~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ focus on building a community of information war # 59 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Tracking page for the Weapon of Transparency channel 2. The long-term perspective on our work to build a channel 3. The Green-Left Weekly (and other) email lists 4. Working with Markin, WSWS/SEP people as well as Edward, DJ and Uyanovist (proposed accountability commitment) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Marik, ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Tracking page for the Weapon of Transparency channel ------------------------------------------------------------ I created a page at http://struggle.net/wot to make it easier for us to track progress and to track and evaluate responses (when we eventually get responses) to our Indymedia postings. I tried to use our wiki for this page -- but could not get the table to look good in any reasonable amount of time -- so for now I will simply use a web page. (When the Attention Refinery is running -- we will be able to use that to create pages that look good.) I posted to the main UK site in order to bring to 12 the number of sites to which we posted for July. If Vancouver and Atlanta remain out of commission next month -- then we should consider substituting other sites for them. It is good to have at least 16 active sites to choose from: then if one is temporarily down -- we can choose another. tracking censorship ------------------- I also added links to the newswires of the imc sites. That will make it easier for us to check and see if our postings have been removed. In some sites (like Los Angeles) when a posting is removed from the newswire and you go to the link -- the background color displays as pink to indicate that it has been deleted. But in other sites (like Seattle) there is no indication and it is necessary to look at the newswire and determine whether or not our posting is still listed in the newswire. That is also the reason I added the local datetime stamp to a column in the big table on our tracking page -- to make it easier for us to find our post in the newswire. We could also sometime add a link to compost bins for sites (like Portland) that provide a list of what they have deleted. Eventually we can also add email links to imc editorial groups so that we can ask about situations in which our posts are removed. IMC policies are different in different cities -- and also at different times -- since all sites are dealing with increasing numbers of useless posts and the general trend is for the sites to become more restrictive. From our point of view it tends to be better if the sites restricts crap -- because this means that the site will have a larger audience. However in situations where the site editorial committee considers _our_ stuff to be crap -- we want to know about it -- and we can create a polite and diplomatic form letter that we can email in these situations. In some cases -- we may be able to modify what we send or change our content mix (or our site selections) to account for editorial policies. As far as I know, our article was only removed from the newswire at one site: Seattle. But I haven't checked the newswires or compost bins of other sites to see if it may have happened elsewhere. The woman who runs Seattle Indymedia deleted our post (after first posting a sarcastic comment on it). Most likely this is part of her ongoing retaliation against me for the page (see: http://newsrefinery.com/indymedia/seattle ) where I describe her dishonesty and manipulation. I guess we can see what she does in September when we post installments of the "Laws of Commodity Production for Dummies". For political reasons it may be more difficult for her to remove that from the newswire. Every time she removes something that is popular from the newswire -- it carries a political cost to her in terms of exposure to the activist community. private tools ------------- Also -- the pages with the tools that I discussed in private email -- are now included in links at the bottom of the tracking page. These pages are private in the sense that we will not encourage anyone to look at them. But these pages will not necessarily be "secret" -- so I have included the links at the bottom of the page (as "L Tool" and "R Tool") -- in order to make it easier for us to find them. ------------------------------------------------------------ 2. The long-term perspective on our work to build a channel ------------------------------------------------------------ At this time most of our audience is quite passive. That is ok. Activists are not getting the kind of information which they need. We can help give this information to them -- in a systematic way and over time. We will not see any immediate, measurable results for a considerable period of time. This is one reason it will be important for us to learn to make our posts in a relatively easy way -- so that we can maintain this work relatively easily. Our seeds will take time to germinate. This will not be an overnight process. But if what we are doing corresponds to the material needs of the ideological struggle within the movement -- then our work will eventually yield fruit. In the meantime we can learn how to do it easily and well. ------------------------------------------------------------ 3. The Green-Left Weekly (and other) email lists ------------------------------------------------------------ Earlier, you asked about posting to the Green-Left weekly email list. I think this is a good idea if you have the energy to do it at this time. I think, however, we should create a template before posting if we are thinking of posting as part of the WOT channel. If you have the time -- go ahead and put together a template that is similar to the one we used for Indymedia. Or, if you would like, I could modify the template. Let me know. And, if we post, we should also post at the same time to our own pof-200 list. Many or most of our subscribers here have never read any of my significant theoretical works. Maybe a few of them may find some of it to be of interest. Eventually, I would like to be posting to a lot of email lists. But I am not in a big hurry to get this started. A big hurry, in my experience, can lead to getting exhausted. We must have a long-term view. My philosophy is to take things one small step at a time. ------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Working with Markin, WSWS/SEP people as well as Edward, DJ and Uyanovist (proposed accountability commitment) ------------------------------------------------------------ I have been giving thought to how we might eventually be able to draw activists like: * Markin (the "modest proposal" guy) * the WSWS/SEP people * Edward, DJ and Ulyanovist into our work (or, at least for now, our discussion list). I have been thinking that we could send them a letter which asks them to make a commitment to accountability. The commitment should be something which will not take a lot of time -- but which would represent a step forward in the direction of bringing anti-reformist activists together to be on the same page. 1. The commitment would involve creating at least one public annual report each year -- and to publicly reply to public questions about it from other activists who have some kind of anti-reformist experience in the movement. 2. The commitment would also involve making at least 4 posts per year (ie: at least one post in each quarter) to an email list with public archives that anti-reformist activists have the ability to join. Our own pof-200 list would not necessarily be part of this commitment. Maybe these people have other lists or open forums which they prefer. But we hope that, if they don't have other forums that they prefer -- that they will consider using ours. We would also make clear that it is possible to subscribe to the pof-200 list in such a way that email is not sent to them and can instead be viewed in the public archives. (This would be important because serious activists have little time for a lot of the junk which often appears on many email lists -- including our own.) The annual report would include at least 3 or 4 sentences about each of the following topics: (a) plans for coming year, (b) list of what was accomplished in previous year and (c) what happened (or was learned) to account for the gap between "plans" as posted in the previous year and what was actually accomplished I am thinking of calling this commitment to accountability by a formal name: "The Commitment to Accountability and Open Communications to Serve the Independent Movement of the Working Class". But maybe a formal name might not be necessary. Anyway -- I would like to know what you think of this. Different activists have different priorities and agendas. Eventually the serious activists will need to discover one another and learn to work on common projects that reflect common priorities. Maybe this could be a step in that direction. Sincerely and with revolutionary regards, Ben Seattle http://struggle.net/ben * Antiwar agitation and cartoons * The open struggle over the decisive tasks in antiwar movement * For a democratic and accountable Indymedia: proposals/criticism * The email lists of the Media Weapon community needs you! Isolated from one another we are easily defeated. Connected to one another no force on earth can stop us http://MediaWeapon.com (This is not a discussion list--the discussion list is pof-200) THEORIST LIST -------------- To unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/messages Info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theorist/ POF-200 ------- home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pof-200/ to subscribe:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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