Why we don’t give: Online donations and international solidarity

You can also read it this essay in print in next month’s issue of Industrial Worker.


One of the great things the Internet allows organizations to do is raise money. Any organization can easily and quickly set up a secure online payment facility and then sit back and watch the money pour in.
And there are the big success stories that inspire one to believe that it really is this easy. First Howard Dean, and later John Kerry, succeeded in raising millions and millions of dollars from a very large number of people who donated online.
The experience of unions has been somewhat different.


In early March, workers at a textile factory in Haiti who had tried to form a union were sacked by their employer and then intimidated by gun-toting “rebels”. A number of groups including LabourStart campaigned to get people to send email messages of protest to the employer, a company based in the Dominican Republic, and to jeans giant Levi Strauss, which buys textiles from the plant.
The email campaign was a success: in the first month, over 2,100 messages were sent by trade unionists around the world. Levi’s grew concerned; they wrote back to everyone who sent off messages, saying that they would look into this. The union compelled the company to open negotiations, which have so far not been very productive. But clearly the global campaign was having an impact.
Back in Haiti, the workers were facing a difficult situation. Without any income, they would be tempted to accept the company’s offer of a one-off payment — and the union would disappear. To strengthen the workers’ resolve, it was necessary to try to raise some money for a solidarity fund. The union in Haiti, activists in Europe, and LabourStart all appealed to the tens of thousands of trade unionists on their email lists and through their websites to donate small sums of money.
At the same time, LabourStart together with other organizations launched an appeal for funds to support the new independent trade union movement in Iraq.
To be honest, the response has been less than what we had hoped. A lot less.
Because of our failure to raise money for the workers in Haiti, we risk losing an important battle.
I’ve been thinking about why this might be the case and I have come up with two answers.
The short answer is that individual trade unionists have grown used to having their unions pay for things like solidarity campaigns. We all pay dues to unions and we expect the unions to share some of that money with campaigns for workers rights. We know that many of our unions belong to things like the global union federations (GUFs), whose budgets come entirely from dues paid by us. And international solidarity is their job.
For many decades, this has been the case. The fact that a hundred years ago, workers would routinely donate their paychecks in solidarity with this or that solidarity campaign is long forgotten. We have institutionalized global labour solidarity, and no longer feel any personal responsibility. We gave at the office — literally.
That’s the short answer, but there’s a somewhat longer one as well.
It goes something like this: even though the last ten years have seen a remarkable revival of international trade union solidarity going down to the grassroots level, that revival is not yet complete.
If we run an online campaign today in support of workers in, say, the USA, we will get a lot more support than if the campaign supports workers in Korea. American workers are far more likely to send off email messages in support of striking California grocery workers than they are in support of imprisoned Korean construction workers.
We can now mobilize thousands of people around the world in support of workers in a Haitian textile factory. We can get those people to send off email messages, but we cannot — yet — get them to donate money.
Workers will donate money online in support of workers in their own country. We saw that in the case of the California grocery workers, who were able to raise an extraordinary amount of money through the Internet. But we are not yet seeing the same level of support in international solidarity campaigns.
There’s an irony here that’s painful. I just saw an appeal from the union in Haiti, suggesting that what was urgently needed right now is around $8,000, and half of that would go to paying for food for the union members who lost their jobs.
John Kerry and Howard Dean were able to raise millions of dollars from activists, even though each individual, small donation in itself made only a small difference. For a tiny fraction of the money they were able to raise, we could keep alive the flame of free and independent trade unionism in Haiti, and make a big difference.
The same people who rush to donate to liberal political campaigns, and to a lesser degree give to striking workers in their own country, don’t yet fully grasp that a dollar invested in supporting incipient union organizing campaigns in places like Haiti is worth much more than a dollar spent on politicians who claim they are going to stop the export of American jobs.
In an increasingly globalized world, the only job security any of us have is a strong trade union movement. If you don’t want your job exported to a low-wage country, help strong unions emerge in that country.
I think we have reached a crossroads. We now have an extraordinary new technology (the Internet) which allows us to be more involved than ever before in international solidarity work. This has been an educational experience for trade unionists everywhere. A decade ago, none of us would have known the slightest thing about the emerging trade union movement in Haiti or Iraq; today the net is full of information on the subject.
Thousands of us are getting involved in online campaigns, sending off messages of protest and solidarity. Some of us are even beginning to use the new online tools to donate money to striking workers in our own country, like the California grocery workers. Many of us are donating online to support political candidates who seem to be offering solutions to the problems posed by globalization, such as job loss.
But we have not yet fully grasped the real meaning of globalization, the one which should be compelling us all to donate, and donate regularly, to workers in need around the world.
Over the next few months and years there will be more and more appeals like the one we have just had from Haiti. Those appeals test our understanding of that most famous of trade union slogans: an injury to one is an injury to all.
Those who understand the meaning of that phrase, give and give generously.
I think it is not an exaggeration to say to that we can measure the growth of our understanding of globalization with nearly-mathematical precision by measuring the growth of our solidarity donations. And judging by the response to recent appeals, we still have a long way to go.
***
Donations to Haiti: http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/whats_new_index.html
Donations to Iraq: http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/

34 Comments on "Why we don’t give: Online donations and international solidarity"

  1. Douglas McNeill | 08/04/2004 at 06:52 |

    Eric Lee, you make me happy. Thanks for your union work. My Mom and Dad were union members. A couple of my brothers, also. The best summer I made money while in school was in a union construction job in NYC.
    In AA we are aware of how people get very frugal after sobriety. Maybe same for union support. The “I’ve got mine” syndrome.
    For me it is important to have it simple to donate. I sent some funds to the Haiti and Iraq unions you had on this site because I could use PayPal, even tho PayPal will subtract a portion.
    I think we are all learning that our few dollars add up.
    I’m a retired clergyperson.
    Keep up the good work.
    Doug McNeill

  2. The day that every American realizes that when a foriegn worker is exploited (either abroad OR on our own soil) that it affects each of us directly, then real change will come. Unfortunately we must deal with the fact that human nature is basically selfish. We have to tie each campaign directly to a self-interest issue. Unfortunately, it is all about framing the campaign.

  3. Yorick Piper | 08/04/2004 at 08:46 |

    I agree with Eric’s general thrust, but we also need to acknowledge the existence of donation ‘fatigue’. My own Australain union currently has a million dollar legal bill that we are trying to raise funds to cover. We fund raise regularly for a child labour prevention school project in India which we coordinate, as well as raising funds for locked out or striking members. Other unions close to home seek funds from our members and officials, and every day requests for support arrive via the internet and snail mail. A poor response for an appeal for a new or relatively unknown dispute far away in unsurprising, if unfortunate. Still, we need to keep a global perspective, and pehaps consider establishing a permanent fighting fund – maybe contributed to through direct debit, that can direct funds on an as-needs basis. The organisation of labour is the hope of the world.

  4. Thanks Eric for the work you do and for this opportunity. You’re right, the realization of globalization has yet to reach the majority of the working people. There will come a point in time when we can no longer ignore it and we will all be face to face with the reality of it.
    In my opinion, one of our problems is the nature of the “big bang” of technology as it expands into so many directions at one time. We are flooded with worthy projects as activists and determining how much time/funds we should give and which causes we should give to, becomes a trip into futility at times.
    Narrowing down our options and focusing more on one or two chosen goals would probably help. The problem with that though, can be compared to a parent’s love of their children. You don’t want to take away from one in order to give to the other because you love them the same! So what should we do?
    Maybe an organization or cooperative which would take contributions from many activists and through committee or membership vote, decide how to distribute funds and where the funds are most needed. No easy answers and I would certainly like to hear other’s views on this subject. Each day, week, and month, I deliberate over which direction my time and energy should flow!

  5. Elizabeth Tang | 08/04/2004 at 08:59 |

    I made my first time on-line donation when I donated a small amount to the Haiti workers. I am sorry to learn that few have joint the solidarity action. I am a union official and I understand the difficulty to get members pay. I appreciate your effort to keep on trying. Your article no doubt has helped us to think more. Thank you.

  6. Calinda Brown | 08/04/2004 at 12:59 |

    Thanks for the reminder Eric. I made my on-line donation to support Haitian workers this morning. My experience with fundraising is that you ask, and then ask again. And then ask one more time before you give up on someone. I guess many of us needed that second ask.
    I have not asked my union to donate money to overseas unions before although I have asked them to send letters through Labourstart. I’ll put a request in to my executive to consider making a donation. Thanks

  7. Elaine harvey | 08/04/2004 at 13:03 |

    For me it isn’t that I wouldn’t its just I am wary about giving finance info over the net – have never done it – and need reassurance that this is a safe way to give.

  8. John Daniel | 08/04/2004 at 14:07 |

    Hi Eric,
    My answer to your question of “why don’t we give…” is that we have no faith in the current leadership of the union movement. The AFL-CIO’s American Center for International Labor Solidarity, like it’s predecessor the American Institute for Free Labor Development, seems to be a tool of the US government’s foreign policy (see the Labor Notes article at http://www.labornotes.org/archives/2004/04/articles/e.html) and therefore doesn’t serve the labor movement’s interests. I, personally, have absolutely no faith that while Iraq is occupied by US troops that any labor organization that they allow to function will be of any benefit to Iraqi workers. After all, they don’t serve that function here in the US, so why would anyone, especially an active labor rights supporter, believe that they would in Iraq?
    Another example of the misdirection of US workers stemming from the AFL-CIO leadership is their chauvanist “Buy American” campaigns that lead workers to believe that they shouldn’t support unions in other countries. Just try to park your union made “foreign” car at the AFL-CIO headquarters building in DC and you’ll see what I mean.
    In the final analysis, we just want to know that what we give in terms of both our time and money will be used to create victories for the union movement and, here again, after 30+ years of head-long retreat, we just don’t have much faith in the current leadership, their outlook, or their direction.
    You are right that we have reached a crossroads, but it’s a crisis in leadership. Either we are fooled again into believing that a NAFTA creator like Kerry is our savior, or we say enough of this 30 year debacle of the union movement and and begin electing a fighting leadership in our organizations. The truth is that we, as a movement with millions of members and billions of dollars, only lack one resource, and that’s right, you guessed it.
    In Solidarity,
    John Daniel

  9. Ursula | 08/04/2004 at 14:14 |

    I think a number of the contributors have already identified the problems: donor fatigue; a difficulty with identifying with the cause of those in less familar countries; suspicion of on-line donations.
    As a labour lawyer in a western country I realise the importance of supporting those who struggle to gain the rights we take for granted. Oddly though didn’t see the secure bar at the end of the page which generally denotes a secure site so didn’t contribute.
    Following your article will try again.

  10. John Daniel | 08/04/2004 at 14:36 |

    Clarification: in previously saying, “After all, they don’t serve that function here in the US, so why would anyone, especially an active labor rights supporter, believe that they would in Iraq?” the “they” refered to was meant as “US troops” and not “labor organizations.” Thanks, -John

  11. OK Eric, you’ve stirred my conscience! I have now
    made a donation to both the Iraqi and Haitian
    trade unons. By the way I think the reason many
    of us don’t donate is simply that it takes time
    to visit the relevant web page and fill in the
    details, and time is a scarce resource for many
    of us.
    Incidentally, please don’t assume that everyone
    reading your postings is in the USA!
    Yours in international solidarity,
    Sue Blackwell (Birmingham, England)

  12. Dan Mulvaney LU475 | 08/04/2004 at 14:55 |

    I have to agree with Yorick Piper’s statement concerning “donation fatigue.” While Eric’s article points out our willingness to contribute to Presidential campaigns here in the US and reluctance to fund international trade issues, my main priority this year is to help change our nations current leadership.
    After contributions to the DNC, presidential primary candidates, and organizations like Move On, many wallets are feeling a little strained right now here in the US. I agree “an injury to one is an injury to all” – and while it may be short sighted, I’m trying to stem the flow of blood here at home this year.
    In the future I would have to agree with Randy Fullerton’s post suggesting a “common” organization that donations could be made to and then disbursed as a governing body sees fit. However, personal and fiscal integrity would be paramount in such an endeavor as any indiscretions would doom it. One could make donations to a “general” fund or have their money earmarked for a specific campaign if they so choose. The point is to have a central point of contact outlining the issues and “framing the campaigns” effectively. The funds and generosity exist, people just want to see results and have confidence in the organization they contribute their hard earned money to.

  13. Susan S. Pastin | 08/04/2004 at 15:34 |

    I’m trying to donate to Haitian workers now!
    Nothing could be more important than supporting unions in Iraq. Yet I hesitated — I just don’t trust enough Iraqis not to be religious militants. That’s probably unfair and shortsighted. Even religious militants deserve unions! Yet I didn’t want my money to be mispent and wind up in the hands of some right wing, anti-woman militia group that would kill U.S. soldiers and then set up an Office for the Protection of Virtue in the center of a town.

  14. Wolfe Braude | 08/04/2004 at 15:54 |

    Hi Eric,
    Good article! I agree with your thoughts. Some technical suggestions, maybe local federations should be roped in to appeal to their members? Also, maybe people should be able to donate “E bucks” if they are capable of being cashed in by the recipient? I don’t use them, but many do, I think.
    Lastly, what about asking fedrations to donate 1 week’s interest of the capital from their investment companies or pension funds? To draw on ‘virtual’ money lessens the hesitancy of the giving?
    God bless in the struggle,
    Wolfe

  15. john glansbeek | 08/04/2004 at 17:24 |

    i sent off the original posting about the Haiti Levi-Strauss workers to a few local union officials here in Seattle–IUPAT local #300- painters and allied trades. the short message i sent went something like this:
    “Why are we not supporting the Haiti workers? We have the opportunity to be true international unionists instead of a bunch of phonies concerned with their own narrow interests.”
    if you read about the AFL-CIO’s involvement with NED and USAID -CIA front organizations historically involved in Latin America and then read the monthly publication of the IUPAT with it’s calls for “working harder and smarter” to counter non union contractors, it shows that the union heirarchy has nothing to do with the real cause of worker exploitation (s/v) and even the highest of the labor aristocracy is an exploited worker
    i’m one of the lowest–unemployed mostly since 9/11/2001 and now retired on a very small pension (which is ultimately another form of exploitation since it is tied directly to “investments”). In 2002, i gave close to $2000 to various social justice groups, but i don’t have the means to do this anymore.

  16. I have contributed to the Haiti workers because I am a firm believer in workers solidarity.
    I was a strong supporter of the Trade Union movement and still hold the basic socalist belief ‘we are brothers’ and ‘divided we fall.’
    I was very angry at the failure of the TUC to support the miners strike and the T&G to support the Liverpool dockers in their stance for decent job conditions. This last failure by the hierarchy of the Union movement to support it members saw me cut up my inon card of 30 odd years.
    However, my feelings of support for genuine trade unionists’ go way beyond my digust of those who betrayed the miners and dockers and there are many among the industrialists of the EU and Haiti who would like to see a return of the slave trade. We must help those not as fortunate as ourselves and not forget, while what we have today might well be because of our own hard work and efforts. The foundations were laid by earlier ‘genuine’ trade unionist. I for one will always be grateful to them.

  17. OK, Eric – you pricked my conscience. I’ve now made donations to both causes.
    Why didn’t I do so before?
    Partly time – I’ve never used PayPal before. However, this is not a valid excuse and, having set up my PayPal account, donations are now easier to make.
    Partly concern about how much I can trust organisations I don’t know to spend the money wisely. I’m going to trust you on this.

  18. Ged Peck | 08/04/2004 at 19:21 |

    I can understand Eric’s point, particularly considering the fantastic job that Labourstart does in informing people about struggles around the world. But there is another way of looking at this, and it relates to the people who generally give money to all sort of causes.
    The fact is that being political, and being someone on the left, we are constantly being asked by all manner of campaigns for their support. When I go to the British SWP’s Marxism event in London each summer, I make sure I take extra money with me for this purpose. There are often many stalls concerning independent campaigns against deportation, racism, strikes, or whatever, all of which I am delighted are encouraged to attend.
    In addition, there are workplace collections for strikes, collections organised for strikers by local support groups (as with the miners in 1984), donations to left-wing book publishing ventures, union dues, not to mention the ‘subs’ that many politically active people pay to their respective organisations.
    Like John Glansbeek (see above) what some of us have contributed over the decades must be astronomical.
    Nonetheless, without in any way denigrating the fine work done by Eric and his comrades, I still feel that the key to getting donations is face-to-face discussion in the workplace and on the streets. It is surprising how you can influence someone (and sometimes change their complete way of thinking) through this method.
    I would therefore encourage everyone to download collection sheets from Labourstart, or wherever, and get into the habit of doing a workplace or street collection. It not only raises money, but also consciousness.
    Regards to all.

  19. Diana Rickard | 09/04/2004 at 02:48 |

    As a casual worker, my pay packet is irregular and my finances low. I donate regularly to left-wing causes – by direct payment. I’m inundated with email spam and don’t trust online banking. I like what Eric Lee advocates but I mistrust E-selling and promoting. I’ll continue to advocate for worker rights – everywhere in the world – when my attention is drawn to the lack of them but will not be drawn into donating money to anything online. Call me old-fashioned – but I enjoy going into banks and credit unions to deposit and withdraw funds – knowing that I’m keeping bank tellers in work. Tell me and/or my union (NTEU) a postal address to send union funds to and I might be able to scrape up already tightly-budgeted dollars for the cause, otherwise…
    Solidarity.

  20. Bruce Wolf | 09/04/2004 at 03:33 |

    Eric,
    I have a hunch that union members (the class conscious ones anyway, even if only somewhat class conscious) are still generous.
    But there are a lot of distractions–work drains us, dealing with personal and family issues, health, battles with local government and school issues, local labor struggles, organizing drives within our own unions, organizing drives in the community, participating in the anti-war campaign, anti-globalization–etc etc etc
    Don’t blame the rank and filers. Just organize better. If we are labor activists, that is our obligation. Don’t give up, organize, educate, and don’t lose faith.

  21. Kermit L. Moore,Jr. | 09/04/2004 at 08:21 |

    Eric, as always I found your article enlightening.It give me something to look into and participate in. Keep up the great work.

  22. First of all, thanks to all of you who read and commented on this article. Within 24 hours of my posting it, some 900 of you clicked through to read it and more than 20 of you posted online comments. In addition, many more wrote to me personally with comments.
    I won’t be able to reply to reply to every single one individually, but wanted to answer most of the points made. Here goes:
    1. A few people asked me not to give up, not to despair, etc. I hope I didn’t sound despairing — I’m actually full of hope that we have reached a new stage in how we do international solidarity work, one in which we move beyond sending messages of solidarity (important though that is) and provide concrete assistance to embattled unions whereever they may be. That’s why I said we’re at a crossroads. A crossroads — not a dead end.
    2. Several people spoke about doubts they were having about donating online. I can certainly understand that — but the fact remains that many millions of people regularly use secure online payment facilities to buy things on Amazon, on eBay, and so on. eBay owns PayPal; it is far and away the largest and most successful of the online payment systems. It seems to be as secure as any other system for doing this kind of thing, but I’m always open to new ideas.
    3. Some asked if there was a way other than PayPal to donate to the Haitian and Iraqi unions. I’ll find out — I know that Iraq is a particular problem, as the federation there had its offices raided and then closed by the occupation authorities, and setting up a bank account — and certainly one that can receive foreign donations — is not the simplest thing to do in Baghdad today.
    4. One of you raised the question of whether by supporting the Iraqi unions you’d be supporting some kind of sexist, reactionary Taliban-like organization. The opposite is the case: the unions represent the best hope for the development of new, democratic and secular Iraq.
    5. There seemed to have a been a bit of confusion as to who was asking for this money, and whether it was LabourStart. LabourStart is not receiving the money — the money is being raised directly by the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions and the Haiti Support Group (on behalf of the union in Haiti), from their websites, with the payments going directly to their PayPal accounts. The only role LabourStart has played is to promote their efforts.
    6. Some of you have asked about the credibility of the two groups mentioned above — in these cases, you’ll simply have to do the research, as we did. Our appeals for support for Haiti and Iraq followed weeks and months of publicity regarding specific violations of workers’ rights. Anyone following these developments closely will recognize the names of the organizations we pointed people to.
    7. Several people have suggested that there be a single international fund to co-ordinate these kinds of donations. That’s not a bad idea — but it would have to be organized. And that wouldn’t prevent the occasional emergency appeal. One of the problems is that both the unions we’re appealed for, in Haiti and Iraq, are not yet officially recognized as the national trade union centers in their countries, though that may well be the case in the near future.
    8. At least one of our American readers commented on the urgent need to defeat George Bush and why that is a deserving cause for fund-raising. I agree completely; as a US citizen, I’ve donated my share this year to candidates who I think can defeat Bush. But that hasn’t stood in the way of making small donations to our brothers and sisters in Haiti and Iraq.
    To sum up, I know that we all give and give generously to a wide range of deserving organizations and campaigns. I’m well aware of the problem of ‘campaign fatigue’, which I’ve written about in the past. But I do think that the issues I raised were genuine.
    I think that we tend to rely too much on our unions to fund solidarity work and feel less individual responsibility than we should. Our unions should donate — and we should do so as well, as individuals.
    I also think that the process of internationalizing our movement, of globalizing our activities and our consciousness, is not yet complete. We all tend to want to help those closer to home first. International solidarity is almost always a lower priority than a local campaign.
    In our shrinking world, that has to change.

  23. Dorothy Macedo | 09/04/2004 at 12:08 |

    I don’t know about the US but here in the UK people tend to donate to campaigns that are local (we are currently organising donations in UNISON for Scottish nursery nurses who are on indefinite strike on strike pay of

  24. Just a quick note in reply to those who are wondering about donating to the appeal for funds to help the Haitian workers’ union called Sokowa. I am the director of the British solidarity organisation, the Haiti Support Group, which is running the appeal and is forwarding all donations directly to the Batay Ouvriye union federation in Haiti.
    Here are some more details:
    The Haiti Suppport Group is an association of individuals that has been working to provide practical solidarity to the Haitian struggle for human rights, participatory democracy and justice. We formed in 1992, and we are funded by individial affiliations and by some small grants from Oxfam, Cafod, Christian Aid and ActionAid. Since 1996 we have developed a close relationship with the Batay Ouvriye workers’ organisation in Haiti. We have worked with it on international campaigns to press the Walt Disney Co, Grand Marnier, and Remy Cointreau, to make local contractors allow workers to unionise themselves.
    Batay Ouvriye-supported unions and unregistered workers’ organisations succeeded in 2001 in getting together and registering with the Haitian authorities as the First of May-Batay Ouvriye Union Federation. This federation consists of 14 or so small unions in Haiti.
    Since the FTZ in Ouanaminthe opened in September 2003, Batay Ouvriye organisers have been working with workers at the Grupo M factory to help them organise a union. In mid-February the workers submitted their registration papers to the government authorities. With the overthrow of the government at the end of February, this legal recognition for the union called SOKOWA is still pending.
    All monies raised by the Haiti Support Group appeal will go to the First of May-Batay Ouvriye Union Federation with which the SOKOWA union is affiliated, and will be used to financially assist the 34 fired SOKOWA union members. The Haiti Support Group has the greatest confidence that the donations will be used for this explicit purpose. We have already sent US$1,000 but we/they need more.
    As to methods of donating, we are aware that the Paypal system is far from ideal but it is the best we can come up with at present. Anyone can mail a donation to the Haiti Support Group mailing address but the cheques must be in sterling otherwise the bank will deduct part of it in the currency conversion process. The address is: Haiti Support Group, PO Box 29623, London E9 7XU, UK. Please make the cheque out to ‘Haiti Support Group’ and mark the back the cheque ‘Sokowa’ and tell us if you want a written receipt.
    You can check all the above out on our web site: http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org
    Thanks to those of you who have donated already and thanks to those of you who will…
    Charles Arthur
    for the Haiti Support Group

  25. Cliff Boldt | 09/04/2004 at 14:54 |

    A good and timely question is raised in the initial article. Here in Canada, especially on the west coast, most major unions have become ‘business’ unions. They are concerned only with wages and benefits, with very little real education of the members about the history of unions, the achievements of unions and what happens when unions get weak or disappear. Economic issues have been primary in the past, but the other shoe has always been social issues: clean water, sewage treatment, health care, care of elder brothers and sisters. I don’t see this much today, and that is something union leaders have to look at, or else the grassroots will have to re-invent the union.

  26. Allison | 10/04/2004 at 02:04 |

    Hi Eric Lee,
    Thanks for your wonderful work & dedication!
    I support the idea of donating but am extremely reluctant to do monetary transactions over the internet – my preference is to donate via cheque or money order. When I saw that the only means to donate to the workers in Haiti is via Paypal, I became reluctant. Is there another way to send funds, please let me know.
    Thanks,
    – Allison

  27. Jeanne | 11/04/2004 at 19:50 |

    Yes, union folks are willing to give to local candidates running for office here in the states but what most do’t realize is that unionism is global and by helping other union members in other countries you are helping yoursel.

  28. Lloyd Woods | 12/04/2004 at 23:25 |

    Kia Ora Eric and all other contributers. I am writing from New Zealand and like others wrote to Levi re the Haiti situation but have not sent a monetary donation. Others have identified many reasons why people have not but the main one here is a deep suspicion of the security of payment by internet. We are bombarded by various requests (spam) and an equal number of warnings. Although people here do a lot of on-line ‘shopping’ it is generally only through known secure and trustworthy sites. The site that I got to for payments did not encourage me as to its security. Perhaps rather than have payments go through such a site (who take a cut -and we dont know how much) what we need is to have one site known to all and within the movement. Having read the various comments I presume the site attached is ‘ok’ so I will make a donation but will be most interested to see a report eventually of how much people donated, how much the union actually got, and therefore what the site ‘cut’ was. All the best in solidarity, Lloyd Woods, Assn of Staff in Tertiary Education, New Zealand

  29. Linda Gale | 14/04/2004 at 08:42 |

    Thanks for the postal/cheque address for Haiti donations in Charles Arthur’s message above. His injunction to make the donations in Sterling raises one other point of concern in making donations to international appeals. And that is the transaction cost of international currency exchanges. Some money goes to PayPal and even if you pay by cheque, some money goes in currency exchange charges. To donate from Australia, some would be lost in converting to Sterling, then more when you convert the donation to US dollars to send it to Haiti (at least this is implied by your reference to the first US$1000, Charles), and then some more when they convert it to local currency in Haiti. Is there a reliable Haiti address we can donate to, so that we can do ONE currency conversion rather than two or three?
    [Kia Ora Lloyd – I hear you fed Ken up well for his long ride ;-)]

  30. Please use address above | 15/04/2004 at 14:59 |

    I’ve sent a cheque in the mail, thanks Charles for the address. My objection to Paypal is their collection and permanent storage of ‘account’ information, not security of the transaction. The paypal page winds up in a frame which is a pity, because then the padlock icon many people look for at the bottom of the browser window is not there, though the link is secure. (You can check – right click the paypal area, click properties, the browser tells you the page is secure). There is also an odd graphic with letters, with the requirement that the user types the letters into a box. This creates the impression that the entry of the letters is a substitute for a secure connection. I think the text graphic may be a device to foil automated programs filling out forms repeatedly until they get a hit with the card number. The graphic with lines through the letters would be difficult to machine read.
    John Potter
    jzpotter at yahoo dot co dot nz

  31. Jill Cashen | 15/04/2004 at 15:21 |

    I tried to donate via paypal but I got error messages the 5 times I tried and so I gave up. It would be great if there was a central place collecting US dollar donations that could serve as an intermediary – take all our checks and write one big one in pounds sterling and send it to the U.K. Any groups like that out there?

  32. peter waterman | 16/04/2004 at 10:12 |

    Eric:
    By putting this item up you have broken an international union taboo on discussing 1)the meaning of solidarity and 2)worker funding of such.
    The institutionalisation of labour solidarity you mention has also meant, in large part, its conversion into something quite different: the international solidarity of union offices and officials. Members may feel little ownership of such office-to-office funding. Solidarity has also become confused with ‘development cooperation’, largely or totally subsidised by states. The ICFTU, the AFLCIO, the ETUC and the British TUC are heavily dependent on such.
    Worker solidarity has to be not so much extended or computerised but re-invented. ‘Substitution’ solidarity – from ‘rich and free’ to ‘poor and oppressed’workers has to be accompanied by the solidarities of Identity, Reciprocity, Complementarity, Affinity and Restitution. There’s too little space here to spell this out. (Can you maybe double to space you make available for discussant contributions?).
    The notion of making a monthly automatic contribution to a coordinated labour or a broader social movement fund might be attractive (also to me) if run in a radically-democratic manner, if donors could then opt between campaigns and then receive full and detailed report-backs on results.
    I say more about solidarity in my ‘Globalisation, Social Movements and the New Internationalisms’ downloadable (at length and slowly) from:
    http://www.antenna.nl/~waterman/book.doc.
    Search for: ‘A complex solidarity for a complex globality’.
    Best,
    Peter W

  33. Joe Cooke | 17/04/2004 at 01:29 |

    Hi Eric- you raise thought provoking issues (again!) – Assuming the causes highlighted by Labourstart grabour interest and desire to support, the outcome must depend on ease of contributing. Even the smallest donations add up but people wont make them if it isn’t simple and quick. – quicker than emailing a comment!!
    I like supplying a form to download.
    Can you have a link to PayPal and an explanation of its terms?
    I’m going to see what big unions like Amicus can come up with to facilitate member/branch responses.
    Joe Cooke – Essex U.K.

  34. Trina Semorile | 21/04/2004 at 21:46 |

    I will not use either ebay or paypal (owned by ebay) because their corporate practices are unethical. Although ebay claims they will handle disputes, in fact, when problems arise, they “forme-mail” people to death to get them to give up and go away. When pressed, they then play the game of HMOs and insurance carriers and claim to be a “disconnected” third party, without direct responsibility or accountability for their provision of the forum in which dishonest and unethical actions occur.
    I wouldn’t give them a penny or a moment of my time.
    If a direct system (or someone who doesn’t take a cut) is available, I will be more than pleased to provide direct donations to both Iraqi and Haitian labor unions.

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