Toward 5,000 members on UnionBook - can we do it?

[Q]

I'm putting this call to sign up on UnionBook, the social media project of LabourStart, here, so people could join it.


A message to all members of UnionBook

On 27 May, sixteen days ago, I wrote to all UnionBook users suggesting that if we couldn't grow the site to 5,000 users over the course of the next 100 days, we should consider closing it down.

That meant recruiting about 14 new members to UnionBook every day right up until early September.

I thought I'd let you know how we were doing.

Since that appeal, we've grown from 3,654 to 3,783 -- a gain of 129 new members in the last couple of weeks.

That's good, but it's not good enough.

If we think that UnionBook is valuable, if we think that the trade union movement needs a social network of its own, without advertising, with censorship, and only open to trade union members, we will show it by recruiting new members in their hundreds over the next few weeks.

To reach 5,000 members by 4 September, we need to pick up 15 new members a day, every day.

That means talking up UnionBook at the workplace, at branch meetings, in union newspapers and newsletters, on email lists, on Facebook, via Twitter, and so on.

To achieve that goal, each of you should be thinking about who you could recruit, and who they could recruit.

We are a global movement with tens of millions of members; it should not be too difficult to find the next 1,217 members of UnionBook from within our ranks.

If you have any ideas, share them with others in the special UnionBook group (http://www.unionbook.org/group/toward1000000members) we've set up just for this purpose.

Thanks very much!

Eric Lee
So join up today at UnionBook (http://www.unionbook.org/)!

[Forward Union]

Where have you been advertising Union Book? have you managed to get any Unions to officially endorse it?

[Q]

Where have you been advertising Union Book? have you managed to get any Unions to officially endorse it?

I'm just relaying the message. You should ask Eric, he's available on UnionBook obviously. A place to ask would be the usergroup mentioned in the OP.

[Stand Your Ground]

Is this just for people 'officially' involved in Unions?

[Q]

Is this just for people 'officially' involved in Unions?

Not at all. Every worker is welcome to join. There are also quite a few IWW members and there is a Revolutionary Trade Unionists (http://www.unionbook.org/group/revolutionarytradeunionists) group that is open for all currents.

[chegitz guevara]

WTF is UnionBook?

[Queercommie Girl]

It's like a leftist version of Facebook, without adverts.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

I know a couple of people in my IWW who use UnionBook. I'll join and give it a shot.

[bcbm]

social networking explicitly for people involved in things like unions, especially then joining things like "revolutionary" groups on said sites seems like a bad idea

[Q]

social networking explicitly for people involved in things like unions, especially then joining things like "revolutionary" groups on said sites seems like a bad idea

Yes, let's avoid using the connectivity possibilties the internet offers and completely shut ourselves off from said modern communication technologies.

[caramelpence]

Yes, let's avoid using the connectivity possibilties the internet offers and completely shut ourselves off from said modern communication technologies.

Uh, no, the point is that it's pretty stupid to give bosses an easy way of figuring out who is a union member and who is not and who is a member of a revolutionary organization in addition to being a union member. I don't know if you're familiar with the way that bosses behave or what would happen if the membership lists of revolutionary organizations were released into the public sphere (as happened with the BNP in the UK - its membership list was released) but you can be pretty certain that the bosses would find a way to fire certain individuals, just by making up adequate grounds or citing an insignificant error in the workplace. Bosses go after political activists and militants all the time, and we shouldn't be making their job easier. There's a reason why, when union militants speak at political meetings, photography is often disallowed and their faces/identities are covered up.

How naive are you?

[Q]

Uh, no, the point is that it's pretty stupid to give bosses an easy way of figuring out who is a union member and who is not and who is a member of a revolutionary organization in addition to being a union member. I don't know if you're familiar with the way that bosses behave or what would happen if the membership lists of revolutionary organizations were released into the public sphere (as happened with the BNP in the UK - its membership list was released) but you can be pretty certain that the bosses would find a way to fire certain individuals, just by making up adequate grounds or citing an insignificant error in the workplace. Bosses go after political activists and militants all the time, and we shouldn't be making their job easier. There's a reason why, when union militants speak at political meetings, photography is often disallowed and the faces/identities are covered up.

How naive are you?

It totally depends on how comfortable you are with sharing your info of course, depending on in what conditions you work and live. There are many people on UnionBook using an alias for example, which has historically been a good way to avoid what you're saying.

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://globalsociology.com/2011/02/28/the-precariat/

I like "SocProf" and the other guy who responded to my post(s) there. :)

[bcbm]

Yes, let's avoid using the connectivity possibilties the internet offers and completely shut ourselves off from said modern communication technologies.


yes thats what i meant:rolleyes:

[Stand Your Ground]

Not at all. Every worker is welcome to join. There are also quite a few IWW members and there is a Revolutionary Trade Unionists (http://www.unionbook.org/group/revolutionarytradeunionists) group that is open for all currents.
I tried to join, it asked me what union I was in, I said 'dishwashers' lol. Now I'm waiting approval, I don't know if I'll get it though.

[Johnny Kerosene]

What if you plan on becoming a worker of some kind after you finish high school? Or is part-time guitar tuner/trash disposer/floor sweeper/item fetcher/stocker/minor construction repairer/keyboard assembler/window cleaner/price-tag maker/guitar restringer/assister of customers who don't ask any questions other than where something is until they get to checkout at which point someone else has to do it-er at a music store good enough?

[Die Neue Zeit]

yes thats what i meant:rolleyes:

What's your alternative? :confused:

[caramelpence]

What's your alternative? :confused:

Social-Proletocracy, obviously! :rolleyes: No other game in town, baby.

[bcbm]

What's your alternative? :confused:

the only options are to set up a shit list for bosses or to not use the internet at all?

[Catmatic Leftist]

Technically, all of us on RevLeft are on a "shitlist" for bosses; they can easily check us up... so by that logic, we should all stop posting on RevLeft.

One of the major complaints against the Revolutionary Left (from what I've read in the thread in OI) is that we aren't caught up with modern times... we live in the 21st century and the internet is a major part of it... if we want to get in touch with people, we need to use means such as UnionBook to widen our movement.