ILCA Media Members Will Give Themselves
A Barrel of Awards to Celebrate Their Talents

From April 1 to the end of July, members of the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) will be involved in competing for some 80 or more awards in about 50 categories that cover all aspects of media journalism. The competition for the awards is limited to paid-up ILCA dues-payers, and the entries will be mostly judged by ILCA members themselves.

The reason for the large number of awards, ILCA leaders explain, is “to recognize the cutting-edge work members are doing and encourage labor journalists to expand their horizons.” Categories for awards range from newsletters to high-circulation magazines of international unions.

In the “General Excellence” categories, Group 4 states: “Eligible items include booklets or brochures used to promote organizing or legislative activity, calendars, posters, books commemorating anniversaries and similar publications.”

The awards will be announced at Inca’s annual luncheon on November 19, with most of the winners present to receive their honors. Handling all the myriad applications for the awards and the luncheon is a small staff headed by Mariya Strauss, ILCA’s media coordinator.

Is ILCA’s Display of Self-Congratulation Justified?

ILCA’s regular top feature, “Swapping Stories,” contains no entries from its members, except for five news stories by Mark Gruenberg, a syndicated labor reporter, mostly about the AFL-CIO leadership. I think Mark is worthy of an ILCA award, but why aren’t there labor stories by other ILCA members posted on “Swapping Stories”?

I think it’s a sad mistake for ILCA to spend four months in exhorting its members to participate in a competition against each other for awards to bolster their self-esteem. There must be more important ways to spend their time.

I have monitored ILCA’s news stories throughout 2009 and I can’t remember any story that is still memorable for its unusual informational or critical comments. I may have overlooked some likely candidates, but I challenge ILCA’s president and executive board to come up with three stories, exclusive of Gruenberg’s, that they think deserve an award for outstanding reporting.

With working people taking a beating and unions on the defensive, an independent labor media is essential to the survival of the labor movement. More than ever, labor needs a national weekly publication, print and electronic, to keep members informed of fast-moving economic and political developments; We need a national weekly radio and television program, like religious and educational institutions have, to explain to the American public where organized labor stands on the issues of the day. This is also an important way to attract millions of workers to join unions.

We must develop speakers who can reach local and national audiences with the truth about why unions are needed. Every effort must be made to keep our members fully informed about international issues, as swell as domestic ones.

We should never forget that, especially in the 21st century,

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (52) will be posted here on Thursday, April 1, 2010, and on our two web sites: www.laboreducator.org and www.laborsvoiceforchange.org