councilor.org
| Source | Peter Waterman |
| Date | 99/05/13/09:24 |
| I wonder whether it isn't time to radically rethink LabourNet, even if this means suspending activities for a year. There is more personal animosity being expressed here than seems tolerable for such an operation. I find myself both confused by the exchange of remarks-relating-to-other-remarks and alienated by the intense personal hostility being expressed. Practically speaking I think that Chris Bailey would do much better running some kind of operation such as that of Eric Lee! Maybe he could find a couple of people who would agree with him, follow him or behave according to his desires. Chris has all kinds of qualities and capacities, but leading a collective is evidently not one of them. I am confident he could design a one- man operation that would contribute to the general LabourNetting taking place internationally. I do not, incidentally, think that Chris is the only LN individual with a `bad attitude'. It's just that he started the show and obviously wants to direct it with everyone else in second or third place. I am quite literally unaware of anyone who could play this central role. Those I DO know personally seem - other evident qualities apart - to be either individualistic or conflictive (and I do not here exclude myself). I do not honestly think that closing down, or simply resigning from, the current LN - even closing down those parts operating without friction - would leave an enormous and visible hole in the sea. What would actually be lost? `LabourNet' is a nice title but site names are two a penny... A one-year rethink, possibly including a face-to-face conference or workshop, at which one or more general proposals could be presented, could hardly be worse than stumbling forward as we do at present. Maybe taking the pieces apart, and each running his/her personal or small-group section, would make a better contribution to LabourNetting than pretending to be a collective when we are a bunch of conflictive individuals. What we need, it seems to me, is to start afresh, on the basis of some political and personal compatability, as well as an idea of what LabourNetting (worldwide) and LabourNet (our contribution) could or should be, how it should be structured, governed and supported (sweat capital, funding). My hypothetical contributions could be of two sorts. On the one hand I might be able to do some kind of overview paper on `international labour communication (by computer)'. Or maybe something broader, such as `international social movement communication by computer'. In both cases I could end up with proposals for action. I might anyway have to do some such paper in connection with a conference in December and/or a book project I am discussing with a friend. On the other hand I might be able to both make a proposal for and to run (on my own or in collaboration) an `international labour movement and media discussion site'. This would relate to my Global Solidarity Site, which concentrates (when up and running) on `analysis, theory, strategy'. That's it. Back in Eurospace May 16. Jacob v.d.Doesstr. 28, 2518xn The Hague, Netherlands. Tel: +31-70-3631539.Fax: +31-70-4260-799 (ask them to alert me at phone n o.3631539). Email: p_waterman@hotmail.com.Website: http://www.antenna.nl/~waterman/. Check amazon.com for my books: `Globalisation, Social Movements and the New Internationalisms' (1998) and `Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalisation' (1999). |
Copyright (c) 1998, Joongpil Cho