The Liverpool dockworkers' strike 1995-98 and the Internet. Paper for panel on Global Unionism in the ‘Information Age’: Information Communication Technologies and Effective Bargain, International Conference on Global Companies - Global Unions, Global Res

This paper/presentation examines how 500 Liverpool dockworkers, sacked for refusing to cross a picket line, used the Internet very effectively to organise widespread international action in their support. They did not just act as isolated "labor militants". They used official union structures where and when these gave them support, but bypassed them "as damage " when they did not, and instead used a host of unofficial channels and structures to build an extremely powerful network bringing about worldwide action in their support. These actions brought them into growing conflict with the existing official union structures over their use of the Internet to build an international support network outside their control. Many union officials saw this Internet-based networking as a threat to their dominant position, based, as it is, largely on their control of channels of information and command. The Internet has been used extensively by new social movements to create strong international networks that can be seen as contributing towards the growth of a globalized form of civil society. In contrast to this, a traditional social movement