Internet at work

The Maritime Union of Australia has gone a small way, in the eyes

of Norwegians, towards saving our nation's reputation as a decent

society by protesting the Howard Government's actions on the Tampa

crisis.

Norway, with a long and proud seafaring tradition, is flabbergasted

by the action of John Howard in denying entry to the Wilhelmsen

Line cargo freighter, Tampa, who have on board hundreds of refugees

saved by the Norwegian captain and crew from a sinking hulk in

the seas to our north-west.

On Wednesday night the MUA's protest received widespread positive

coverage in Norway's media.

The Norwegian media found out about this union activity thanks

largely to the power of the web.

It happened like this: MUA members discussed the crisis at its

monthly stopwork meetings. Reports were promptly placed on the

MUA website and the Workers' Online newsfeed.

The MUA media release, once spotted was then logged onto the international

union web-site LabourStart.

LabourStart is also produced in nine other languages, including

Norwegian. The editor of Norsk LabourStart was alerted and was

asked to translate. As well a link to the original the MUA media

release was placed on the top-right hand corner of Norsk LabourStart.

The editor then informed the Norwegian LO, the peak trade union

body in Norway, who put the same story as a lead item on their

website.

The LO's media people then directed local Norwegian media to the

story.

You can send messages of solidarity and herograms to the Captain

and crew on the Tampa by sending an e-mail to the Wilhelmsen Line.

info@2wglobal.com