SOLIDARITY REQUESTS FROM HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE:

Here's a "full house" of solidarity requests from a number of different people.

First, from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, whose work Molly has often featured on this blog comes a request for donations to help them fly representatives to Mexico to meet with the Frente Popular Francisco Villa, a grassroots organization that dates from 1968 in Mexico and which mobilizes poor people to fight against neo-liberalism in that country. The FPFV has invited OCAP to their quadrennial convention, and OCAP hopes to raise funds to send a couple of delegates. Housing and food will be provided by the FPFV, but air fair is estimated at about $1,000 for two people. OCAP is looking for donations for this travel which will hopefully lead to joint campaigns and other coordinated action. Consult the website or write cheques to OCAP at:

OCAP

10 Britain Street

Toronto, ON

M5V 1R6

Second, the Labour Start online solidarity site, whose efforts have also been featured previously on this blog has launched a new campaign to further pressure Wal-Mart to urge their suppliers at the Chong Won factory in the Philippines to not just reinstate fired workers (international pressure has already achieved this) but also for the management of that factory to negotiate in good faith with the union representing employees at that plant. This campaign has also been mentioned previously on this blog. To join the latest effort at pressuring Wal-Mart go to http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforver/show_campaign.cgi?c=222

Speaking of Wal-Mart, the WakeUp WalMart site has launched a new campaign to pressure the US Congress to investigate what they call the "Wal-Mart spy scandal". Wal-Mart has hired ex-employees of the CIA, the FBI and the Justice Department to spy on efforts to both unionize Wal-Mart and to make the company more accountable to communities and the general public. Wal-Mart calls their spy team the 'Threat Research and Analysis Group' . This "group" has already intruded on the privacy of numerous people, Wal-mart employees and otherwise, and the threat of this sort of private spy agency is equal to that of the growth of private armies of mercenaries in the employ of both the US government and private US business. To see what this is all about and join the campaign against it go to http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/bigbrother . Defend your freedom while there is still time.

Finally, from the Union Voice site comes two more appeals. One is from students at the University of Southern California who have discovered that their "licensed apparel" is manufactured in sweatshops. They are asking for emails to demand that the President of the USC adhere to the Designated Suppliers Program that they have constructed to ensure that the University clothes are produced by free labour that can earn a living wage. To join this campaign go to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/uscdsp/gi566w44t5nt8k? . The Union Voice people also have another campaign demanding that American family Insurance pressure its contractor CleanPower to allow the janitors that it employs to form a union in the state of Wisconsin. To add your voice to this campaign go to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/madison-janitors/gi566w2ot5nt58? .

Molly Note: When I try to type the links above for Union Voice the final "?" is left out of the link. If the links don't transfer you from this blog try typing the link in a search engine with the "?" added.

Further Molly Note: Some may question the "efficacy" of the sort of online campaigns listed above. In actual fact organizations like Labour Start have more than once listed their "successes" on their websites. Such campaigns sometimes win and sometimes lose. In this they are different from "militant" set piece confrontations such as the necromancy often tried to revive the moldering corpse of the "Black Block". This actions ALWAYS lose. They NEVER accomplish any goal beyond the personal psychology of the participants. Even if the success of online campaigns was only "rarely" it would be better than "never". Of course, I know that the definition of "success" used by ideologues who try and revive these failed tactics is quite different from that used by ordinary people and has nothing whatsoever to do with actually helping people to gain a better life. That's their goal. Molly has other goals, and she says that the tactics used by organizations such as those listed above at least sometimes win.

Molly