Changes between Version 1 and Version 2 of projects/technology-and-revolution/genera-call

Timestamp:

Dec 30, 2016, 6:37:27 PM (9 years ago)

Author:

Jamie McClelland

Comment:

--

projects/technology-and-revolution/genera-call

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+[[PageOutline]]
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 = Technology and Revolution Call =
 
@@ -17 +19 @@
 Maybe we should start by talking about what we have in common: our belief in fundamental change and our reliance on and development of technology. Maybe we need to start talking about the relationship between change and technology and how that relationship affects the practical and political work we are doing.
 
-Here's '''the''' question:
-
-What if, using technology, we can solve all the problems that move us to action in all our movements of response? Wouldn't that make control of technology a major issue for all our movements -- the "issue" that begins to unify us and that forms the basis for a wider strategic conversation?
-
 We think that's worth exploring. So...
 
-We are calling on our own members and the many other organizations our members work with -- basically the entire movement -- to get together in convergences all over the country to talk about Technology and Revolution.
+We are calling on the movement (our own members and beyond) to get together in convergences all over the country to talk about Technology and Revolution.
 
-Here's one way of looking at this problem:
+== Goals ==
+
+ * Contribute to building a broad left movement strategy
+ * Build tighter relationships between experienced movement organizers with limited understanding of technology and techie activists with limited movement experience
+ * Practice developing inter-generational, mixed race and gender environments that builds respect and power
+
+== Context ==
 
  1. Starting in the 1970s, information technology was introduced into production and many other aspects of our society. It transformed countless social functions, including work as it replaced the industrial working class as the primary motor of commodity production and eliminated this group of people who had their hands on capitalism's means of production. For all practical purposes, what was traditionally called "the proletariat" disappeared as a social force. This was critical to the Left of that period because the strategy the Left had either embraced or debated was centered on working class organization at the "point of production". The Left was left without a cohesive strategy.
@@ -32 +36 @@
  1. And yet, because of information technology, our movement has never been more capable of rapid communications and response organizing. Our influence is broadening all the time. Our ability to deliver our message quickly and comprehensively has never been greater.
  1. And technology transformed us in another important way: for the first time, our ability to create a society we want surpasses our imagination of what kind of society that can be. For the first time in human history, we can realize more than we can imagine and the struggle is to expand, not our capabilities, but our imaginations.
- 1. The priority of the movement in this country is to start developing a strategy for revolution that can unify us or at least serve as the source of debate. Because of the key role technology has played in all these developments, that strategy for revolution *must* include an approach to technology.
+ 1. The priority of the movement in this country is to start developing a strategy for revolution that can unify us or at least serve as the source of debate. Because of the key role technology has played in all these developments, that strategy for revolution ''must'' include an approach to technology.
  1. Logically, a revolutionary program should include the "reconquest of technology" and that, in and of itself, is a huge undertaking that can only be accomplished inside a larger, more inconclusive strategy. It's also not possible to elaborate without intense and large-scaled convergence and conversation.
 
@@ -39 +43 @@
 == The Convergences == 
 
+We are asking you to join us in organizing a series of convergences to address these issues.
+
  1. There is no requisite format to a convergence. It can be comprised of a group of individuals (even a group of friends) or a "summit" of organizational representatives or both. A convergence can last two hours or as much as a full day.
  1. What makes it "official" is that the convergence organizers:
@@ -44 +50 @@
   1. including at least one techie in the group
   1. post a report on their conversations on our website and identify, to the national organizing team, participants names and email.
- 1. We are circulating some questions and a discussion guide to help with your convergences.
+ 1. We are building a convergence site (to register and report back), reading lists, sample agendas, discussion guides, software tips for fighting surveillance and other resources to help you plan and carry out a convergence