Radical media, politics and culture.
August 5, 2002 - 3:22pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

A Capsule History of the Dutch Provos

By Teun Voeten provos

It's no secret that Holland has the most liberal drug laws in the world,
especially when it comes to cannabis. What you may not realize, however,
is that these laws were enacted thanks to the efforts of the Dutch Provos.
The Provos set the stage for the creation of the Merry Pranksters,
Diggers, and Yippies. They were the first to combine non-violence and
absurd humor to create social change. They created the first "Happenings"
and "Be-Ins." They were also the first to actively campaign against
marijuana prohibition. Even so, they remain relatively unknown outside of
Holland. Now, for the first time, their true story is told.

August 5, 2002 - 11:31am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Independent Media

hydrarchist writes :This article was published in the autonomist ejournal The Commoner

Pondering Information and Communication in Contemporary Anti-Capitalist Movements.


Steve Wright


What follows are some thoughts about the role played by information and communication technologies (ICT) within current movements against global capital. These reflections are prompted by my own passing involvement in a number of such online projects from the mid-nineties onwards. Is the nature of information and communication something self-evident, or instead might they be too often taken for granted, and perhaps deserving of broader discussion?

August 1, 2002 - 12:02pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

Anonymous Comrade writes:

You may find our pamphlet "Bordiga versus Pannekoek"
interesting:

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/bo rdiga/bvptoc.html

Incidently, its just been reviewed by the ICC who rather
predictably criticise it for 'modernism', 'anarchism' and
undermining the need for the Revolutionary Party.

August 1, 2002 - 10:21am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
News

toshimaru ogura ogr@nsknet.or.jp writes:

We are Japanese lawyers who have been working for Japan's ratification of
the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, and for introduction of International Law of
Human Rights into our soil.

As lawyers in action, we are fully aware of the fact that counter-measures
against trans-border organized crimes and terrorism are put on the agenda
for urgent needs by the international community. But on the other hand,
some of these measures may affect or even encroach on the basic principles
of penal law enshrined by modern societies or internationally admitted
principles of human rights. This is particularly anxious about the newly
conceived policies against such crimes or terrorism by the International
Convention against Organized Crimes or a review of the 40 recommendations
of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in OECD. We believe firmly that
international protection of human rights should be an important object to
be achieved by the international community as a whole, and that any newly
conceived crime policy must be in perfect compatibility with such
principles.

August 1, 2002 - 9:29am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Science

"Kropotkin Was No Crackpot"

Stephen Jay Gould

In late 1909, two great men corresponded across religions,
generations, and races. Leo Tolstoy, sage of Christian
nonviolence in his later years, wrote to the young Mohandas
Gandhi, struggling for the rights of Indian settlers in
South Africa:

"helps our dear brothers and co-workers in the Transvaal.
The same struggle of the tender against the harsh, of
meekness and love against pride and violence, is every year
making itself more and more felt here among us also."

July 31, 2002 - 7:45pm -- Uncle Fluffy
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

Anonymous Comrade writes

"The Préfontaine and Overdale Squats

An Analysis of Building Occupations in Montreal


by Michael William

I have mixed feelings about the Overdale and Préfontaine squats, which is no doubt the case with many people who squatted or who supported the squats. There were delightful
moments and some real triumphs. But there were also many problems and disappointments.

July 31, 2002 - 4:24pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Rants

"Geronimo Knew How To Do It"

Hunter Gray

This is about Factionalism and Organizing and Challenges.

Geronimo [Goyathlay] knew how to do it.

The enduring Apache fighter, whose tactical abilities were equaled only by
his tremendous commitment to his people, never gave up. Traveling, often
with his cohesive band encompassing only with a few dozen warriors and their
women and children, frequently crossing vast stretches of formidable
desert -- sucking a small rock or chewing twigs to keep throats moist --
they fought on and on and on against thousands of U.S. Army troops.
Winchesters were as easily incorporated into their culture as computers are
by the Natives of today.

July 31, 2002 - 7:29am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Theory

jim writes:

"ANARCHA-FEMINISM * by Flick Ruby

For too long anarchist feminists have been labeled as the ladies
auxiliary of male bomb throwers. The misconception and manipulation of
both feminists
and anarchist principles and practice have resulted in the use of
sensationalist and ridiculing tactics by the state and its spokespeople.
This has not only
polarised the general populace from potentially liberation concepts but
has also polarised anarchist from feminists. In the past and more so
recently there
has been a uniting of these beliefs and Peggy Korneggers article;
'Anarchism; the Feminist Connection' goes so far as to say that the two
genres of
thought are inextricable tied although the connection has not been
consiously articulated by feminists very often. Kornegger agrues that
feminism
"emphasis on the small group as a basic organisational unit, on the
personal and political, on anti- authoritarianism and on spontanious
direct action was
essentially anarchism. I believe that this puts women in a unique
position of being the bearers of a subsurface anarchist consiousness
which if articulated
and concretised can take us further than any previous group toward the
achievement of total revolution.

July 30, 2002 - 4:21pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

hydrarchist writes "Information Feudalism in the Information Society *

Peter Drahos,

Faculty of law, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

Introduction


"Information revolution", "information society", "information age" and "information explosion" are popular terms to describe social transformations that are linked to technologies which have changed the way that we work, live, and communicate with others. Increasingly the shape of these social transformations is affected by the work of global regulatory institutions like, for example, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (1), the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This paper tells the story of how these institutions propelled information societies into a global feudal order.


One can tell optimistic or pessimistic stories about the social consequences of technology. Pessimistic stories have as their themes the loss of our capacity to control our technological creations, as in the case of Frankenstein's monster, or the increased capacity which technology gives to some powerful group to control the consciousness and lives of others, as in the case of Orwell's 1984. Optimistic stories have as their principal theme liberation; technologies of automation and robotics will free us from jobs that are dangerous or simply full of drudgery; communications technologies will enable us to work with others anywhere in the world; information technology will enable us to time shift our consumption of services and information; these same technologies will enable us to space shift, because, amongst other things, places of work can be accessed from home.


This paper tells a pessimistic story. It tells it in the form of a historical sketch about how the information age reinforced old inequalities and invented some new ones. It tells the story of what is possible, not what will happen. There is no desire here to lend the story a Hobbesian certainty or confidence about the plot. Rather the purpose is to use the scenario to stimulate some critical thought about important global policy initiatives in relation to information and its distribution. This is an issue worth exploring, because if it is not, if there is no lively debate about the options, the information society may turn out to be a more unequal place than we might have hoped.

July 30, 2002 - 3:34pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

Anonymous Comrade writes

TECHNOLOGICAL
DESPOTISM

By Ian Tillium

Part One : RAISING THE HIGH GROUND

In 1991 two American business professors, including one from the Harvard Business School, published a book called 2020 Vision: Transform Your Business Today to Succeed in Tomorrow's Economy. (Davis and Davidson 1991). Although riven through with a kind of Parsonian functionalism, it's nonetheless a very readable bourgeois account of the info revolution, and in addition it's a good source on where exactly this society thinks it's going and wants to go. In this article I want to use it as a peg on which to hang various thoughts on the question of present and future technological change.

Pages