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Rating: 
Summary: Marx Revisited
Review: I had an urge to go back to readings on politics after September 11th tragedy... So I bought a few books from Amazon and Autonomedia. Spent Christmas time reading them with an almost furiouos enthusiasm!
As a 49 years artist, european and ex-trotskyst wandering along the late capitalism pathway of illusions, I found this book an absolute must for anyone trying to do a map of the present state of humankind.
It is most probably the best portrait of post-marxism and neo-marxism done in the last twenty years. Systematic, well balanced, straithforward, wit and very very humanistic.
I think that this canadian leftist - Nick Dyer-Witheford - deserves an urgent translation of his book to french, spanish, portuguese and chinese as soon as possible...
Rating:
Summary: Marx Revisited
Review: I had an urge to go back to readings on politics after September 11th tragedy... So I bought a few books from Amazon and Autonomedia. Spent Christmas time reading them with an almost furiouos enthusiasm!
As a 49 years artist, european and ex-trotskyst wandering along the late capitalism pathway of illusions, I found this book an absolute must for anyone trying to do a map of the present state of humankind.
It is most probably the best portrait of post-marxism and neo-marxism done in the last twenty years. Systematic, well balanced, straithforward, wit and very very humanistic.
I think that this canadian leftist - Nick Dyer-Witheford - deserves an urgent translation of his book to french, spanish, portuguese and chinese as soon as possible...
Rating:
Summary: A surgical-like analysis of late capitalism
Review: In a brilliant reassertion of Marxist theory, Nick Dyer-Whitheford picks apart techno-booster utopians such as Alvin Toffler to expose the "information society" as little more than a post-Fordist attempt by capital to sustain itself and extend its dominance, control and repression as never before. In the process of creating and propagating its information infrastructure, however, its availability and accessibility means that it may also be possible for the disenfranchised masses of humanity to subvert the use of information technology in order to create new social structures that exist outside the control of capital. In the author's opinion, the surplus value produced by machines could be used by this new society to institute a guaranteed wage, a communication commons, and a revived democracy.To his credit, the author acknowledges that technology might also be used by fascists to spread hate and intolerance, and that this possibility should not be taken lightly. As capitalism fails for ever larger segments of the world's population, it is possible that an under-educated public may by led by self-serving leaders to turn violently against itself. It is the author's optimisic belief that people will strive for peace and justice that distinguishes his work from the pessimistic tone that suffuses the work of many so-called postmodernists and contemporary European Marxist scholars. Dyer-Whitheford is a magnificent voice of reason and clarity that is trying to cut through the corporate din of misinformation and propaganda in which Marxism is dismissed out of hand. And of course one would expect this, given Marxism's ability to dissect capitalist society like no other philosophical school is able. Let's hope that this important work gets the attention it deserves and provides guidance to those who want to build a more humane and just society.
Rating:
Summary: Cyber-Organizing is only the First Step
Review: Not only does Dyer-Witheford synthesize the seemingly incomprehensible theories of the so-called 'information society,' of 'cyber-space,' he shakes loose the stranglehold of myths that fortify its existence from above, and reminds us of its appropriation by labouring subjects who resist the ubiquitous oppression of global capital. A fantastic work.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This book not only maps out the territory of advanced Capitalism, but it provides a political philosophy that is a "Negri beyond Negri". Although Dyer-Witheford draws a lot of ideas from Antonio Negri and the Italian autonomist tradition, he surpasses them with his excellent analysis of postindustrial capital. Moreover, Negri's most recent work (with Michael Hardt), "Empire" falls short of Dyer-Witheford's "Cyber-Marx" which is more realistic, practical, concise and defensible than Negri has ever been. This book is worth buying by anyone interested in the realities of technological society.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This book not only maps out the territory of advanced Capitalism, but it provides a political philosophy that is a "Negri beyond Negri". Although Dyer-Witheford draws a lot of ideas from Antonio Negri and the Italian autonomist tradition, he surpasses them with his excellent analysis of postindustrial capital. Moreover, Negri's most recent work (with Michael Hardt), "Empire" falls short of Dyer-Witheford's "Cyber-Marx" which is more realistic, practical, concise and defensible than Negri has ever been. This book is worth buying by anyone interested in the realities of technological society.
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Summary: Marxism for right now
Review: This is a masterwork; a unique and nearly comprehensive view of Marxism appropriate for our times. Nick avoids dogma and certainly eliminates all vestiges of teleology. The absence of dogma is indicated by the wide variety of sources that are tied together with a strong square knot. Optimistic yet realistic, this book is a must for all progressives and all who give a damn about human and Earth survival. I would have liked to see more on neutralizing militarism; if he has ideas on this I hope he writes them up. Addendum 12/6/02 -- Why aren't more people discussing this superb work?
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Summary: Circuits of struggle - all fightback links up
Review: This superb book not only takes elements of Marx's legacy and makes them contemporary in a prose embraced enthusiastically by undergraduates. It also lists four sites of struggle within a visions of 'circuits of struggle.' These four are 1. struggle at the site of production (usually waged work)
2. struggle at the point of reproduction (women producing people and labour power, students being educated...);
3. struggle at the interface of nature and people (eco-feminism, water, air, forests and indigenous knowledge, seeds, terminator biotechnology and the like); and finally
4. struggle at the site of consumption (GMO foods, labels on foods, carcinogens and war-related poisoning of people and the ecosystem and the like). The power of this complex analysis of peoples' resistance to corporate profit making is situated in its capacity to unite the thousands of different (formerly called 'single-issue') struggles into one international movement to 'globalize from below' or to build a new 'subsistence society' worldwide centred on the satisfaction of human and ecological needs rather than the production of profit or as John McMurtry (see his forthcoming Value Wars, Pluto, 2002, or 'the Cancer Stage of Capitalism, Pluto, London, 1999)calls 'money demand.' This book is, for me, one of the top ten pieces of brilliant, committed scholarship, ever. It is in the tradition of both CLR James and the Italian autonomistas, notably Antonio Negri and Maria Rosa Dalla Costa.
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