On 12 Sep 2006, at 14:31, Tim Cowlishaw wrote:
Culture is not the only driver of political passions. A desire for democratic equality can equally lead one to a position defending the rights of free culture and a democratic political public sphere. As can many other arguments and reasonings, such as economic arguments for the provision of public goods.
But they have been proved to be mutually exclusive in the case of Free Culture. One side wants a national organisation the other does not. That is not a false dichotomy, it is a fact drawn from the arguments taking place on this list. Every time there are questions as to strategy, the Networkers claim we don't need a large scale organisation and we can work individually at the local level to achieve the same ends. Well, the history of this mailing list attests to the paucity of this approach. It looks like there will be an election sooner rather than later in the UK following Blair's resignation, here is an opportunity to raise the profile of the issues we want, and again I repeat that national MPs will not be paying much attention to local arts based movements. It will be to arguments over UK competitiveness, innovation and economic growth. This is where Free Culture needs to set up base, and start refining its arguments for contributing to national society. Otherwise it will be committed to the dustbin of history, or at least the locally-based small scale, community based networks - which is tantamount to the same thing. |
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