ABSTRACT

This chapter examines labour-based media, particularly in the United States, and places them at the core of labour organization, positioning communications practice in its many different forms as central to the task of uniting workers and building movements, organizations, collective actions and institutions. Labour saw radio as an ideal medium and a great potential to bring the voice of labour into the household easily and inexpensively. As John Downing remarks: 'The most accessible and most fundamental mode of radical expression is speech for public purposes'. Many of the early trade unions in the US were formed to a large extent from groups of workers who found it essential to create media tools that could reach out to their respective language groups. The proliferation of media can accommodate a greater democratic access to communications tools, allowing many people to be able to be message senders as well as receivers.