Teamsters Call on Congress to Support Net Neutrality
October 4th, 2007 by tkarrJim Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, guest blogs at SavetheInternet.com about labor’s growing support for Net Neutrality. According to Hoffa, Net Neutrality is a fundamental component of a healthy and just democracy.
By Jim Hoffa
Guest Blog by Jim Hoffa The Internet is a last refuge for those fighting for the right to know |
Every American and every organization, regardless of wealth or position, should have the same rights of access and expression. These are the very principles upon which this nation was founded.
But today these rights are under attack. Decisions by the Federal Communications Commission and the Supreme Court in 2005 have put at risk the fundamental rights of open access on the Internet. These rule changes would allow a few media multinationals to control the speed at which information can be moved across the Internet, and ultimately control whose information is not moved at all.
Some believe these rules would foster increased investment in new technologies and create new jobs. I believe, however, that this is a very shortsighted view. For example, what would happen if these workers decided to fight for better working conditions? Would they be able to list their grievances on a web site? Just this week, AT&T updated its terms for Internet service. The company will now suspend or cancel Internet service to anyone who speaks out against the company in any way.
When corporations control communications and the ability to appeal to the public for justice, workers will ultimately lose. That was the experience of Canadian telecom workers when they struck Canadian telephone giant Telus in 2005. The company blocked access to voices-for-change.ca and 600 other sympathetic web sites for about 16 hours.
Consolidation of the mainstream media has already led to a visible decline in coverage of workplace issues. The Internet has become the last refuge for truth and balance for organizations fighting for public safety, public security, workers’ rights and the public’s right to know.
The bottom line is that charging some organizations more to ensure rapid delivery of their message is un-American and endangers every individual or group that would dare dissent from the corporate gatekeeper’s point of view. The Internet was created and has flourished under the concepts of open access and collaboration.
Some companies have grown rich by creating innovative technologies and content. Others have learned that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Creating a tiered system of content delivery in which corporations can control which information gets out, which information is slowed and which information flows freely, falls into the latter category.
I have urged the Senate to take up S.B. 215, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, known as ‘Net Neutrality.’ This bipartisan measure updates the 70-year- old Communications Act of 1934 and would ensure that discrimination and economic injustice does not return in a 21st Century form.
