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rabble.ca is excited to announce a re-launch of a great part of the site, what we now proudly call the Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit. The Activist Toolkit is a special section on rabble.ca that acts as a resource hub for community and labour organizers.

With support from the United Steel Workers we have been expanding and improving the site and will continue to do so in the future — watch for new features! We are excited to name the toolkit after Lynn Williams, one of the most influential North American union leaders of the twentieth century. He was the first Canadian to become International President of the United Steelworkers, where he brought innovative leadership in bargaining and a structural readjustment of the North American steel industry during its most turbulent period, the 1980s and 1990s.

The Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit gathers “how to guides,” workshop outlines, open-source (Creative Commons/copy-left) media and more in one space to promote social justice. You can find an infographic on bargaining 101, a toolkit on how men can stop violence, a workshop on precarious employment, a how-to guide on starting a good food box and much more.

The page is organized as a wiki — like Wikipedia — which means the public can upload tools and resources to promote social change.

At the start of his career in the late 1940s, Lynn Williams was drawn to the activism of the labour movement: “My personal ambitions were focused on joining the labour movement, getting involved and being an activist … I simply wanted to be part of building … I was caught up in the idea of being part of the labour movement, of organizing people, of making a difference in people’s lives. That was what the labour movement was doing across the world in those years.”

“Just the idea of being part of that was satisfying beyond belief or imagination.”

We hope that organizers across Canada and beyond will be inspired to contribute to the Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit and build knowledge and resources for activists everywhere.