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What's new on our site?

22 July 2004:
This site has a new forum! We hope you will post and visit often! click here.

14 July 2004:
This site has new admins and is coming back to life! We will be giving the site a facelift and adding many more sections and content soon. Stay tuned... For more info about the changes and new admins click here.

03 May 2004:
This site is no longer being actively maintained. However, it will remain online for reference purposes for as long as the kind folks who are hosting it are willing to continue doing so. My farewell letter to all who've supported CLAWS over the years is now online. (Please see new update above)

04 March 2004:

Thanks to our supporters, we now have two new feature items: An essay by Shawn Montaigne, and a personal story by Tony Iveson.

18 November 2003:

Our founder has recently agreed to do an interview for a documentary film (the filmmakers are in Toronto) that questions the societal mandate to have a wage job, and investigates alternative ways of living and working.

11 September 2003:

Our first Canadian-area discussion meeting took place in September, and went very well!

There have been complaints lately about the broken links on this site. Please understand that I (that's me, D. JoAnne Swanson, founder of CLAWS) am currently the only one maintaining this web site, answering all e-mail sent to the organization, paying the whywork.org domain registration fees, and organizing in-person meetings. Since I am dealing with health issues and other concerns, not to mention compiling a book of material based on the ideas I put forth on this site, I am simply not able to keep up as much as I would like. I appreciate your patience...I have no intention of giving up on CLAWS and I will continue to do the best I can until I find someone to assist me in these duties.

08 August 2003:
Our founder D. JoAnne Swanson recently wrote a "letter to the editor" which was published in Bitch magazine, though it was heavily edited, probably due to space limitations. The summer 2003 issue, number 21, just hit the newsstands. Check it out!

14 April 2003:
Our most recent discussion meeting coincided with Derrick Jensen's lecture entitled "Rethinking Civilization" (May 2, 2003). We've also added a few new books to our book recommendations list.

03 March 2003:
We're featured prominently in a new article from the March issue of Conscious Choice magazine. Writer Patrick McGaugh calls us "extreme."

21 February 2003:
Added a lengthy review of A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir by Iain Levison

04 February 2003:
Updated the info on our in-person meetings page.

08 November 2002:
Added a list of suggestions for unconventional replies to the question "So, what do you do for a living?"

03 October 2002:
Added new links and a few more visitor comments. Coming in February 2003: A review of A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir by Iain Levison

30 August 2002:
Changed all background and link colors to earthy tones site-wide, in order to enhance readability (by popular request).

05 August 2002:
Further updates to continue
Good news: Our founder, D.J. Swanson, is maintaining the CLAWS site (and working on her book of essays, On The Leisure Track) once again. Stay tuned for fresh content!

Broken and outdated links finally fixed or deleted!

Several new books added to book recommendations list, including Daniel Quinn's Ishmael (by popular request!)

In the works: a new section on sustainable living, intentional community, and homesteading as ways to pursue a life outside of the nine-to-five job grind

15 June 2001:
New discussion list admin John O. Andersen, editor of Unconventional Ideas, is now our discussion list administrator.

08 January 2001:
Site no longer being updated We apologize for the broken links, but this site will no longer be updated. Whywork.org will remain online as long as the kind folks who are currently hosting it remain willing to do so.

02 May 2000:

New story on our tales & rants page: "The Curse of Civilization: The 40-Hour Work Sentence" by Craig Manelli
New section: What people are saying about the CLAWS site!
New book review added to our review section: Longer Hours, Fewer Jobs by Michael D. Yates

14 February 2000:

Finally! It's here - by popular demand! Don't miss our page of practical suggestions from CLAWS members and supporters on how to survive without a job!
Reorganized our book recommendations and links pages. They were getting really unwieldy and difficult to read, mainly because they are so extensive and we keep getting more and more great additions every day. We've done it in the same "table-of-contents" style as our FAQ, so you can just click on the sections you're interested in and skip the rest if you like, rather than scroll through the whole document.
Added a section of brand new links to some great sites we recently discovered.

20 January 2000:

Added a new e-mail guidelines page, which will hopefully reduce the number of duplicate questions we get and thus allow more time to work on this site.
Added some book review snippets--short blurbs on books we recommend
Yet another page, number four, of great quotes (we get so many, and we love 'em 'cause they're like little subversive media bites to inject a little healthy rebellion against the work ethic into people's lives).

16 December 1999:

Updated the FAQ - added new questions and a table of contents format.
Added a new page of quotations (page three) to our inspiration section, and added new quotes to pages one and two as well.
Added new essay in our personal stories section: Thinking out Loud by Anthony Gates

01 October 1999:

CLAWS Featured as Web Tip of the Day at NewWork News.

New essays posted, answering questions we frequently get: Are we 'anti-work?' and should we all quit our jobs (and sit around drinking pina coladas all day?)

Added new rant in our stories section: Fuck the Overachiever

The CLAWS site is updated sporadically, and completely at the whims of our site designer.

"The displacement of the Protestant ethic will not happen overnight. It will take time, like all great cultural changes. The Protestant ethic is so deeply embedded in our present consciousness that it is often thought of as if it were just "human nature." Of course, it is not."
- Pekka Himanen, "The Hacker Ethic"

"I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest to make money they don’t want to buy things they don’t need to impress people they dislike."
- Emile Henry Gauvreay