Jesse Russell's blog

I'm at the National Conference on Media Reform where I attended a panel called "Strike Out: Dropping the Ball on Labor." President of the Newspaper Guild, Linda Foley, was one of the panelists. She has a great deal to say about the battles currently facing labor when it comes to breaking the corporate media blockade. Sadly, there was little said about how labor doesn't necessarily need the major media to get their message out and about how they can chart their own course via the World Wide Web. While the panel was well attended there is a serious lack of labor leadership at this conference.

Video is on the Workers Independent News site. All together it is roughly 15 minutes.

New York City's teacher union, the United Federation of Teachers, took a dive into the 21st Century last week by launching a blog. Called Edwize, the blog is described as being "a place where members, public education advocates and others can express opinions in an effort to establish an agora of informed commentary on public education and labor issues." Nathan Newman reviews the blog in the TPMCafe House of Labor.

The UFT has been without a contract for two years and earn 15 percent less then teachers in the suburbs. By utilizing the new blog it will help the union open a dialogue with the public and possibly put some pressure on Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now if only they can convince UFT President Randi Weingarten to start a companion blog so we can add her to the Communicate or Die labor leader blog "Trophy Room."