Introduction to cy.Rev
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There's an important
revolution going on in the world today. It's being driven by
new developments in information technology and the far-reaching
economic changes they have caused. Digitalized knowledge has
now become the major component in the production of new wealth.
The information society is supplanting industrial society as
surely as industrial society replaced agrarian society.
The depth of these
changes, however, has been largely ignored by much of the left
community. At best, most consider them as "secondary aspect"
to more traditional notions of class struggle and capitalist
crisis, rather than as a new tidal wave sweeping through history.
At worst, those who focus on the information revolution are
dismissed as "technological determinists" or elitists
of one variety or another.
We want to change
this situation. We think the time has come to create a self-conscious
current within the broader progressive movement that grasps
the decisive importance of the information revolution. We want
to help facilitate an ongoing investigation and debate into
the impact of that revolution on the prospects for both capitalism
and socialism. In addition, we want to put that discussion into
the center of the debate on the left's agenda.
Our basic analysis
stresses the revolutionary change in the means of production
in which information technologies are the driving force behind
the creation of new value in society. The changes here are having
a dramatic impact on both the relations of production and the
nature of work. There are new social divisions being created
along with a realignment of classes and strata around many critical
issues. The ground for organizing the class struggle is shifting;
there are new dangers of prolonged joblessness, repression,
chauvinism and war. But there are also new opportunities creating
new possibilities for a democratic and ecologically sustainable
socialism. These require new approaches to strategy, tactics
and methods of work and organization.
We propose cy.Rev
as one forum for this discussion and as a tool to help organize
this current of thought. We would like to publish 4 or 6 times
a year, primarily as an electronic 'zine, available for downloading
or on disk, with a limited hard copy production primarily for
bookstores. We will make one version of the 'zine in plain ASCII
and another formatted for laser printing. Since what we will
be able to do depends largely on your response, we are launching
the journal without a hard schedule for future issues right
away.
We want to expand
our editorial board as soon as possible. We need quickly to
grow far beyond our initiating group in Chicago, both across
the U.S. and around the world. If you want to nominate yourself
or recommend someone else, please contact us. Our criteria for
board membership are two: general agreement with our political
perspective and willingness to contribute time and energy to
the project. This means finding, writing, reviewing and editing
articles, as well as raising money and increasing circulation.
We are excited about
cy.Rev's prospects and the challenge of building a new political
trend. We hope you join us.
Initiators:
Carl Davidson, Ivan Handler, Jerry Harris.
Managing Editor: Carl Davidson.