Most of my activity breaks down into either theoretical work (in particular what modern society will be like when it is run by workers) and infrastructure work focused on the use of the web and/or databases to collect and filter high signal-to-noise information in an organized way.  I believe that eventually my theoretical work and infrastructural work will be integrated since they are both central to the emerging tactics of information war.

My proletarian democracy website is probably the best popular summary of the conclusions to which my theoretical work has led me.  My theoretical work is focused on ending the crisis of theory that has paralysed the movement for the overthrow of bourgeois rule.  At the present time this movement is something of a joke and is not really deserving of the respect of workers. Obviously this must change.  And this change cannot happen without theoretical clarity.

2. helping to lay the foundation for organizations of information war I am also studying and popularizing the methods by which the unfettered flow of information will be essential for the creation of authentic communist organization (characterized by transparency, accountability and internal democracy) -- and for making it possible (and easy) for serious activists (and the masses themselves) to intervene in the struggle to preserve and defend the revolutionary character of such organization. The great problem of the present time is that there exists no genuinely revolutionary organization that commands respect; that is deserving of the trust of activists; that has its feet on the ground and, to continue this analogy, does not have its head shoved into a place that can't be reached by sunlight. Such an organization (or network of organizations) will eventually emerge. Such an organization will take up the revolutionary tasks which are decisive. These tasks will include leveraging the work of (and giving activists an analysis of) the work of all progressive groups. These tasks will include bringing a decisive resolution to the crisis of theory and making use of information war to bring news of this resolution to activists everywhere--and to the masses.

If my work seems like it might be of interest to you--you should know that I would like to keep you up to date on my work. Once or twice a year I send out a progress report on my activity. You can get these reports by subscribing to my pof-100 elist.

You may also want to join some of the elists described on this page.  The list which comes closest to a conventional marxism or anarchism related email list is pof-200.  My other lists are either read-only or strongly focused on particular topics.  All of my lists are very low traffic (ie: a few posts per month at most).  The focus is on quality--not quantity.

More about each list:

POF-100 • Two emails per year If you want to keep informed of my work but want the minimal amount of email, this is the list for you. I use this list to send out annual or semi-annual reports on my political, theoretical and infrastructure work. ("POF" stands for "Party of the Future") • average volume is 2 posts per year • public archive • to subscribe • to unsubscribe

POF-200 • An unstructured discussion list The POF-200 list serves as a place for serious revolutionaries to have discussion in the public domain. I want to encourage, to the maximum extent practical, that revolutionaries who correspond with me consider joining POF-200 and making the correspondence public. In order to keep an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio on a list in which most subscribers have very little experience in the revolutionary movement, subscribers are limited to one post per week (two posts per week for subscribers who march in antiwar demonstrations). This limits the speed, and convenience, of discussion but improves the quality. Question: What happens if there is too much "noise" (ie: unwanted email) on POF-200? Answer: Let me know and I will change your option to "web only". You will then be able to send email to the list and will be able to read replies on the web. • average volume is (currently) 20 posts per month • public archive • to subscribe • to unsubscribe

Theorist • Consists of Ben's posts to other lists The theorist list consists of Ben Seattle's postings to various lists in cyberspace. Watch Ben apply the tactics of "information war" (characterized by intelligent listening and calm, scientific argument) to help transform the marxism space into a powerful weapon against bourgeois rule. • average volume is 30 posts per year • public archive • to subscribe • to unsubscribe

Proletarian Democracy • focused on the crisis of theory The right to post on this list requires that you fill out a form agreeing to respect the exclusive focus of the list:         How will economics, politics and culture work         when the working class runs modern society? Subscribers are strongly encouraged to first read my introductory essay on Proletarian Democracy • average volume is 0 posts per month • (ie: nobody has posted in a long time) • public archive • to subscribe • to unsubscribe

Red Team • A list focused on digital infrastructure The Red Team list is focused on discussion and discovery of the principles that must guide efforts to create the digital nervous system of the working class. A technical or programming background is not required to participate in this list. What is required is determination to forge weapons of information war (defined, not as the sabotage computer systems, but as the systematic and methodical use of the emerging revolution in communications to wage an open struggle for ideas and principles that will awaken the working class and facilitate its self-organization). Subscribers are encouraged to read my short introduction at the Red Team site. • average volume is 5 posts per month • public archive • to subscribe • to unsubscribe

• Proletarism is anti-revisionist Marxism for the 21st century • (August 2004)
  From the Russian workers' movement (with experience in underground organizing against the rule of Brezhnev's "communists" and militant strikes under the rule of Yeltsin's "democrats") has come a proposal to recognize, with a new name, a decisive break with the treachery of the "communist" leadership -- which enslaved the working class and betrayed the revolutionary movement in a way comparable to the great betrayal of 1914. (Includes timeline history chart and forum for questions or comments)

Anarcho-Leninist Debate on the State

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• The Anarcho-Leninist Debate on the State website • (October 2002 - March 2004)
  An Australian activist, currently attracted to anarchism, suggested that we have a debate. The issue at stake is central to the kinds of questions that are of interest to a great many serious activists: In the period immediately following a successful mass uprising against the bourgeoisie, should the form (or forms) of organization adopted by the proletariat to secure its ultimate liberation be understood to be a state?

  --- highlights from the debate --- The World for which We Fight What has not taken place so far in the progressive movement--what is currently being _blocked_ by the crisis of theory--are practical forms of cooperation by which militant activists of diverse views work together to effectively oppose the domination of the movement by the reformist ideology. Control of the state by the working class as a whole requires that the working class have the fundamental political rights of speech and assembly--and the right to create its own independent organizations--and to determine (via elections or other methods of open struggle) which political trends deserve support and will best defend the material and class interests of the workers. Finding the Confidence to Build the Future     How will the working class keep supply chains running         and bourgeois apologists from flooding the airwaves     on the morning after bourgeois rule is broken? The Future Transparent Workers' State     Will a workers' state be a brutal police state     or a machine controlled by workers? Introduces Ben's first and second laws: Ben's first law: The movement for the overthrow of bourgeois rule can only become a mass movement when it demonstrates that it understands the conditions of modern society well enough to describe, in a realistic way, how, within the context of modern conditions, the working class can run society better than the bourgeoisie. Ben's second law: The long-term suppression of political trends is no longer possible in the conditions of a modern economy and communications infrastructure. Includes 5 concise points that outline the solution to the crisis of theory:         1. Workers' state will guide transition to no state         2. Economic stability (and experimentation)         3. Gift economy will absorb other sectors         4. State will suppress bourgeoisie, not workers         5. Masses will overthrow corrupt leaders Politics, Economics and the Mass Media when the working class runs the show     • Will there be elections?     • The three economic sectors             • private capitalist             • state capitalist             • gift economy     • The evolution of        the mass media             • commercial media             • state media             • free media A scenario for the overthrow of bourgeois rule in the U.S. in the middle of the 21st century     Here is one way events may unfold ...

Before the ALDS

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• The Proletarian Democracy website • April-September 2001 How will economics, politics and culture work
  when the working class runs modern society? This is what the future will look like. This theoretical essay confronts this most decisive of all theoretical questions. No more of the bullshit evasion (concerning whether workers will have democratic rights) that we have come to expect from the clueless "cargo cult Leninists". • Includes poll, bulletin board and email list (see above for the email list)

• Seventeen Theses website • July 2001
  • Eight Theses on the Destiny of the Concept of Workers' Rule
  • Nine Theses on the Emerging Revolution in Communications and its
    Significance for the Awakening of Proletarian Political life and Consciousness
    (a fairly concentrated summary of my views on our tasks)
  • Includes poll and bulletin board

• The History of the Universe website • May-August 2002
  This site was created to help answer questions from many of the teenagers who visit http://communism.com or http://communism.org (the com and org site, by the way, are currently identical). A scientific understanding of the tendency of matter to self-organize is very helpful in understanding an authentic communist worldview. I also work on this site to relax since it involves reading a lot of material for fun.

• Posts on the Theorist elist • March 2000 - Current

20th Century work

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• Critical Mass (Notes of an information theorist)
  A communist movement worthy of the name can only organize itself around a theory of workers' rule that is fit for the modern world. But before this can happen charlatanism and denial must be smashed. • Ben's posts (and various replies) to the Marxism, Marxism-Leninism and Leninist-International email lists • July 1998 - May 1999
• Zhang Shanguang and the Proletarian Revolution
  (with reader's poll) • Dec 1998 - Feb 1999
• Louis Proyect smashes reformism (38 posts) • April 1998
• Is the End of Bourgeois Rule Unthinkable? (28 posts) • March-July 1998
• 1917 was the Beta version • November 1997

• How to Build the Party of the Future (unfinished) • May 1997 - May 1998

• The cyberLeninist Manifesto • Oct 1996 (from my original cyberLeninism site)

• The Self-Organizing Moneyless Economy • 1995
  The first scientific speculation on how a communist economy and political system will function in the 21st century. Featuring brief sketches of the organization of political, cultural and economic life in a future where all authority flows from principles that have been distributed universally and are part of everyone's internal compass rather than institutions which are external to the individual and which use one or another form of carrot or stick.

Since the recent round of imperialist wars began in September 2001 I have independently written and distributed 7 antiwar leaflets at mass actions in or around the Seattle area.

I have also worked with the Seattle Anti-Imperialist Committee (SAIC) from the time of its formation (August 2005) and its predecessor organization, the Seattle Anti-Imperialist Alliance (SAIA) during the time in which it existed (October 2001 - July 2002).

During this period I have also engaged in an open struggle over the principles, such as political transparency and information war, which I believe must guide the antiwar movement. Much of this struggle has been with the people I have worked with in SAIC and SAIA. I believe we are entering a period in which activists will take an increased interest in learning about all the important questions of the movement.

Antiwar Leaflets  •  2005

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• Hit them where it Hurts!   (Sept 2005)

Leaflet for the September 24, 2005 antiwar march in Seattle: The anti-war movement will become an increasingly powerful social force as it breaks from bourgeois influence (ie: the orbit of the Democratic Party) and tells the masses the truth about the need to end the system of bourgeois rule: • Introduction • Tired of begging for peace from the gods of war?    • It is time to get off our knees and ...    • Build a movement focused on a world without imperialism! • How the Democratic Party and its flunkies plan to   liquidate the antiwar movement with hot air about an "Exit Plan" • Joint Statement against the influence of the    imperialist Democratic Party and its numerous flunkies • Cartoon Guide to the Left in Seattle   (Sept 2005) • What kind of Organization   does the antiwar movement need?   An organization capable of overthrowing the system of imperialist rule   cannot be built on a foundation of sand. Only principled, transparent   and long-term collaboration between serious activists can:   1. organize a decisive break from the confinement       of liberal-imperialist politics,   2. mobilize the masses in their millions and   3. chart the course forward to a world without       imperialist war or capitalist exploitation Estimates of distribution: Intro: 800 copies,     Organization article: 200 copies Cartoon + Joint Statement: 2000 copies

• How to build a powerful antiwar movement   (January 2005)

The open struggle over decisive tasks  •  Sept 2005 - May 2006

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• Archive of public debate on the tasks and
  organizational needs of the antiwar movement:
   We need mass democracy
   Real organization cannot be built on a foundation of sand   (2001 - 2006)

• Letter to Comrade Edward:
   The Road to Information War
   A longer-term view of the tasks of building anti-imperialist and
   revolutionary organization in the U.S. in the early 21st century   (May 2006)

• Ben replies to Michael in Portland:
   Make Hay while the Sun Shines
   Building the movement on a solid foundation
   requires accountability and political transparency   (May 2006)

• Proposal for the kind of anti-imperialist organization that our movement needs:
   The Open and Democratic Anti-Imperialist Network
   for Mass Action and Information War   (November 2005)

Open struggle  •  January 2005

UP

• My criticism of the work of NION which led to
    NION banning me from their public meetings   (January 2005)

• Parts 1 and 2 on the RCP's recent "Battle for the Future" campaign:   (January 2005)

• Other recent Indymedia posts (and a few posts by
   Frank, with whom I used to work) can be found here.

Antiwar Leaflets  •  2004

UP

I created no antiwar leaflets for antiwar actions in 2004 -- because there were
no mass actions in Seattle where I would be able to distribute them.

The cowardly social-democrats who had the ability, resources and alliances to mobilize for mass actions -- liquidated all mass action -- in order to better hijack the energy of antiwar activists in the direction of becoming election fodder for John "send more troops" Kerry.

Antiwar Leaflets  •  2003

UP

• August 21, 2003 • What is to be done? • Do we get on our knees before the Democratic Party? Or do we confront all the difficult problems that are blocking the development of a mass revolutionary movement? • Deals with the the influence of the Democratic Party within the antiwar movement, the need to confront the crisis of theory, and the necessity of creating our own media machine independent of the liberals as well as the conservatives. (approx 900 copies distributed)

• April 12, 2003 • What Next? • The war on Iraq is winding down. What do we do now? Do we beg the Democratic Party to oppose imperialism? Or do we build a mass movement independent of bourgeois politics and influence? • Exposes Geov Parrish (the publisher of the popular Eat the State anarchist newletter) as a local cheerleader for the Democratic Party). • Sooner or later a section of serious activists will recognize that there are only two fundamental paths forward: (1) becoming election fodder for the Democratic Party (or pseudo-independent parties, like Nader, the Greens, or the "Labor Party") --or-- (2) creating a revolutionary mass movement directed at eliminating the system of bourgeois rule. (400 copies distributed)

• March 5, 2003 • Which way forward for the development of a powerful anti-war movement? • The decisive step forward is for the anti-war movement to develop in depth so that it can give tens and hundreds of thousands a clear understanding of the class nature of our society and the need to end the rule of the bourgeoisie. • Hit them where it hurts • How to move the Democrats to the left • The need for revolutionary organizations that are deserving of the respect of the masses. • (Web page for leaflet includes public forum for comments from readers)
  • This may have been the most popular leaflet distributed at a demo where the police severely harassed activists. (approx 400 copies distributed)

Open struggle  •  2003

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• November 11, 2003 • What is to be done? (reply to Wilhelmina) • Of all the tasks which are decisive for the antiwar movement one stands out at this time: An interactive news site fueled by the energy of activists and readers is too important to be left in the hands of social-democracy • (A concentrated criticism of the reformism of the Seattle Indymedia center and the sectarianism of "Leninist" organizations which recoil from the task of creating an interactive news site under the command of revolutionary politics.) Posted to the Seattle Indymedia newswire

• October 25-27, 2003 • three posts • to the editorial list of Seattle Indymedia collective
  • Working relationships that avoid unnecessary friction • Who owns the newswire?
  • Localism represents a retreat from the goal of providing an alternative news service
  • Solutions to newswire spam • Political overview • Going beyond slashdot

• October 5, 2003 • open letter to a supporter of the Socialist Alternative organization
     The independent movement of the working class cannot be built
     on a foundation of illusions in "saviors from above" like Ralph Nader

Antiwar Leaflets  •  2002

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• February 13, 2002 • Leaflet distributed at University of Washington campus: Protest
  the "war on terror" • Protest the UW visit of undersecretary of state Marc Grossman
  • Describes the "war on terror" in Colombia, Afghanistan, the Philippines, and at home
  • (I wrote this leaflet and helped distribute it to assist the "Antiwar Project",
  a small local group that folded in 2002) (approx 1000 copies distributed by 4 people)

• January 12, 2002 • What is Our Alternative to Imperialist War? • What is bourgeois rule? • Is working class rule possible? • Theoretical issues must be resolved • Democratic rights under workers' rule • The central theoretical question of our time (approx 400 copies distributed)

Open struggle  •  2001 - 2002

UP

• Oct 2001-Jun 2002 • I worked with the Seattle Anti-Imperialist Alliance. SAIA wrote ten leaflets with total distribution of approximately 14,000 copies. Unfortunately, SAIA liquidated itself in an effort to shield itself from the threat of transparency (ie: public criticism or debate of its errors and its failure to confront the deeper tasks required of an anti-imperialist orientation). Five of the SAIA activists (ie: everyone except me) are now supporters of the Communist Voice Organization.

  "My view is that your dedication and hard work is being negated by your failure to engage serious activists at a deeper level. Rather than give the movement the clarification it desperately needs on the deeper issues (ie: what kind of society we need to create, what kind of revolutionary organization is needed today) everything is judged quite narrowly in terms of its potential for recruitment to a dysfunctional organization. This will eventually prove to be a dead end and, at that time, will put pressure on you to conclude that struggle is not worth the effort--and will put pressure on you to become passive. The root of this failure, in my view, is that you are all intoxicated with the idea that you are building a solid revolutionary organization with the ability to take up the decisive tasks. But if the organization you are working so hard to build is afraid of transparency and lacks the ability to deal with serious criticism--then everything will turn out to be a mirage--and you will eventually discover (if you have not first succumbed to cynicism or passivity) that you were attempting to build a serious revolutionary organization on a foundation of sand." • From Letter to local supporters of the Communist Voice Organization • Jan 2003

Antiwar technical work  •  2002

UP

• Jan-Feb 2002 • I created a pilot anti-war portal • The concept was more ambitious
  than I had time to develop on my own.

The News Refinery

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• The News Refinery
   Proposal for progressive activists' news rating & filtering service  (July 2005)

   News and views to serve the working class, the antiwar movement and the struggle
   to end bourgeois rule -- posted, summarized, rated and filtered by activists like you

Democratic Filters for Indymedia

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• Detailed proposal and mockup for democratic filters for Indymedia  (July 2005)

Indymedia Criticism

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Can't happen here? It already has. Ben complained about the excess of neo-nazi posts and comments on the Seattle Indymedia newswire and criticized the Indymedia editor for not doing more to keep the site usable. The editor responded by tampering with and deleting Ben's comments.

Ben Seattle describes his experiences
(to date) with Seattle Indymedia and the Indymedia community and makes some constructive suggestions:

• No racist trash -- fewer crude, thoughtless
  and malicious comments on the newswire
  -- a higher signal-to-noise ratio
  (ie: be more like Portland Indymedia)

• Democratic rights for activists to discuss
  events and politics on the newswire
  (including the politics of Indymedia itself)

• An editorial collective which is
  responsive and accountable to
  the progressive community

Earlier work

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• Mockup of better designed page for Seattle Indymedia •   (December 2003)
   If the people who run Seattle Indymedia really wanted to do everything they could to make
   the newswire more useful and democratically run -- it might look something like this:
   with a wider column for the newswire and the segration of newswire posts into six categories:
       (1) Local • (2) National • (3) International
       (4) Actions
       (5) Rants
       (6) Indymedia policies and evolution
   (This was an early, primitive version of my 2005 proposal.)

• Three posts by Ben to the editorial list of Seattle Indymedia •  (October 2003)
   • Working relationships that avoid unnecessary friction • Who owns the newswire?
   • Localism represents a retreat from the goal of providing an alternative news service
   • Solutions to newswire spam • Political overview • Going beyond slashdot

• What is to be done? • Ben Seattle replies to Wilhelmina •  (November 2003)
Of all the tasks which are decisive for the antiwar movement one stands out at this time: An interactive news site fueled by the energy of activists and readers is too important to be left in the hands of social-democracy.
(Includes: A sword in the hands of Spartacus • Dare we talk about the decisive tasks? • The digital fire--and healthy revolutionary cooperation )

• 17 Theses on the destiny of the concept of workers' rule -- and the emerging revolution in communications and its significance for the awakening of proletarian political life and consciousness  (July 2001)

• Project MAD (ie: Media Abstract Discussion) a web site I created in 1998 where activists can post summaries of news articles and related comments into an online database.

• References to the proposed web-based news service
   from Ben's unfinished work: "How to Build the Party of the Future"  (May 1997)

The Attention Refinery will be an ecosystem of parallel and connected blogs and wikis that serve as an arena for progressive activists in the Media Weapon community to talk to one another -- compete and cooperate -- organize our thinking -- discover and develop powerful and practical principles and projects -- resolve our contradictions in full view of friend and foe alike -- gradually assemble a common agenda -- and learn how to wage information war as an essential and decisive component of the class struggle -- so we can help mobilize the working class for the overthrow of bourgeois rule.

• The Red Team website • (July 2001)
  

  • We engineer to raise hell ... and storm heaven ... • Now building the digital nervous system of the working class Information becomes more powerful as it is refined. The working class will make itself conscious by creating information refineries on a large scale.   • The ultimate "killer app" to emerge from the internet will be the collective mind of the proletariat, which will organize itself for the overthrow of bourgeois rule and the liberation of the infinite potential of humanity

• The The Anarcho-Leninist Debate on the State website • (Oct 2002 - March 2004)
  This project is already listed (above) as part of my theoretical work. I am also listing here because it is currently my leading edge infrastructure project, with more than a dozen MicroForums and a bullshit meter that may help to encourage activists to rate the value of various posts.

• Digital Infrastructure for Communist Transparency
  How web-accessible databases will assist the self-organization
  of the anti-revisionist communist movement • November 1998

• Bulletin board and polling system at http://communism.org • March-May 2002
  Currently approximately 100 visitors a week answer questions on a poll.
  Approximately half of these visitors also make comments.

• Previous projects (on hold):
  • pu-pc (microportal guide to the workers' movement and left in Russia) • (2001)
  • A system of two lists • Illustrated proprosal I made to the PDP/Samara Stachkom to convert their Proletarism elist into a system with read only and active components • February 2001
  • List of marxism-related lists • January-April 2000
  • Media Abstract Discussion • June-September 1998

• Cartoon Guide to the Left in Seattle (Sept 2005)
  Ben's guide to "Politics As Usual": • The Democratic and Republican Parties • The Imperialist Democratic Party
  • The Big Antiwar Coalitions • The Green Party • The Reformist Disease • The Sectarian Disease • The Crisis of Theory
  • The SA and ISO (ie: Socialist Alternative and International Socialist Organization) • The FSP (ie: Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women) • ANSWER and NION (ie: Not in Our Name) • The RCP (ie: Revolutionary Communist Party) • The CVO (ie: Communist Voice Organization) • The Anarchists • You, dear reader

  ---

• An essay on culture examines the significance of the phenomenon known as
  "Burning Man":
  Desert Goddesses Saturate Emergent Community
  with Eye-Candy
  A community of artists opens a window into a human future based on a gift economy and the emergence of a deeper form of beauty and sexuality (September 2004)

  ---

• The History of the Universe, Humankind and Communism
  
  Never mind the crap they teach you in school, here are a few of the real events that mark the struggle and progress of humankind. The history of the universe is the history of the self-organization of matter. The struggle to overthrow the system of bourgeois rule and replace the capitalist mode of production with a self-organizing moneyless economy is the culminating and decisive chapter in a story billions of years old. (May - August 2002)