Lancaster On-line Discussion

The crises of labour demand imaginative strategic thinking. The consideration of the internet and associated information communication technologies (ICTs) is vital to this process. A substantial literature has already been generated. Debate has been driven by concern with finding ways of building more effective forms in the face of the widespread and global ‘crises’ of trade unionism, while taking inspiration from the innovative counter-coordination of workers who have already demonstrated the potentialities of new ICTs, for example the Liverpool dockers. In their 1995–98 unofficial dispute the dockers revealed the capacity for the internet to be used for the generation of widespread international solidarity action.