Sally, Thank you for this post, and congratulations for sticking with it for eight years That is impressive. I've only been here for a couple of years now this is very timely.
I was about to give up on the list because of a couple of some of the closed-minded attacks on young freedom fighters from around the world. Those attacks misuse official statistics and denigrate those who think that people are important. I look forward to some of the historical posts and, hopefully, will contribute to keep us on task. Bruce Leier -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of S. Lerner Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 9:28 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: FW: Futurework Anniversary On December 20, 1994 we inaugurated the Futurework List by sending the following message: "WELCOME TO FUTUREWORK Redesigning Work, Income Distribution and Education As the coordinators of the list, we want to welcome you and express the hope that you will find the discussion here stimulating. We see this as a list for addressing new realities from a problem-solving perspective, and we look forward to your input. Basic changes are occurring in the nature of work in all industrialized countries. Information technology has hastened the advent of the global economic village. Jobs that workers at all skills levels in developed countries once held are now done by smart machines and/or in low-wage countries. Contemporary rhetoric proclaims the need for ever-escalating competition, 'leaner and meaner' ways of doing business, a totally 'flexible workforce. jobless growth. What a large permanent reduction in the number of secure, adequately-waged jobs might mean for communities, families and individuals is not being adequately discussed, nor are the implications for income distribution and education. Our objective is to involve you in re-designing for the new realities rather than debating their existence. We hope that this list will help to move these issues to a prominent place on public and political agendas worldwide. FUTUREWORK is hosted by Communications for a Sustainable Future (CSF) located at the University of Colorado at Boulder. FUTUREWORK is an unmoderated and open list, so all messages posted to the list ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) will automatically be redistributed around the world. Be sure to check that you wish your message to be widely read before you send it and please try to limit each post to no more than 3 screens. Should you wish to unsubscribe from FUTUREWORK, send the two-word message: unsub futurework to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] We look forward to receiving your suggestions and comments. Please do not hesitate to contact either of us if you need help with the list. Sally Lerner Arthur Cordell University of Waterloo Industry Canada Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]" NOTE: The info above is historical - no longer current except for Sally's address. The next few days and weeks were immensely exciting, as the FW list began to self-organize! Posts came flying in; people introduced themselves, offered opinions, revved up conversations. (The CSF group was especially helpful in those early days.) A variety of themes began to emerge on the list (see below) and it seemed that identifiers would be needed to keep all these threads straight (though free-spirited FWers never really took to the identifier idea.) Between now and the end of the year, look for some vintage FW posts, as we celebrate seven years of the Futurework experiment. Maybe we can re-kindle some of those early debates! Best wishes to all FWers for a safe and happy holiday season. Futurework List - Emerging Themes, with Identifiers (Dec. 1994) FW: Futurework - general discussion, overview, new realities, period of basic shifts, changes ACCTS: Accounting, e.g. social/env'l costs of actions C: Competition, competitiveness COMM: Community CORP: Corporate activities, incl. transnat'l, multinat'l ECONDEV: Economic development, e.g. local, regional ED+T: Education, including job training ENV: Environmental concerns, considerations, limitations ETHICS: Ethical considerations, concerns GCI/BI: Guaranteed basic/citizen's income via various programs GRPS: Age, gender, race, immigrant, etc. aspects of FW HIST: Historical questions, perspectives INFML: Informal economy, incl. unpaid work, underground INST: Institutional considerations, needed changes IT: Information technologies, e.g. uses of, pos/neg impacts of LFSTYL: Lifestyle aspects, e.g. live simply, less consumption LINK: Linkages needed among various aspects of FW PARTI: Participatory considerations, e.g.in politics, work POL: Politics, power POLAR: Polarization of skills, income, access to various goods POLOPT: Policy options for dealing with FW realities POV: Poverty, welfare system PROD: Productivity (RE)DISTR:(Re)distribution of income,wealth; economic justice SOCMOV: Social movement(s) TAX: Various ideas, e.g. bit tax, tax speculation, tax 'bads' 3rdW: "Third World" issues, aspects UNEMPL: Unemployment, underemployment UNION: Labor union aspects, issues, challenges WKOWN: Worker ownership, co-ops, etc. WKSHR: Work sharing, work week, overtime issues WKCND: Working conditions
