technology
Capitalism, Technology and the Environment
A (non-orthodox) Marxist critique of technology under capitalism as inherently antagonistic towards the environment as well as labor.
US military researching microwave crowd control weapons
The United States military is still researching a controversial microwave weapon that could be deployed against crowds from aircraft.
The US military is to increase funding for the Active Denial System (ADS) from $2mil to $10mil despite the controversy surrounding the weapon. The ADS is described by the Pentagon as a 'non-lethal weapon' and is intended to be used a crowd control device.
Technoskeptic - Antagonism
Article examining modern technology, and the limitations of its use for subversive practices.
The meaning of technology is more and more contested within radical movements. The archetypal positions are those of technophilia and technophobia. Technophiles emphasise the potentially liberating aspects of technology such as the labour saving possibilities (abolition of work through automation) or greater communication (providing for the first time the conditions for a world community).
John Zerzan and the primitive confusion, by En Attendant - Paul Petard
Paul Petard reviews a pamphlet criticising the primitivism of John Zerzan.
This Chronos pamphlet, John Zerzan and the primitive confusion is a reprint of a French text which was translated in September 2000 to coincide with a talk in London by the political neo-primitivist John Zerzan. The talk was hosted by U.K.
The commoditization of science
Ecologist Richard Levins and geneticist Richard Lewontin argue that modern science has been fully incorporated into the process of capitalism, and is subject to the same conditions as any other commodity.
They discuss the implications this has for scientific research, and the influence of bourgeois ideology on the thinking of scientists. The essay is taken from their 1985 book, The Dialectical Biologist.
Review - Cyber-Marx
The subtitle of this book is Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism. This hints of an attempt to analyse the current state of global class composition, to unearth the tendencies leading out of our current paralysis and offer hope of a new world. A Communist Manifesto for the 21st Century perhaps?
Update on Manchester Fujitsu strike
A report from the Amicus union on the recent strike of Fujitsu workers in Manchester, dated December 1st.
Dispute Update
Amicus Reps Ian Allinson, Lynne Hodge and Sulayman Munir attended the talks with ACAS yesterday, where the company was represented by Richard Bull, Larry Upton and Howard Morgan.
Cancerous computers
Following the clearing in 2004 of IBM in a lawsuit alleging they knew about carcinogens found in their computer chip factories, a new scientific study has been brought out confirming that workers in computer facilities have a high risk of developing cancer.
A new report published by online science journal Environmental Health (ehjournal.net) has found that US workers in the computer manufacturing centre have a significantly greater likelihood of contracting a wide range of cancers than the rest of the population.
MWR speech about web activism at the European Social Forum, 2002
Transcript of MWR member Bouncer's speech about the group internet activism at the European Social Forum in Florence, Italy, November 2002.
As we have heard, in the beginning, some time in 1997, the roots of what we now know and love (or hate as the case may be) as MWR started as an attempt to unionise a McDonald's store, bringing forth comments from managers such as- "do you want to keep your job? You could go far".
1980s-1990s: The Myths of the Toyota System
The Myths of the Toyota System - Nomura Masami
Presented in PDF format (1mb).
