it's a brave attempt to de-fang what is happening so that it doesn't threaten a classic anti-capitalist position, fair enough, (as they say in french, 'circuler, il n'y a rien a voir') but seeking commonality, we can agree with the author that: "Technology will always be used by capital to reinforce its domination, but can equally be used by workers to create a society not based on profit but on the requirements and needs of society. The battle for control may well, as Marx stated, be the key to human liberation, but rather than being located in the “immaterial”, such ­struggles are firmly rooted in the material challenge to capitalism." The point is, not just to understand the world, but to do something about it <g> The professor's way , given the magazine it's published in, is likely to count on the workers to strike against capital; but not to actually create alternatives that take advantage of the new material conditions. Michel On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 2:13 PM, peter waterman <[email protected]

wrote:

​I may have previously posted this item, or another version of such.

However, I don't mind re-posting it in so far as it seems to be a major Marxist (not to mention Trotskyist or SWP) position on the matter.

My feeling is that it is over-determinist. Or that it's pessimism of the intellect is unbalanced by an optimism of the will?

Or, again, that the author does not recognise 1) the technological quantum leap that ICT represents (Castells compares it to the invention of the alphabet, not the steam-engine), nor 2) the contradictory nature of ICT.

So, finally, I would appreciate other - better qualified - opinions on the matter.

Pw

​ http://isj.org.uk/into-the-digital-void/

_______________________________________________ NetworkedLabour mailing list [email protected] http://lists.contrast.org/mailman/listinfo/networkedlabour

-- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/