The Internets are all a-hoppin' this morning about labor's relationship with the netroots. Nathan Newman has a couple of posts on the subject in the TPM Cafe; yesterday he asked, "Do Blogs Take Labor Issues Seriously?"
In some ways, this is a recurring conversation that's happened every summer since the first Yearly Kos; indeed, Nathan notes he criticized the first YK convention's lack of love for labor, and the AFL-CIO's Tula Connell asked the same question in the middle of last year's meeting. For the first time though, it looks like we're starting it ahead of the convention. And that's a good thing.
How can labor better connect with blogs? How can bloggers better understand labor issues? What's the problem here? Is there even a problem?
Before we go to Austin, let's figure out how to address this seemingly everlasting issue of blogs & labor not connecting as well as most of us would like. We're obviously not going to come up with a solution in this diary, but it would be best if we can think about the following topics:
1. Identify the apparent disconnects between labor and blogs
2. Better online organizing of people who care about workers' rights
3. How can labor, unions, and workers can get on the agenda post-election?
4. How can we connect unions as a solution for the slumped economy?
5. Create a plan of action to continue this conversation after Netroots Nation
Labor unions and their supporters will have a strong presence at Netroots Nation. Change to Win is a "premier sponsor" of the convention, and there are several panels talking about workers rights. Here's what I found off that bat relevant to labor.
* Growing the American Dream Movement
* Middle class isn't middle of the road: Take politicians' populist shpeil and make it real
* Bloggers and the New Green Economy
* Labor Caucus, which I'm organizing. (RSVP on Facebook for the labor caucus Thursday morning!)
In an offline conversation with Union Gal, she mentioned: "we needed labor on every panel as workers issues are women's issues, vet issues, blogging issues, poverty issues, etc... But getting many people to make the leap to understanding this as being the case, well, I wasn't very successful at it." Indeed, some union supporters expressed the same sentiments, and as a result didn't feel it was in their best interest to attend this year's convention, which is understandable given the commitment this convention takes.
I think Union Girl brought up a good point about the lack of cross-pollination of issues - to some extent I think that's a symptom of inherent self-interest in proposed panels. Not a bad thing, but just how generally how these things work. For example: vet bloggers have a panel about the impact of vet blogging; and Change to Win has a panel about the American Dream.
The reason I think you're not seeing worker-veteran panels or green job panels with union players is that those actively engaged on these topics online don't usually cross paths with the union folks most knowledgeable about the topic, and generally wouldn't think to connect on a conference panel. They might not think of it, it might not be an organizational priority. For whatever reasons, those connections are not evident in the panel selections.
I think it's our job now to identify areas, issues, and people where we can make those connections - be it to the election, the 2009 legislative agenda, the economy, or energy. I don't know for sure, but I think this question is key, and I bet there's a lot of good ideas to be heard.
Have at it: how can we better connect labor issues to blogs, and the broader progressive movement? We'll use this diary as a blueprint for the Labor Caucus discussion, and to build our conversation during and after the convention.