CyberRadicalism: A New Left for a Global Age

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Changemaker Publications, 2005,
313pp. Paper.$20
E-book version also available.

Available at: www.lulu.com/changemaker

These essays are both political and personal. Politically, they were inspired by the crisis in socialist theory after the collapse of many socialist governments and parties in the 1990s. The authors, starting as antiwar and antiracist activist, had also been deeply involved in the socialist project. They believed the new socialist task was to engage the crisis head on, to find new answers with fresh thinking, and help define a new left for the 21st Century. They worked collectively on the effort for over ten years with a study group in Chicago. As for the personal dimension, both Davidson and Harris witnessed first-hand the domestic impact of globalization and job loss. Harris was a steelworker thrown out of work as the industry suffered massive layoffs. Davidson saw his hometown, Aliquippa, Pa, once a powerhouse of a mill town, turn into a ghost town. As a computer technician, he also saw the powerful implications of the information revolution for the future. In cybernetics, they both saw an explanation of the past and hope for the future.

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Table of Contents:

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Part One: The Revolution in Production & the Need for New Theory

Chapter 1: The Promise and Peril of the Third Wave: Socialism and Democracy for the 21st Century.

Chapter 2: The Cybernetic Revolution and the Crisis of Capitalism.

Chapter 3: CyberRadicalism: Getting Beyond Scarcity: Strategy and Vision in the Information Age.

Chapter 4: From Das Capital to DOS Capital: A Look at Recent Theories of Value.

Chapter 5: There Is An Alternative, Market Socialism with Radical Democracy: Some Notes On Reading Schweickart's 'After Capitalism.'
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Part Two: Classes and Class Struggle In the Era of Globalization

Chapter 6: Globalization and the Technological Transformation of Capitalism.

Chapter 7: Towards A Global Ruling Class? Globalization and the Transnational Capitalist Class.

Chapter 8: Information Technology & the Transnational Ruling Class.

Chapter 9: The Military-Industrial Complex in the Conflict
for Power.

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Part Three: Revolutionary Practice in a Non-Revolutionary Period: The Strategy and Tactics of 'High Road' Structural Reform

Chapter 10: A New Manifesto on the Strategy and Tactics of Radical Democracy: A Review of Dan Swinney's ABuilding the Bridge to the High Road

Chapter 11: A New Social Contract: The Need for Radical Reforms in the Fight for Jobs and a Living Wage.

Chapter 12: Terrorism and the Present Danger: A Perspective for the American Left.

Chapter 13: Moving from Protest to Politics: Dumping Bush's Regime in 2004.

Chapter 14: The Road Ahead After 2004: Building a Broad Nonpartisan Alliance vs. Bush and the Far Right.

Chapter 15: Globalization, Theocracy and the New Fascism: An Analysis of the U.S. Right's Rise to Power & What Can Be Done About It


[Davidson is a computer consultant in Chicago, a graduate in philsophy from Penn State University and taught at the University of Nebraska. In the 1960s, he was a national leader of SDS. Harris is professor of history at DeVry Institute of Technology in Chicago, and a former steelworker and trade union activist.]