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Annual Mayday Report
for May 2004
Ben Seattle
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I believe it is useful for revolutionary activists to post, by May 1st every year, a summary of their activity over the past year and plans for the coming year.
Capitalist corporations give a public annual report to stockholders every year. Our "stockholders" are the workers and oppressed of the world who, by their own struggles, inspire us and give us strength. An annual report can assist revolutionary activists to better understand the work, activity and priorities of other revolutionary activists. This can be a small step in the direction of transparency and eventual greater coordination of effort.
To set an example, and declare my work and priorities before friend and foe alike, I submit the following:
----------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: -----------------------------------------------------------------
1) What I accomplished in the last year ---------------------------------------- a) Completion of my final installment of the
Anarcho-Leninist Debate on the State (ALDS) b) Overhauled the forum at http://communism.org
to feature a series of ads for the ALDS and
the pof-200 email discussion list--and enlisted the
help of two volunteers to help moderate the list c) Made some posts to the Seattle Indymedia site
(and internal email list) discussing the need for
an interactive news site fueled by the energy of activists
and readers and not controlled by social-democracy
2) What I plan to accomplish in the coming year ------------------------------------------------- a) Make one post a week to the pof-200 discussion list b) Organize distribution (to email lists and Indymedia sites)
of ALDS installments c) Create a functional specification for an interactive forum
that allows readers to rate and filter posts and comments
and which includes some of the features of wiki's and blogs d) Create a web site and discussion list focused on
the development of an interactive news site where
readers can rate and filter posts and comments
3) Problems that came up in my work
and solutions that were developed ---------------------------------------- a) Further postponement of efforts to distribute
ALDS installments b) Further postponement of my bulletin board
infrastructure work
4) An invitation to participate in the work to create
a mass movement directed at the overthrow of
the system of bourgeois rule ----------------------------------------------------
OK--let's now review the above in detail:
============================================================ 1) What I accomplished in the last year ============================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------- a) Completion of my final installment of the
Anarcho-Leninist Debate on the State (ALDS) -----------------------------------------------------------------
My final installment of the ALDS was completed in March. It is titled "The World for which We Fight" and includes a 14 point section titled "The Laws of Commodity Production for Dummies". It also sums up the entire debate and is available online at http://struggle.net/ALDS/part_7.htm .
This debate aims to popularize the theoretical foundations of the mass movement that will be directed at the overthrow of the system of bourgeois rule. The section on the laws of commodity production (presented in a popular format without being excessively "dumbed down") was necessary because anarchist-minded and marxist-minded activists will _never_ be able to forge a common view of our goal of a post-bourgeois society without understanding the nature of the economy which the victorious working class will inherit from the defeated bourgeoisie.
This installment totaled 35 thousand words, including my comments in appendices A thru F. It includes the most comprehensive (if speculative) description I have written of how, in the period following the overthrow of bourgeois rule, the self-organizing moneyless economy will outcompete the commodity economy and push it aside over a period of decades (appendix F) and another detailed refutation of the methods by which a cargo-cult Leninist organization (the Communist Voice Organization) counterposes their bankrupt fetish for centralization to the bankruptcy of the anarchist marketplace (appendix C).
----------------------------------------------------------------- b) Overhauled the forum at http://communism.org
to feature a series of ads for the ALDS and
the pof-200 email discussion list--and enlisted the
help of two volunteers to help moderate the list -----------------------------------------------------------------
In December 2003 I modified the scripts which run the forum at http://communism.org to include a series of 26 political "ads" between every other post. These ads help to liven up the forum with precise summaries of deeply thoughtful essays that explore the kinds of questions and ideas that are of interest to many progressive activists (and ordinary people) who visit the forum. (One example of these is a micro-essay I wrote on "communism and human nature" which replies to the most common line expressed by anti-communist posters. This micro-essay includes theoretical work which is unavailable anywhere else and which discusses the movement around the Linux operating system as an example of communist relations of production.) These ads highlite some of the powerful installments I have written for the anarcho-leninist debate on the state as well as some of my other theoretical work. In addition, these ads invite progressive people who post to join the pof-200 discussion list.
How many people see these ads? The traffic for the http://communism.org (and the identical dot com) site totals a bit less than 6,000 hits a month (mostly from bored high school kids in the U.S. but also from activists and interested people worldwide). Not all of these people see the ads but approximately 400 people a month do post to the forum. Approximately half of these 400 people a month who post are progressive (with the remaining half divided between anti-communists and people with intellectual curiosity).
About 125 people a month visit the page which describes the mission and rules of conduct for the pof-200 list at: http://struggle.net/ben/pof-200.htm . This is currently resulting in a net influx (of subscriptions minus unsubscriptions) of 5 new subscribers a month to the pof-200 list.
Since the demands of commodity production in the real world (ie: a need to focus my time on matters related to my job) currently restrict me from engaging in any online political activity except on weekends--I have been fortunate to receive offers from two subscribers to the pof-200 list to help moderate the list. Moderation of the list has so far not been much of an issue but this may eventually change as the list grows (the list currently has about 40 subscribers and if the current rate of expansion continues could have as many as 100 subscribers a year from now).
Online political forums are often full of bullshit, disrespect and insincerity. Blatant disrespect and insincerity will not be allowed on the pof-200 list (subscribers will be able to challenge one another--but will be required to do so in a calm and scientific way).
A certain amount of bullshit will be inevitable on the pof-200 list if only because the currently existing crisis of theory has left even the most dedicated and serious activists ignorant about basic theoretical questions. My hope is that eventually the list will see the development of a core of activists who recognize the need for calm and thoughtful intervention to create clarity on the most fundamental questions which come up. I very much would like to see this happen. If it does--then the quality of the pof-200 list will be able to keep pace with the increase in the subscriber base. If this does not happen--then eventually there will be a need for another list which which would be restricted to activists with more political experience or theoretical clarity.
----------------------------------------------------------------- c) Made some posts to the Seattle Indymedia site
(and internal email list) discussing the need for
an interactive news site fueled by the energy of activists
and readers and not controlled by social-democracy -----------------------------------------------------------------
In the fall of 2003 I made a number of posts to the "open publishing" forum of the Seattle Indymedia website as well as the internal email list of the collective which runs the site. Some of these posts are linked to from my web page at http://struggle.net/ben (see "other antiwar work" in the "Antiwar work" section).
It is clear to me that eventually a major front of work will need to be opened up to capture the attention of and engage the more radical section of Indymedia activists. Currently the Indymedia sites are a mixture of militant activism and the social-democratic pacifist and liberal swamp. Some sites have a relatively high signal-to-noise ratio and other sites are flooded with posts and comments from freepers (people organized from http://freerepublic.com ) trolls and neo-nazis.
What we must recognize is that hundreds (or thousands) of activists recognize the need for (and the possibilities of) making use of the emerging revolution in digital communications to create democratically-run interactive news sites with the ability to compete with bourgeois and mainstream news institutions. These activists are running into all kinds of obstacles (mainly political) which they do not understand very well and find intensely frustrating.
There is very much a need to assist these activists and enlist their help in the creation of a news site which:
(i) makes use of the energy of readers to rate and filter posts
and comments from a wide variety of sources (ie: mainstream
bourgeois sources, reformist sources, radical sources and
individual RSS feeds) and also (ii) is run by a core of activists who are determined to break
free from the typical liberal-labor reformist swamp
============================================================ 2) What I plan to accomplish in the coming year ============================================================
(please see part 2 of 2)