culture

Cool Internet sites

Although Mayday --- International Workers Day in Panama and most of the world --- has come and gone, let us take the occasion of the first issue of The Panama News in May to look at some labor-oriented websites in Panama and the United States.

Change to Win
http://www.changetowin.org/

With the US labor movement mostly docile and declining, several of the unions that are actively trying to turn the trends around split away from the AFL-CIO to begin a new organizing drive. Calling themselves Change to Win, these unions include the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Farm Workers of America, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the Service Employees International Union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, UNITE HERE, and the Laborers' International Union of North America. These unions, which represent about six million workers, may have proud histories but this movement is not about what once was.

Panama Canal Pilots: The Knuckle
http://www.pancanalpilots.org/home

The online voice of the Panama Canal Pilots Union, the most successful of Panama's public sector labor organizations. They have been standing together for pilots' rights since 1914 and they're a proud member of the worldwide labor movement. This is a bilingual website.

SUNTRACS
http://www.suntracs.org/v2/?cmd=inicio

The Panamanian construction workers' union, this country's most militant and successful private sector labor organization, is under concerted attack by the government. It does not appear that they will be broken anytime soon. This website is in Spanish.

The Origins of Mayday
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/5/1/the_origins_of_may_day_a

It started in Chicago, as Democracy Now's Amy Goodman and labor historian James Green explain in this interview.

Union Review
http://unionreview.com/

This is a publication featuring news about and opinions of the US labor movement. With the consolidation of the worldwide news industry a salient part of a globalization drive that's in large part intended to destroy organized labor, it has been ever harder to find pro-labor information sources. Now, with the rise of the Internet, union members are fighting back against their marginalization by the corporate mainstream media. This is one of the best examples of how they're doing it.