Cyberunions Talk Show Episode 41 – Proprietary Labor Union IT

By mv On March 28, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Podcast

0:32 Walton is in London

Working with a newly formed Union Solidarity International
For some reason grassroots is a good idea with the labor movement
Stephen camped out with MXtomalacalle at the Monument to the Revolution
Believe it or not Stephen can dance late into the night and finished the night with a talk about the Paris Commune

7:05 The closure of the Johnny Walker factory

The existing plant was profitable but they still decided to close it
Walton shed a tear watching the factory workers leave for the last time
Walton took video footage of the last day
Capital taking advantage of the economic crisis to close and extract more profits
Disturbing what capital can do with so much power, bribing the government to give them money to stay

13:00 A more cheerful tech update

MXtomalacalle has adopted Free Software as part of the movement
Free Software working group has been created and starts to meet this week.
Trying to handle volunteer info and Stephen tried out CiviCRM we had done a show with Keir about it in episode 20
CiviCRM install was pretty easy on the WordPress site
Ability to develop social connections between relationships of people involved
A learning process, and a good support group on IRC

17:58 Labor Unions and their IT proprietary ways

From our IRC channel came a discussion of IT at labor unions being more supportive to Microsoft and mainstream
Connects to the Marxist critique that you use the capitalist tools against itself
Very rare to run into labor activists that understand the politics of software, network and the power structures involved
Labor union strategy tends to be a Broadcast and not focusing on their strengths to organize community

22:00 No risk strategy to use LibreOffice

Probably could start with LibreOffice
Stephen ducked and went or goed or something to research connections to anti-law firm
Stephen happen to find a connection between Microsoft and a Jackson-Lewis and why unions shouldn’t use Microsoft
Trying to figure out a way to build committees in a union to demand Free Software

27:15 Stephen is a Trot and some how a tank is involved

There are lots of trots and tankies in Britian
Tankies are stalinists, and the name comes from the Stalin invasion to worker revolutions that were being oppressed
In Mexico tankies are stalinistas