For me, one of the most interesting things about the screenwriters’ dispute in the States (click here to support it!), is the use that individual Writers’ Guild members have been making of online video to contribute to the overall campaign. Here are a few of them (hat tip: James).

Now, it’s only to be expected that they’re remarkably good (these are professional funnypersons as well as union members for crissakes), but what interests me is that they’re as powerful as anything the union themselves are putting out. Creativity is always powerful – that’s why the networks want these people back at work pronto (okay, maybe not enough to actually pay them properly, but hey…)

So it can be powerful too when it’s just one simple idea that works. Check out this zero-budget (and very little effort) attempt by a bunch of postal workers. It (and the others in the series they made) are ruder than anything the CWU could have done, and as a result might be more motivating on the picket lines (have a look at the unusually positive comments).

YouTube is a great leveller. If you’ve got a good idea, and that idea genuinely connects with other people it might work, if they like it enough to send around. If you’ve got a bad idea, no matter how much seed resource you put behind it, it’s still not likely to budge much. The bedroom computer amateur is even able to compete technically with your swanky HDTV video editing suite, once the vids are compressed and shrunken into a tiny player window.

Unions, political parties and other campaign organisations can be a player in this arena. Their names, their mailing lists and their promo spot budgets will help, but not to the extent where they’re beyond the reach of amateurs to catch in the ratings stakes. Plus they’re hampered by their need to stay respectable for the rump of their supporters, and the fact that they’re so close to negotiations on the issue that it may at times be diplomatic not to go too far.

Activists are able to be more flexible and edgier, and edgy is what motivates people to send something on to their friends. Activists are also deniable – if a union activist slags a CEO on YouTube, it won’t come back directly on the union in negotiations. Activists are cheap – a union might be able to pay for a professional video slot, and then lose all their budget for nothing if it fails to catch the imagination.

What can unions be doing to engage with those of their activists that are ready, able and willing to be putting digital creativity out there?

Is it a training issue for unions to be engaging in social media, encouraging those who are starting to show an interest in digital creativity around an issue (the long game)? Or should unions be setting challenges to their members to come up with something? Should they be running competitions and handing out affordable kit to promising activists, or should they be offering snips, photos and idents to budding filmmakers to get on with it?

Unions may be scared by the potential results of letting 1,000 loose cannons off in a campaign, but consider, if your could temporarily point 1,000 loose cannons in half-way the right direction, I’d rather not be in the opposition.