Re: <nettime> [talk given at tulipomania dotcom]

[Craig Brozefsky <craig@red-bean.com>]

McKenzie Wark <mwark@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au> writes:

> Since Craig has managed to misunderstand everything, i will, patiently,
> as a teacher does, explain it one more time. 

I'm afraid you have taken my sarcasm for misunderstanding.  

I undertand your points, but do not agree with the conclusions you
have drawn which have lead you to believe that the publishing market
will offer a viable lever or alternate income source for academedians
to allow them to put pressure on their wage relation with educational
institutions.  Somehow I have problems seeing, "well, get a second job
and ask your boss for a raise" position being tenable, even with the
curent academic environment which makes publishing a requirement for
most instructors.  The journal and trade book publishing industry is
tighter than the Sci-Fi genre, and can not in anyway be seen as
presenting an alternate livlihood for any but a few stars.  

I also do not agree with your assertion via questionable anecdote that
the loosening of protection of intellectual property, or just it's
Fair Use has had any appreciable effect on the coagulation of
publishing empires.  I agree that such collusion exists, but I don't
buy your "cause".  Also, it seems that what your proposing is some
slight changes in the traditional journal copyright assignment, some
re-arrangement of the broken relationship between writers and
publishers.  My disagreement has nothing to do with some misplaced
sympathy for the student who would be forced to decide between a
six-pack of Milwaukee's Best or a license for a required text.

Lastly, I think by addressing this problem from a position that sees
the wage system as an inevitability and strives to assert more control
over this relation, will only result in the strengthening of the wage
systems control over workers.  Take for example the UofCalifornia's
student-worker's unionization drive and it's connection with the UAW.
The history of the U.S. Labor movement in the last 50 years is a clear
indicator that the UAW and the AFL-CIO do not have worker's well-being
as their primary goal.

If you are indeed going to sugest that the Academedians assimilate
some of the tactics of the labor movement, I would suggest you begin
by throwing out the unsuccesfuly tactics which has turned the labor
movement into corporatist middle-men for capital.  This mutation of
unions without a goal expanding beyond the wage system into a force
for capital is systemic I doubt the Academy could avoid it.

-- 
Craig Brozefsky               <craig@red-bean.com>
Lisp Web Dev List  http://www.red-bean.com/lispweb
---  The only good lisper is a coding lisper.  ---

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