YouTube."

Social Justice Photography Galleries by Jonathan McIntosh

"AUG/11/07 - Providence RI, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) march on Jackies Galaxy, a local restaurant chain supplied by HWH/Dragonland in NYC, a supplier notorious for slave labor conditions and a lack of basic labor rights. A few blocks before finishing the march North Providence police brutally tackled two of the marches after they moved to the sidewalk too slowly, both were arrested and one suffered a badly broken leg in the attack."

The Flint Creative Alliance presents: Tuesday, October 2, 2007
United States Film Debut 20 TO LIFE: The Life & Times of John Sinclair

Directed by Steve Gebhardt 87 minutes, Unrated

This documentary tells the real-life story of the legendary Flint-born poet-provocateur and cultural activist whose exploits have reverberated through the international underground for 40 years.

The film features commentary from Sinclair, his family, friends and associates through the years, as well as a series of electrifying poetry performances by Sinclair's contemporary blues and jazz ensembles.

Founder of: "Rainbow Peoples Party", "White Panther Party", and also the "Detroit Artist Collective"; Sinclair has also written underground classics, "Guitar Army" and "Fattening Frogs for Snakes". The director of the film, Steve Gephardt was John Lennon and Yoko Ono's personal film maker and did "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE ROLLING STONES".

The event will take place on John's 66th birthday, October 2nd, in his hometown at the beautiful Flint Institute of Arts followed by an after party at Churcill's Food & Spirits. Doors open at 5pm for a meet and greet with Sinclair and director Steve Gephardt. The film will start at 7pm followed by a question and answer session. Sinclair and Michigan jam partners Glowb will cap the night off with a performance at downtown hotspot, Churchill's Food & Spirits starting at 10pm.

Sinclair has designated all net proceeds from the event to The Flint Creative Alliance for their continued pursuit of collective creative action. For more information: www.FlintCA.org

Global War on Terrorism Special Plate



Please go away...