* USA: Celebrate Labor Day online
* India/Global: Where is Warren Anderson?
* More newswires
* A new book on unions and the Internet
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BELARUS: HANDS OFF THE TRADE UNIONS, MR. LUKASHENKO!
If you liked Joe Stalin, you're going to love Aleksander Lukashenko. Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus, one of the former Soviet republics, has not yet heard the news about the Berlin Wall falling down. He still runs his country just like in the good old days -- and things like freedom of speech, independent trade unions and so on, are nowhere to be found.
Lukashenko is currently on a crusade to crush what is left of the independence of the Belarussian trade unions, who he sees as a major threat to his power.
Not long ago, he forced the national trade union center, the FTUB, to accept one of his hacks as its leader. Now he wants to do the same to the FTUB's largest affiliate.
But that affiliate, the Agro-Industrial Workers Union, told its global union federation, the IUF, and they told us. And now we're telling you: it's time to send the strongest possible message to Mr. Lukashenko to keep his hands off the AIWU and to respect the rights of workers to have free and independent trade unions.
Please go to this page to send an urgent email to Mr. Lukashenko right now:
http://www.labourstart.org/actnow/20020829.shtml
Forward on this email to everyone you know -- especially to other members of your union and to co- workers. Let's flood Lukashenko's mailbox between now and September 10th, when Lukashenko is planning to depose the AIWU's leadership at an extraordinary meeting of its executive.
Thousands of emails to Lukashenko's office, from every corner of the world, may make the difference. Please don't delay and don't ignore this appeal.
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USA: CELEBRATE LABO R DAY ONLINE
In the United States, it's nearly Labor Day, which means that the AFL-CIO has once again re-launched its brillant online Labor Day website, located here:
The site includes e-cards, online games, and lots of serious stuff as well. Of course it's this week's labour website of the week, too. Our review of the site appears on the front page of LabourStart, here:
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INDIA/GLOBAL: WHERE IS WARREN ANDERSON?
Good news this week from India, where a court ruled that Warren Anderson, the retired head of Union Carbide, the transnational corporation responsible for the largest industrial accident in history, should stand trial for homicide because of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, which killed thousands. Campaigners are now asking for tip offs as to the whereabouts of Anders on. If you have seen him or know anything about his whereabouts, email details to:
tim at lifecycle.demon.co.uk or indra.sinha at virgin.net
More details may be found here: http://www.bhopal.net/
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MORE LABOUR NEWSWIRES
LabourStart's Labour Newswire is the main way people get their daily dose of labour news online -- and it's now running on 350 trade union websites around the world.
This week, we launched a number of new newswires which might be useful for your union to incorporate in its website. These include newswires in French and Italian, as well as new regional newswires for the Pacific region, Central America, South America and Europe. Full details are here:
http://www .labourstart.org/lnw.shtml
Of course use of the newswire is absolutely free of charge. You can see a list of who's using it on their websites here:
http://www.labourstart.org/links/pages/index.html
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A NEW BOOK ON UNIONS AND THE INTERNET
LabourStart's Norwegian editor, Espen Loken, is the author of an important new book on unions and net which has just been published in Oslo. If you read Norwegian (and probably if you read Swedish or Danish) you'll certainly want to order a copy, which you can purchase online. A full table of contents, press clippings about the book and the conference held to celebrate its launch last week, and online ordering are available here:
http://www.fagligvev.no/saa_samles_vi_paa_nettet.htm
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That's all for this week. And to all our readers in North America - a very happy Labor Day to you.
Eric Lee ---------------------------------------------------------------- Make sure your co-workers, colleagues, and fellow trade unionists are also receiving these weekly mailings: Pass this message on - and tell them to go to: http://www.labourstart.org/subscribeme.shtml Thanks! ----------------------------------------------------------------