A loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.
Some are arguing for a free-standing association for activist bloggers, while others suggest a guild open to any blogger -- from knitting fans to video gamers -- that could be created within established labor groups.
With many beginning to see blogger coalitions as a way to find insurance discounts, fight for press credentials or even establish guidelines for dealing with advertising and presenting data on page views, the question that immediately comes to mind is, "What about us?"
In the post-Reconstruction, pre–New Deal era, Blacks, faced with harsh union discrimination and an indifferent (at best) government, typically sided with employers in the era’s great labor-management disputes.
Most Black intellectuals favored a competitive labor market in which Black workers could compete without fear of being shut out by cartels formed by white workers. Black leaders, for example, consistently opposed laws that would prohibit courts from enjoining strikes.
On the rare occasions when unions treated Blacks fairly, however, Blacks joined in impressive numbers. Today, Blacks have a strong presence in unions representing teachers, nurses, and law enforcement. But this labor issue is no longer simply a Black/White thing.
Given the raw emotions being unleashed over this country's immigration policy, would this movement extend to illegals and foreigners? What about children? Or those who, say, blog about porn?
Notwithstanding these potential deal-breakers, there are those unwilling to co-sign on any aspect of this movement.
"The reason I like blogging is that it's very anarchistic. I can do whatever I want whenever I want, and oh my God, you're not going to tell me what to do," said Curt Hopkins, the founder of the Committee to Protect Bloggers.
"The blogosphere is such a weird term and such a weird idea. It's anyone who wants to do it," Hopkins said. "There's absolutely no commonality there. How will they find a commonality to go on? I think it's doomed to failure on any sort of large scale."
About 11 percent of American Internet users have created Web pages or blogs for others while eight percent have created their own online journals or Weblogs, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.With pages focused on everything from bird watching to celebrity footwear, more than 120,000 blogs are created every day and more than 58,000 new posts are made each hour, according to data from Technorati, which tracks more than 94 million blogs worldwide.
Few bloggers are paid for their posts, and even fewer are able to make a living. But many say they often devote as much energy and time as they do to their salaried careers.
While bloggers work to organize their own labor movement, their growing numbers are already being courted by some unions. "Bloggers are on our radar screen right now for approaching and recruiting into the union," said Gerry Colby, president of the National Writers Union, a local of the United Auto Workers. "We're trying to develop strategies to reach bloggers and encourage them to join."
Not surprisingly, there's decidedly less support for a union movement among conservative bloggers. Mark Noonan, an editor at Blogs for Bush and a senior writer at GOP Bloggers, said he worries that a blogger union would undermine the freewheeling nature of the blogosphere," Get us a union and other 'professional' organizations and we'll start to be conformist and we'll start to be just another special interest."
Original story by Ashley M. Heher, (AP)