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Ben/towards a program of action (ideas and suggestions)
The central problem in the development of our community-in-embryo
is that we do not have a practical program of work that can attract
and hold the attention of the serious activists who we need.
Our main priority, in my view, must be the development of practical projects that:
1) Illustrate the potential of the principles of systematic information distribution, interaction and organization -- in a phrase: information war
2) Attract the attention and energy of political, cultural or tech activists
For a project to be practical, it must be fairly simple and easy
Possible projects include:
1) Creating a distribution (and response) channel similar to what was started at http://WeaponOfTransparency.com
(see notes below)
2) Gathering systematic replies from organizations which describe themselves as
revolutionary giving their position on Obama and the 2008 elections in a 100 words or less.
3) We could do something similar to the above concerning the main issues for developing the antiwar movement
4) We could do the same for some of the theoretical issues realted to the DoP
5) We could put together a FAQ on Workers' Rule (aka the DoP) based on
questions we solicit from RevLeft and other places.
Notes on creating a Channel
(adapted from Ben's June 8, 2008 post to pof-300)
The central problem in the development of our community-in-embryo is that we do not have a practical program of work that can attract and hold the attention of the serious activists who we need. We have had a number of serious activists in our community (ie: X9, DJ Dialectic and Ulyanovist) who gave up on this community because "nothing was happening here".
Marik and I worked (July - November 2006) to create a media distribution channel that would distribute some articles to Indymedia sites and reply to the more serious comments. This effort fell apart when issues in my personal life made it impractical for me to give this project the time and attention it needed. (And there were practical issues that required my attention--for example we needed to use tables in our website for the project--and these were difficult to create--we did not have an easy-to-use wiki like we do now.)
I believe, however, that the basic concept, of systematically distributing key articles (ie: antiwar agitation, revolutionary theory and also interesting political articles we find on the internet) and replying to the more seriouscomments -- and gradually expanding the channel (ie: in boththe number of articles and the places the articles aredistributed) is sound and corresponds to our very limited time and abilities. Organized well, such a project would be able to draw on the work of volunteers who might like our work and want to assist it.
The project history and principles are on the web at: http://WeaponOfTransparency.com . Some of the discussion concerning how to create it will be on the archives (from that period) on pof-300 and the theorist list. There are a number of pitfalls in organizing such a project. It would be easy to waste time replying to the many know-it-alls and self-styled "marxist" generals-without-armies on the internet. It would also be easy to inadvertantly recruit such know-it-alls and generals-without-armies into the project in such a way that they would end up representing the project--with the result that many readers would conclude that the project was mainly hot air and hype and run by people who had little contact with or understanding of the needs of the movement. (This was one of my concerns with Grok, when he was participating on our email lists.)
My view is that the pitfalls can be avoided--if we understand the need to do so. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I have no time, unfortunately, to assist in such a project this year. Life is uncertain. I do not know when I will be able to more fully participate in such a project. Such a project would represent a concrete effort to learn about and harness the potential of information war. And, one way or another, information war will represent our program of work and the fundamental salvation of our movement.
is that we do not have a practical program of work that can attract
and hold the attention of the serious activists who we need.
Our main priority, in my view, must be the development of practical projects that:
1) Illustrate the potential of the principles of systematic information distribution, interaction and organization -- in a phrase: information war
2) Attract the attention and energy of political, cultural or tech activists
For a project to be practical, it must be fairly simple and easy
Possible projects include:
1) Creating a distribution (and response) channel similar to what was started at http://WeaponOfTransparency.com
(see notes below)
2) Gathering systematic replies from organizations which describe themselves as
revolutionary giving their position on Obama and the 2008 elections in a 100 words or less.
3) We could do something similar to the above concerning the main issues for developing the antiwar movement
4) We could do the same for some of the theoretical issues realted to the DoP
5) We could put together a FAQ on Workers' Rule (aka the DoP) based on
questions we solicit from RevLeft and other places.
Notes on creating a Channel
(adapted from Ben's June 8, 2008 post to pof-300)
The central problem in the development of our community-in-embryo is that we do not have a practical program of work that can attract and hold the attention of the serious activists who we need. We have had a number of serious activists in our community (ie: X9, DJ Dialectic and Ulyanovist) who gave up on this community because "nothing was happening here".
Marik and I worked (July - November 2006) to create a media distribution channel that would distribute some articles to Indymedia sites and reply to the more serious comments. This effort fell apart when issues in my personal life made it impractical for me to give this project the time and attention it needed. (And there were practical issues that required my attention--for example we needed to use tables in our website for the project--and these were difficult to create--we did not have an easy-to-use wiki like we do now.)
I believe, however, that the basic concept, of systematically distributing key articles (ie: antiwar agitation, revolutionary theory and also interesting political articles we find on the internet) and replying to the more seriouscomments -- and gradually expanding the channel (ie: in boththe number of articles and the places the articles aredistributed) is sound and corresponds to our very limited time and abilities. Organized well, such a project would be able to draw on the work of volunteers who might like our work and want to assist it.
The project history and principles are on the web at: http://WeaponOfTransparency.com . Some of the discussion concerning how to create it will be on the archives (from that period) on pof-300 and the theorist list. There are a number of pitfalls in organizing such a project. It would be easy to waste time replying to the many know-it-alls and self-styled "marxist" generals-without-armies on the internet. It would also be easy to inadvertantly recruit such know-it-alls and generals-without-armies into the project in such a way that they would end up representing the project--with the result that many readers would conclude that the project was mainly hot air and hype and run by people who had little contact with or understanding of the needs of the movement. (This was one of my concerns with Grok, when he was participating on our email lists.)
My view is that the pitfalls can be avoided--if we understand the need to do so. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I have no time, unfortunately, to assist in such a project this year. Life is uncertain. I do not know when I will be able to more fully participate in such a project. Such a project would represent a concrete effort to learn about and harness the potential of information war. And, one way or another, information war will represent our program of work and the fundamental salvation of our movement.
BenSeattle |
Latest page update: made by BenSeattle
, Jul 13 2008, 4:20 PM EDT
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