Tomorrow is Make IT Fair’s day of action, focusing on working conditions in Apple Computers’ supply chain. Apple are the target here as they subcontract most of the work in making their hugely popular iPhones, and they don’t seem to be too fussy about how the work gets done.
A rather belated endorsement of Woody Sez, the musical currently half way through its 3 month run at the Arts Theatre in London. I went to see it back in January, and have been recommending it since to everyone who’ll listen. It’s a biography of radical US folk legend Woody Guthrie, told mostly through snippets …
Get the Pledge to March for the Alternative widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info) Check out the neat-o widget here – though I think you’ll have to sit through a lot of people’s messages before you get to my one – it’s in there, honest! I’ll …
Xmas time again, and another outing for the old family favourite where a trio of ghastly apparitions from days gone and yet to come shock a wayward soul into repudiating his acts of miserly cruelty to those worse off than himself. Well, if the cameo samples from Maggie, D-Cam and the ghost of future electoral …
I’ll be helping out at Netroots UK, a big event for progressive online activists on 8 Jan in London. It’s shaping up to be a very exciting looking day, with practical training sessions running alongside movement strategy stuff, and plenty of neworking opportunities. I’m particularly interested in a session looking at how bloggers and online …
Oh dear. I’d been under the impression that Steve Jobs had been “all over” the Foxconn worker abuses issue, and things were getting better. Two new stories challenge all that though. Firstly there are reports of mass arrests at Foxconn India, where workers have been striking for 18 days over pay, disputed sackings and the …
World Day for Decent Work today is even glummer this year than usual. 34 million jobs have been lost worldwide since 2008, due to the financial crisis, and 64 million have been pushed into extreme poverty. Yet the austerity measures that so many governments have adopted to respond to the crisis will only make things …
When I lived in Germany, I bought this slim volume of side-by-side translations of English jokes, explaining them and their underlying principles to curious Germans. The main lessons I think were that the English were fond of puns and mean to the Irish. This piece of comedy Eirophobia in particular stuck with me… An Irishman …
Here’s a video from the unrecognised union at Taiwanese touchscreen supplier Young Fast Optoelectonics. Their members make the high tech display panels for mobile phones for several companies, including up and coming iPhone rivals HTC. And their members allegedly face harassment and sacking for union membership, poor safety and enforced overtime. There are even allegations …
This amused me today. Spanish union federation CCOO are hosting a contest for user generated 40 second ads to get the word round about the upcoming General Strike (29 September). Don’t know if this one is from a supporter or CCOO themselves, but it’s jolly, memorable, and slightly surreal. Todo fuera, hermanos!