Obama's victory, the Internet and learning the wrong lessons
One of the stranger things being said about Barack Obama's election victory is that part of the reason for his success was his use of the Internet.
Obama, we are told, 'got it'. John McCain did not. The young guy was clued in, and old geezer couldn't use a keyboard.
Not only did the pundits say this, but the Obama campaign itself used McCain's inability to send an email in one of its campaign ads. It was a way of saying that McCain was out of touch.
Much has been made of the fact that Obama raised a tremendous amount of money using the Internet, and that his website made use of cutting edge technology – including social networks like Facebook – very effectively.
The danger of all this is that campaigners are going to believe it is true. And my concern is that unions are going to buy into this as well.
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As anyone who has done any kind of global solidarity work will tell you, the number one problem we face is the problem of language. It's not a problem companies face. When McDonald's wants to summon all its managers from around the world to attend a meeting, the company decides what language everyone will speak – English.
Those of us trying to use email as a campaigning tool are running into some serious problems these days. Getting heard over all the background noise is becoming more difficult. Inboxes are filling up rapidly. At best we skim, and don't read, the hundreds of messages we receive every week. And that's the messages that actually get through our spam filters.
With gas prices soaring and food prices at a new high, this seems an odd time to raise the subject of things getting cheaper. But in one small corner of our consumer universe, one commodity that used to be owned only by very rich has suddenly, almost overnight, become very cheap indeed.
A few years ago, LabourStart starting featuring a photo of the week (sometimes, of the day), just to liven up its front page a bit. As its editor, I'd see photos of strikes or picket lines or jailed union activists and put them in a little corner of the front page. 