Martin, Brian. (1998). Information Liberation.
Challenging the Corruptions of Information Power.
London: Freedom Press, 189 p. ISBN 0 900384 93 X.
Online fulltext, HTML:
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/98il/ilall.html
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Comments:
Albert Einstein wrote in 1949 in his famous
article "Why socialism?" in the first issue of
the communist U.S. journal Monthly Review:
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in
few hands, partly because of competition among
the capitalists, and partly because technological
development and the increasing division of labor
encourage the formation of larger units of
production at the expense of smaller ones. The
result of these developments is an oligarchy of
private capital the enormous power of which
cannot be effectively checked even by a
democratically organized political society. This
is true since the members of legislative bodies
are selected by political parties, largely
financed or otherwise influenced by private
capitalists who, for all practical purposes,
separate the electorate from the legislature. The
consequence is that the representatives of the
people do not in fact sufficiently protect the
interests of the underprivileged sections of the
population. Moreover, under existing conditions,
private capitalists inevitably control, directly
or indirectly, the main sources of information
(press, radio, education). It is thus extremely
difficult, and indeed in most cases quite
impossible, for the individual citizen to come to
objective conclusions and to make intelligent use
of his political rights."
"Production is carried on for profit, not for
use. There is no provision that all those able
and willing to work will always be in a position
to find employment; an "army of unemployed"
almost always exists. The worker is constantly in
fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and
poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable
market, the production of consumers' goods is
restricted, and great hardship is the
consequence. Technological progress frequently
results in more unemployment rather than in an
easing of the burden of work for all. The profit
motive, in conjunction with competition among
capitalists, is responsible for an instability in
the accumulation and utilization of capital which
leads to increasingly severe depressions.
Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of
labor, and to that crippling of the social
consciousness of individuals which I mentioned
before.
This crippling of individuals I consider the
worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational
system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated
competitive attitude is inculcated into the
student, who is trained to worship acquisitive
success as a preparation for his future career.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate
these grave evils, namely through the
establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied
by an educational system which would be oriented
toward social goals. In such an economy, the
means of production are owned by society itself
and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned
economy, which adjusts production to the needs of
the community, would distribute the work to be
done among all those able to work and would
guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and
child. The education of the individual, in
addition to promoting his own innate abilities,
would attempt to develop in him a sense of
responsibility for his fellow men in place of the
glorification of power and success in our present
society." (see the online version at:
http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einst.htm or read
it at: Albert Einstein. Sobre el humanismo.
Escritos sobre política, sociedad y ciencia.
Barcelona: Ediciones Paidos, 1995)
In 1996 Herbert Irving Schiller, a marxist U.S.
sociologist, economist, and critic, wrote in one
of his most stentorean critiques against the U.S.
informational capitalism, Information Inequality:
The Deepening Social Crisis in America:
"The spectacularly improved means of producing,
organizing, and disseminating information has
transformed industrial, political, and cultural
practices and processes. Manufacturing,
elections, and creative efforts are increasingly
dependent on informational inputs. This has
conferred great value on some categories of
information. The production and sale of
information have become major sites of profit
making. What had been in large measure a social
good has been transformed into a commodity for
sale.” (Schiller, H.I. (1996). Information
Inequality: The Deepening Social Crisis in
America. New York; London: Routledge, p. 46.
Chapter: Data Deprivation.)
“The American Library Association’s assessment of
the inadequacy of market forces in providing
social needs has been demonstrated across five
centuries of global, and two centuries of
American capitalist development. Whatever social
improvements have occurred (e.g. shorter working
day, Social Security, elimination of child labor)
have come mostly from social struggle. Market
forces systematically ignored –where they did not
combat—the needs of the majority. The current
enthusiasm for market forces, hardly a popular
phenomenon, is no long-standing affair.” (Ibid,
p. 82, Chapter: The Information Superhighway:
Latest Blind Alley?).
“All this is not to suggest that social struggles
in the world at large are on the wane. On the
contrary! Sooner or later, probably sooner, all
the continents will be swept by intense conflict,
taking diverse forms. People everywhere will
rebel at conditions that violate human respect
and dignity. As the gaps widen between the
privileged and the dispossessed in one country
after another, and between countries as well,
bitter and prolonged struggles may be
anticipated, the inevitable outcome of market-led
development.” (Ibid, p. 138, Chapter: “The
‘failure’ of socialism and the next radical
moment”).
“Closer to the modern era, the Paris Commune in
1870, the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Chinese
Revolution of 1949, and the Cuban Revolution in
1959 –despite current efforts to disparage these
events—were brilliant markers, though only that,
foretelling the next momentous historical step.
This will be the one that will take human
existence beyond commodity relationships and its
present need to “master” nature.” (Ibid, p. 142,
Chapter: “The ‘failure’ of socialism and the next
radical moment”).
In 1998 Brian Martin has written this book,
Information Liberation. Challenging the
Corruptions of Information Power, and it really
challenges the reader. It is an energetic call to
take action towards the liberation of
information.
From the back cover can be read:
Power tends to corrupt, and information power is
no exception. Information Liberation analyses the
corruptions of power in a range of crucial
current areas in the information society,
including mass media, intellectual property,
surveillance, bureaucracies, defamation and
research.
Reform solutions seldom get to the root of
information problems. Information Liberation
examines radical alternatives that undermine the
power of vested interests. Alternatives include
replacing mass media with network media,
abolishing intellectual property, and changing
social institutions that create a demand for
surveillance. The book canvasses various
strategies for moving toward these alternatives,
focussing on grassroots action.
Information Liberation is provocative. Most
readers will find something to disagree with.
That's all part of the process. Everyone needs to
be involved in discussing information policies
and practices, rather than leaving the issues to
experts and vested interests.
Brian Martin lives in Wollongong, Australia. He
trained and worked as an applied mathematician
before switching to social science. He has been
active for many years in the radical science,
environmental and peace movements and is the
author of numerous works in many fields.
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/
This is the chapter 10 from the book:
“Toward information liberation”
Information seems like the ideal basis for a
cooperative society. It can be made available to
everyone at low cost, and a person can give away
information and still retain use of it. In
practice, information is an important part of
struggles over power, wealth and authority. Some
people are able to speak through the mass media
while most others are only listeners. Bureaucrats
control information in order to control
subordinates and clients. Surveillance is a
process of collecting information in order to
exert power.
In order to bring about a more just and equal
society, struggles need to be waged over
information. It would be nice to call the goal
"freedom of information." Unfortunately, that
phrase is already taken over by legislation that
is supposed to allow citizens access to
government documents. FOI legislation has not
been very successful in opening up government to
public scrutiny. Politicians and government
bureaucrats have restricted access in various
ways, including charging fees that make a mockery
of the name "freedom of information." Even if FOI
worked perfectly, it is a very limited freedom,
since it does nothing about corporate secrecy,
defamation law, surveillance and ownership of
information.
Since the expression "freedom of information" has
been degraded, perhaps it is better to talk of
"information liberation," which is the general
project of using information to move toward a
society free of domination. It doesn't make much
sense to say that information itself is
oppressed. Rather, information is often a means
of domination of both humans and the environment.
The goal is to make information into a tool for
liberation.
Information liberation should be thought of as a
process rather than an end point. What helps
today in one place to move towards a better
society might not be appropriate later or
somewhere else. However, even though there's no
universal strategy, it can be helpful to look at
some lessons from the previous chapters. I
present these ideas as tentative proposals, for
discussion and debate.
Live the alternative
One powerful way to move towards an alternative
is to begin behaving as if it already exists. If
the goal is a society based on interactive
network media, then it is helpful to support and
use those media. If the goal is a society in
which there is no censorship to serve vested
interests, then it is helpful to support free
speech and not to resort to censorship or
defamation proceedings oneself.
It is always easy to criticise someone else's
attacks on one's own speech. It is much harder to
recognise the corruptions of power when one has
the power oneself.
Work on the inside and outside
Setting up alternative media is valuable but it's
also necessary to operate within mainstream media
to bring about change. To change bureaucratic
controls over information, an alliance of
employees and outside activists is quite
powerful. There is no single best location for
action for every person. Some people are
independent of institutions and free to make
strong statements or take public actions. Others
are inside powerful organisations and can best
bring about change by working carefully behind
the scenes.
There are traps for both insiders and outsiders.
The big danger for insiders is becoming part of
the system and serving to prop it up. How many
managers in publishing or biotechnology firms
seek anything other than maximum intellectual
property rights? How many police or marketeers
seek to restrain surveillance? On the other hand,
if insiders go too far in questioning the system,
they may lose their influence and perhaps their
careers. Challenging things from the inside is a
delicate business.
From the outside, it's possible to be much more
outspoken. But there is a risk in becoming
negative and self-righteous--in speaking out in
order to feel good but without being effective in
bringing about change.
Be participatory
If the aim is open organisations, free speech,
interactive media and useful ideas, then it's
important to involve as many people as possible
in the process of bringing them about. It's not
wise to rely on experts to do the job. Experts on
defamation law reform or on avoiding surveillance
can be very helpful, but can't bring about change
on their own. If speech is to be freed from
defamation threats, surveillance and bureaucratic
controls, plenty of people must exercise their
speech in the process of bringing about the
change.
Naturally, there's always a role for the
individual activist, such as the whistleblower
who speaks out when others are afraid. But the
lesson from the experience of whistleblowers is
that most of them are severely penalised and lead
to no change in the problem. A collective
challenge is far more powerful. Building a
campaign that can involve lots of people is the
only way that major systems of information power,
such as mass media and intellectual property,
will ever be transformed.
Change both individuals and social structures
Individual change is vital to social change. So
part of the process is engaging with friends,
neighbours, colleagues, clients and others in
order to raise ideas and try out behaviours.
Support groups and campaigns can be effective in
bringing about individual change. A campaign to
challenge defamation law or promote
community-oriented research is a tremendous way
to learn about the issues, sort out ideas and
learn how the system works.
Included in individual change is one's own self.
It is one thing to bring about change in others
and another to bring about change in one's own
beliefs and behaviours.
Individual change is important, but so is change
in social structures, which includes families,
governments, capitalism, racism and patriarchy,
among others. Within these big and pervasive
social structures, significant changes are
possible, such as in laws, bureaucratic mandates
and products. Social structures are not fixed.
Instead, they are just ways of talking about
regularities in actions and ideas. They can be
changed, but it's not easy.
Individuals affect the dynamics of social
structures, which in turn affect the way
individuals operate. So it's important to have a
process of changing both.
These four suggested ideas for bringing about
information liberation are not the final word.
There are always exceptions, such as occasions to
use the mass media or rely on experts.
Furthermore, there are frictions between the
ideas. Working for change on the inside of a
large media organisation is valuable, but it is
not exactly living the alternative. That's to be
expected. Total self-consistency would leave
little room for creative approaches.
My final recommendation is to have fun along the
way. Trying to bring about a better world can be
depressing, with constant reminders about the
massive amount of corruption, injustice and
violence that exists. Yet part of the goal of a
better society is one in which there is more joy
and laughter. Living the alternative means having
fun along the way, whether that means exposing
the absurdities of defamation law or
bureaucracies or designing humorous stunts. There
are certainly plenty of opportunities in the
process of information liberation.
End of chapter 10 and the book.
----------------
Thus, the liberation of information cannot be
conceptualized in the vacuum. Einstein’s “Why
socialism,” Schiller’s “Information Inequality”
and Martin’s “Information Liberation” are three
different positions for a common phenomenon:
since capitalism exists social inequalities have
deepened in every social aspects. Informational
capitalism at its ultimate expression is not the
exception. Always was clear of the use of the
vesanic and irrational military force of the
governments of capitalist states in order to
defend the market-driven economies and demolish
by all means –nuclear bombings, invasions...
etc.-- all others non market-driven. Perhaps
never was as clear as today when the US and
British and allies brutal, ferocious and
rapacious military force is destroying Irak
–worst than a wolf destroys a little rabbit; the
wolf does it to survive, these megalomaniacs do
it for the pleasure of controlling and ruling the
world their way-- for the sake of controlling
the oil industry; that is, the brutal and insane
military state apparatus for the destruction and
extermination of the people, the ecology, and the
general well being of all species and the
environment, it is the same horrendous force
backing the “marvelous and paradisiacal” market
forces committed to “alleviate the hunger and all
ills of the world”, included the informational.
But nothing not even a Hawking’s quark closer to
the truth. Military and market-forces are sisters
of their only greedy and rapacious mother:
Capital.
That’s why the worldwide librarians should take a
firm position against the market-driven forces
which are trying now more than before to invade,
destroy, demolish, control and enslave –as
everything that comes to their way—information,
the information commons, the information as a
social good. That’s why worldwide librarians,
following the example of the American Library
Association recorded by Shiller, should say no to
the market forces and maintain a free,
gratis—free of charge--, democractic, unhampered,
unrestricted, open and egalitarian access,
storage, distribution, and use of information.
That’s why worldwide librarians should take a
firm and convinced position towards the never
ending liberation of information from the insane
market-military driven forces.
To learn more about many initiatives towards
true, free and free of charge universal
availability, access, storage, distribution and
use of publications, consult the following:
Free Online Journals:
http://www.uksprite.co.uk/directory/directory/Science/Publications/Journals/Free_Online_Journals/
Free Access Theory:
http://www.uksprite.co.uk/directory/directory/Society/Issues/Intellectual_Property/Free_Access_Theory/
Free Access Online Archives:
http://www.uksprite.co.uk/directory/directory/Science/Publications/Archives/Free_Access_Online_Archives/
Free Sofware Foundation (in 30 languages with
about 3,000 free –they may be free of charge or
not-- software solutions):
http://www.gnu.org/home.html#translations
A final word for the military-market driven:
“Put down that Weapon” Midnight Oil
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1232/beds.html#Weapon
Zapopan Muela
P.S. Don’t forget to participate now at the
Social Forum of Information, Documentation and
Libraries, Buenos Aires, Argentina (online, now,
and in presence from 26 to 28 August 2004). If
you cannot attend it does not matter, but your
participation it does matter, you might send your
papers or opinions electronically in several of
the themes of the conference. For more
information see:
http://www.inforosocial.com.ar/index.php
Themes and papers already registered:
http://www.inforosocial.com.ar/lista.php
Contact:
Grupo de Estudios Sociales en Bibliotecologia y
Documentacíón
(Argentina)
[log in to unmask]
Circulo de Estudios sobre Bibliotecología
Política y Social
(México)
http://www.cebi.org.mx
=====
"no necesito hacer hincapie en que la libertad de enseñanza y la libertad de opinion en la literatura y en la prensa son las bases para el desarrollo natural de cualquier individuo" -- Albert Einstein. Sobre el humanismo. Escritos sobre política, sociedad y ciencia. Barcelona: Ediciones Paidos, 1995, p. 68..
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