Letter From Chomsky

Dear ZCom User,

We live in an era of media concentration, vast efforts on many fronts (political, economic, military, ideological) to insulate state and private power from critical discussion or even popular awareness, and to reduce citizens to isolated atomized creatures restricted to satisfying personal 'created wants.' This massive and coordinated campaign has been partially successful, but only in a limited way.

The range and scope and dedication of popular activism has also increased, all over the world, reaching a level of international solidarity and mutual support that has never been seen before. The basic conflicts are very old, but they have taken quite dramatic and significant new forms, and the stakes are far higher than ever before. It is, regrettably, no exaggeration to say that the survival of the species is at risk -- and many others with it. We all know why.

The popular movements are the hope for a decent future. They of course have to have access to information and modes of interaction. In addition to alternative print and video, to a very large extent they have relied on the internet, which allows people to escape from the constraints of the doctrinal systems, to explore and investigate and discuss crucial issues with one another, to plan and organize.

Z Magazine and ZNet have played a crucial role in serving all of these functions. I see that every day. I travel and speak constantly, in the U.S. and abroad, and spend many hours a day just responding to inquiries and comments. I constantly discover that the people and organizations I come in contact with are relying very substantially on Z projects for information, discussion, and opportunities for interaction and organizing, to an extent that is quite remarkable. Z is also an invaluable resource for me personally, in all of these respects, and also in my case for providing a forum for intense and very constructive discussion, the only one I regularly participate in. And for posting articles, interviews, commentaries, etc., of mine. I know that many others have very much the same experience.

It is of inestimable importance, in my judgment, that Z and ZNet now composing ZCom, expand and flourish, along with their various other projects such as their growing video efforts and incomparable summer school, arguably the most exciting and instructive I have ever encountered.

Again, I do not think it is possible to exaggerate the stakes.

I hope that all of us who are committed to resisting and reversing the powerful currents of reaction and oppression and violence, and showing that another world is indeed possible, will contribute as best we can to ensure that the remarkable achievements of Z and ZNet will be carried forward.

Noam Chomsky

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Testimonials

"ZNet makes me think; I feel a part of something bigger. I feel connected to other struggles that I don't share in day to day work. ZCom/ZNet is a tool for sharing visions and goals. "

America Vera Zavala
Sweden

"Whenever people ask where they should go to understand what's really happening in the world, I direct them to ZNet. It's the starting point in the great global conversation the internet permits. ZCom does it better than anyone else. I would be devastated if Z went down."

George Monbiot
England

"Greek journalists have been using ZNet and Z Magazine for years. They know these are sources for honest information and deep analysis of what is going on in the world. The Greeks as most peoples in the world base their hopes for a better world on a future moral reaction of an informed American people. ZNet and Z Magazine offer valuable help to this end."

Nicos Raptis
Greece

"Z is unmatched as an accessible and sophisticated source of radically useful information and inspiration. I refuse to imagine a world without Z."

Paul Street
U.S.

"We're in this for the long haul, and Z provides essential support for our efforts and, hopefully, will continue to do so long into the future."

Stephen Shalom
U.S.

"Z Communications is quite simply one of the best resources in the world for anyone concerned about justice, peace, compassion, the environment and humanity. Please support ZNet wholeheartedly!"

David Cromwell,
England

'People struggling for a better world need a way to cut through the lies created by the Western mass media. ZCom aids that effort. The dynamic projects that spring out of Z, and the extraordinary evolution of ZNet express and reinforce the vitality of our movements.'

Milan Rai,
Britain

Thanks very much to all who have already helped!

Now we need those who have waited to help need to please do so, too. We are not yet where we need to be, as the above figures show. So the simple truth is we need regular users of all kinds to to give us the price of a couple of ice cream cones, to keep doing our work.

We need you to forego a pizza, and donate the price to us, instead, to keep us able to do our work. In fact, we would love to receive even the price of a good family dinner from you!

In other words, we need whatever you can manage to donate, one time, now.

The record to date is that those who are helping are doing so at a high average level. Some sign up for a $1 a month sustainer donation, some for a one-time $5 donation. But many sign up at far higher rates and the average fpr everyone who is doing some giving is quite high. We of course need all kinds of help - but the big issue now, the stumbling block, without any doubt at all, is for people who can give, and who like the site, and who hope it comes out of this period fine, to fact give. The issue isn't so much your wanting to help, in other words, nor your having means to help at some suitable level you decide - but your actually taking the five or ten minutes to do.

Let your imagination flow for a minute. If we could sit with you, at dinner, in your house, chatting pleasantly, and we asked you, face to face, after answering your questions, to please forego part of one meal, or the cost of one magazine, or the cost of one book, or of one concert, and to please donate the funds you saved by that decision to preserve all the information and vision and even sociial engagement that ZCom provides you - a huge number of you would do it. We are talking about part of one meal, or the cost of one magazine, or of one book, or of one concert, one time. We are talking about the price you pay to park a car for an hour, or two, or three donated over the duration of a whole year, and you get Sustainer benefits for it, too. Can you click that much to ZCom, please?

It turns out that what we are really trying so hard to get from you - and what is hard to elicit, and apparently so hard to provide, is ten minutes of your time. That is the stumbling block. Or maybe just the idea of donating.

But since all that is missing to have you help with near certainty is the face to face contact, and you know we would be there if we could be - okay, can you imagine we are there, please, and answer our request, positively?

And what will the funds you provide accomplish?

Because of the worsening economy and ensuing reductions in purchases, rising prices, etc., over the course of the next year we need to raise our projected income about $150,000. This could be accomplished by any combination of enlarged Sustainer pledges plus one-time donations. We thought it would be two parts the former, one part the latter - since the latter is immediate outlay by you, and has no premiums, wheresas the former allows you to spread the outlay over the year, and generates great premiums for you - but, the bottom line is, whatever the relative amounts, the sum of the two needs to be $150,000!

Theere is a countless list of activities that that we need the $150,00 to achieve, rather than having the economic crisis force us to cut those activities or not initiate them.

For example, if we fail to meet our goal, ZMag print edition will be at risk for no longer existing, our overal staff will be at risk for terminations, and the remaining staff will be horrendously overburdened thus reducing innovation and quality of the remaining operations.

Similarly, for aims we now have, not reaching our fund raising goal would mean we could not upgrade some equipment that needs it, we could not finish and maintain the new version of ZCom and from there on steadily expand our offerings and our base of support and community over the course of the coming year, we could not expand our video offerings and start our Z Books project that’s been on hold since 2007, we could not pay for much-needed promotion to increase our ZMag subscriber-base, and much more.

We have gone nearly two years without asking for any special financial assistance, but now we have no choice. We tried to navigate the economic crisis in society without asking help, but now we have to ask for your help even though we know these are hard times for you too.

But here is the good news. Our future financial security will be assured if even one tenth of the users of this site who are not yet Sustainers become Sustainers.

Users making one time donations are critically important, also, to deal with the immediate cash flow crisis.

Likewise for current Sustainers to raise their pledges will help immensely - and Sustainers are, after all, the main beneficiaries of many of the coming innovations.

In any event, without a major response to this entreaty, things will get very very dicey...

Please know that we appreciate whatever you yourself can manage and that we will spend your support as we always have—to provide independent, radical politics, humor, and vision and to keep the spirit of resistance alive - and enlarge it. And if you can't materiallly help, maybe you can urge others to do so!

Many thanks from the Z Staff

Michael Albert
Lydia Sargent
Eric Sargent
Andy Dunn
Chris Spannos

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Z Communications is a non-profit, tax exempt organization under
the official name, Institute for Social and Cultural Communications.

Please help; please hurry!

Help Us Pay for The New ZNet and Beyond

An Overview Video

A Detailed Outline Of Coming Features

1. General Improvements throughout the site for all users. (You can test these now... at... )

• Cosmetic: modest improvements in the cleanness and lines of pages, etc.
• Navigation: added ease of accessing what you are interested in, with cues, backtracking, etc.
• Search: search will be even more robust, diverse, effective - and fast.
• Speed: the whole site will zip along faster.
  
  

2, Improvements only for Sustainers and Writers.

• Your own ZNet top page: Every Sustainer and writer will be able to toggle between the ZNet top page that we offer, and one that you literally create for yourself. You can EASILY set your version of ZNet to have tabbed menu entries of your choosing. You can also control what appears on your version of ZNet's top page. You can make your own ZNet top page, with links and content you want, and then you can bookmark it, or toggle to it, anytime you want. Your version of the top page is for you to see - no one else.

• Your own ZSpace top Page: Every Sustainer and writer will be able to toggle between the ZSpace compendium top page that we offer, and an alternative ZSpace top page that you literally create for yourself, just like the ZNet top page described above.
  
  
• A New Chat Facility: We are also adding a chat tool that you can toggle to be open and follow you around the site, if you like, and that will list your friends and show you if they are available to chat, etc.
  
  

3. Improvements for Sustainers and Writers that all users will benefit from.

• A vastly Improved personal ZSpace Page: Every writer and Sustainer gets a personal page meant to display of his or her own work. This is under your complete and easy control, like the above mentioned ZNet and ZSpace top page - but this time what you create is not just for you to see, it is public for everyone. In essence ZSpace gives you a personal home page with drag and drop point and click control over contents!

• Major New Forums/Comments System: We have jettisoned the old forum system and implemented a replacement tightly integrated into the whole site, much easier to search, and the site will email you if something of yours gets a reaction.
  
  

4. Coming In subsequent weeks for all...

• New ZMag: The ZMag site will gain the speed and appearance enhancements of the rest of the site, operate in the backtracking system, be faster, etc.
• New Store: The store will gain in appearance, but mostly in ease of use.
  
  

5. Coming In subsequent weeks for Sustainers and Writers to use, and others to benefit from seeing....

• A new Groups System: In the new incarnation, Groups will be vastly easier to set up and use and also much more powerful. including a group forum, group page. People in the group get email updating of content, the group page is, like the pages mentioned earlier, entirely adaptable by the group's designated members. The group sets the tabbed menu, and the left menu, and the content that displays and the site has forums, blogs, searches, etc. The goal is user groups using the full ZCom technology to pursue their own endeavors.

• New Video/Audio: This is just a modest gain in appearance and ease of use.
  
  
• New Facebook Like Friends Features: Friends keep up with one another's efforts. We already have a capacity, which will be easier to use, to ask to be friends with another Sustainer or writer. Now, it will be possible on your ZSpace page - or on either of your two personal top pages - or on any group page - to have a Recent Contributions column that displays notices/links to everything that any friend (or group member) does.

• New Debates: This facility will allow users to propose debates and engage in them, or urge others to do so, with display of the results.
  
  
• New Petitions: This facility will help Sustainers or writers initiate a petition, with online sign up, its own page, etc.
  
  
• New Projects: This facility will enable entering descriptions of projects, discussing them, seeking help with them, sharing lessons of them, etc.
  
  
• New Socializing: The idea is - and we are admittedly tentative about this - having a way for users to socialize onlineand pursue political and personal paths.

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Edward S. Herman
U.S.

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C.P. Pandya
India

ZCom is for people who dare to imagine that another world is actually possible. It has been a kind of radical, online university for social change. More than ever, we need vision, we need strategies for how to get there, and we need independent media that cuts through the crap. We need ZCom, and ZCom needs us. So put your money where your vision is - become Ssustainer.

John Hepburn
Greenpeace Australia