From: "FRANCO BARCHIESI" <029FRB-AT-cosmos.wits.ac.za>
Date:          Sun, 3 May 1998 16:27:38 GMT + 2:00
Subject:       Re: AUT: sticks and stones


On 2 May Steve Wright wrote:

> Dear all,
> 
> I'm starting to get tired of the name-calling which seems to have
> insinuated itself into the list of late. While debate often wanes more than
> it waxes on autopsy, we have usually avoided this stuff to date: it's been
> one of the things which have most pleased me as a "pseudo-co-founder".
> 
> Since this deliberately isn't a moderated list, as a "pseudo-co-founder"
> there's nowt I can do about the present flurry of insults, of course,
> except to register my personal dismay. Like the last time this happened,
> the best solution ultimately lies in the opening of other discussion
> threads; I guess, as was the case a year or so ago, I should be patient or
> even do my bit to start one (yes, Bob, I'll follow up your response on
> Gramsci soon). As a last resort I can just hit the delete button (it's
> worked before) . . .

As the second "peudo-co-founder" of this list, I can just associate
myself to Steve's personal (and political) dismay. I think that the
level of flaming and personal insults on this list have reached a
point which can easily be a prelude to self-destruction, unless we
all get back to a committment to respectful, comradely discussion,
which is what has kept this list alive for three years. I personally
(even if there is nothing I can really do about it) find intolerable
that the list is used to settle personal accounts, often inherited
from other lists that have been killed by the same kind of stuff.
This is the reason, I think, for which many comrades (among whom is
myself) got tired with the discussion on the Zaps. I am afraid that
such threads are instrumentalized either for petty personal revenge
or for a struggle for sectarian forms of "hegemony" that make no
sense in a forum like this. And I am disappointed that the sad
history of other lists has taught so little, from this point of
view. Anyway, all I can suggest to comrades in aut-op-sy is to go
back to our WWW homepage, where Steve and I suggested some
directions for the development of this list: things like discussion,
analysis, research and information on changing forms of class
composition, struggles and movements on a world scale. I invite you
to consider whether the list is going in that direction (and I think
it isn't). If you think those suggestions can be questioned, and 
that the list should develop in other directions, a debate on that 
would be, I think, welcome also by comrades who have kept away from 
the list recently. In any case, I think that in these "directions" no 
place can be allowed for flaming, name calling and personal insults.

Franco

PS, Katha: while I agree with your first post on this thread about 
the dangers of decline in the level of discussion on the list, I also 
think that what you wrote on the Luther Blisset project goes 
precisely in that direction. Before labelling people the way you did, 
some more information would not be bad; this of course applies to 
other people as well.


Franco Barchiesi
Sociology of Work Unit
Dept of Sociology
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3
PO Wits 2050
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. (++27 11) 716.3290
Fax  (++27 11) 716.3781
E-Mail 029frb-AT-cosmos.wits.ac.za
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/aut_html
http://pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il/~mshalev/direct.htm

Home:
98 6th Avenue
Melville 2092
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel. (++27 11) 482.5011


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---