Communication Worker bulletin

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Partial archive of Communication Worker, bulletin of the Communication Workers Group in the UK in the 1980s.

Submitted by Steven. on November 24, 2012

If you have more copies of this which could be added to the archive please contact us or let us know in the comments below.

Comments

Devrim

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Devrim on December 26, 2012

A certain 'Nihlist communist' wrote to be the other day and said he had all of these and would send them, so when he has scanned and sent them I will add them here. Most of them were actual magazines, not leaflets like the one here (No.5). If I remember correctly this one was produced on the announcement of the results of a strike ballot. There were two versions written in advance (depending on what the result was), and they were distributed in some of the big London offices within an hour of the ballot result being announced, so it was the first news of it that many workers saw.

Devrim

Steven.

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on December 26, 2012

Devrim

A certain 'Nihlist communist' wrote to be the other day and said he had all of these and would send them, so when he has scanned and sent them I will add them here.

that's brilliant, thank you and also tell him thanks very much, we really appreciate it (despite some obvious disagreements, I do have a big soft spot for that nihilist communist!)

Most of them were actual magazines, not leaflets like the one here (No.5). If I remember correctly this one was produced on the announcement of the results of a strike ballot. There were two versions written in advance (depending on what the result was), and they were distributed in some of the big London offices within an hour of the ballot result being announced, so it was the first news of it that many workers saw.

Devrim

wow, that's very well organised, and quite a clever idea! We could do that with libcom articles (especially as the bulk of whatever are point we are trying to make would be the same whatever the actual situation is!)

On a practical note, to add other issues just click "add child page" on this page, and add the PDF in the "file attachments" section.

Devrim

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Devrim on December 26, 2012

Steven.

that's brilliant, thank you and also tell him thanks very much, we really appreciate it (despite some obvious disagreements, I do have a big soft spot for that nihilist communist!)

Is he welcome to come back then? He says that he doesn't want to, but I think that secretly he would like it.

Steven.

wow, that's very well organised, and quite a clever idea! We could do that with libcom articles (especially as the bulk of whatever are point we are trying to make would be the same whatever the actual situation is!)

Today's world is very different. In those days the media was very different than it is today. For a lot of people the I think the first they would have heard about something like this would have been when they got home and saw it on the news while having their tea, so this sort of thing made sense.

Today something more modern would be something like discreetly obtaining a list of email addresses from the union, and sending it out to everyone, so that people would get it immediately on their phones.

Devrim

Steven.

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on December 26, 2012

Ha ha, a list of e-mail addresses from the union! I think that's having an excessively high opinion of most unions' organisational abilities.

I have tried to get my own branch to get together its own members' e-mail addresses for a few years now, but it was a struggle to even get other branch officers to grasp the importance of even having people's e-mail addresses, let alone actually getting them…

I suppose what I meant was we could do something similar with two versions of articles which we could then immediately put out over social media, instead of having to wait until the outcome, then do an article, then get something out by which point people will have already heard the information, with the management/media slant. Whereas ideally we would get it to people first with our own perspective.

Regarding banned posters returning, they could send an e-mail to the group account which we would then consider as a collective. Cheers

Devrim

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Devrim on December 26, 2012

Steven.

Ha ha, a list of e-mail addresses from the union! I think that's having an excessively high opinion of most unions' organisational abilities.

I have tried to get my own branch to get together its own members' e-mail addresses for a few years now, but it was a struggle to even get other branch officers to grasp the importance of even having people's e-mail addresses, let alone actually getting them…

I remember about five years ago after giving out leaflets just before a strike at Skoda Auto, KpK was denounced by the union in an e-mail sent to all workers. Perhaps it was sent to them on the Skoda intranet, or perhaps it was sent to a workplace email like [email protected]. I am not sure on the details. I think it might be doable in some places though.

Steven.

I suppose what I meant was we could do something similar with two versions of articles which we could then immediately put out over social media, instead of having to wait until the outcome, then do an article, then get something out by which point people will have already heard the information, with the management/media slant. Whereas ideally we would get it to people first with our own perspective.

I am not sure that it would make much difference today. In fact it might even be worth waiting a little. You can knock out an actual article pretty quickly if you know what you are going to say, and you can even put some quotes in from relevant persons. In those days it meant typing the article (and of course non of us could type back then) laying it out, and making a plate at the printshop. Having it all ready in that instance saved us a lot of time.

Devrim

guadia

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by guadia on December 26, 2012

Devrim

I remember about five years ago after giving out leaflets just before a strike at Skoda Auto, KpK was denounced by the union in an e-mail sent to all workers. Perhaps it was sent to them on the Skoda intranet, or perhaps it was sent to a workplace email like [email protected]. I am not sure on the details. I think it might be doable in some places though.Devrim

i would guess it was sent to "jannovak @skoda.cz" type od accounts by the union - at least judging from a few letters which we got as a responses to union denunciation.

Steven.

11 years 2 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on December 26, 2012

Many recognised union branches (including mine) could get an e-mail sent to all staff by management. However this would mean that it would have to be text which management was happy to actually send staff. Plenty of them are content with this arrangement.