essay.technology in social movements. seattle 99

8/8/2019 ESSAY.technology in Social Movements. Seattle 99

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Christian Martone - 260318619

TECHNOLOGY-BASED TACTICS USED BY THE ANTI-GLOBALIZATION

MOVEMENT DURING THE SEATTLE 99 PROTESTS

INTRO

This essay will describe the new technology-based protest tactics used by the anti-

Globalization Movement and try to understand their social and political repercussions.

In order to do so I will begin by briefly explaining the origins and beliefs of the anti-

Globalization Movement. Peculiar attention will be given to the anti-WTO protests of Seattle

1999 as the watershed event for the Movement and for its Internet-based tactics.

I will use the case study of the Independent Media Center (Indymedia) to demonstrate

how technology-based tactics are (re)shaping world politics and becoming part of the action

repertoire of todays social movements. Then, I will mention and describe other forms of

technology-based protest tactics used by other collectives and individuals that form the anti-

Globalization Movement.

This paper will conclude by analyzing the social and political consequences of the use of

particular technological tactics, as well as mentioning its main challenges and future

implications.

WHAT IS THE ANTI-GLOBALIZATION / ANTI-CORPORATE MOVEMENT?1

1 Anti-Globalization, anti-Corporate and alter- or counter-Globalization movements are mistakenly used as

synonyms (despite their minor theoretical differences, in practice their discourse and tactics are very similar). In this

paper, these terms will be used as synonyms. The anti-Globalization Movement is also closely linked to the Global

Justice Movement.

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We live in a globalized world, one in which our social, economic, cultural and political

spheres are interconnected with those of others throughout the world with no respect of national

borders; an interconnectedness of social fates (Munck: 5)

For some, globalization has created a better world based on the rule of international trade,

for others, the actual form of neoliberal-globalization2 has proven to be destructive and abusive.

Governments and companies are privatizing health, education and even water; patenting seeds

and medicines and thus limiting their access; polluting the rivers and the atmosphere with no

accountability at all; eliminating traditional lifestyles and customs; exploiting workers under a

profit-making rationale while others are laid-off; these and other concerns have resulted in the

insurgence of the anti-Globalization Movement. The Movements principal constituents are

environmentalists, labor unions and workers, farmers and students across the globe.

The anti-Globalization Movement had begun in the 1970s with protests in developing

countries opposing austerity measures as part of the structural adjustment polices (SAPs)

imposed by the IMF, for example, when Indian peasants mobilized against the Green Revolution

(Barlow and Clarke: 16). The second wave reached the developed countries in the early

1990s3, North American activists demonstrated against the free trade agreements their

governments negotiated.

International organizations like the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund

(IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) were targeted as the responsible parties for the

current problems caused by globalization.

2 For the alter- or counter-globalization movement, globalizationper se is not the problem, but the way it is

implemented (Munck, 2007).3 Actions in the developing world kept occurring, one of the most popular movements, that inspired others in

developed nations was the Zapatista Movement. It came into be on January 1994, and opposed the NAFTA. Their

use of Internet-based tactics became popular among the anti-Corporate activists.

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It was not until the Battle of Seattle in 1999 that the anti-Globalization/anti-Corporate

Movement became internationally recognized and started to organize and work as a global

movement, in part due to the technological advances that allowed fast and accessible

communication and new ways in which to take collective decisions.

WHAT DOES THE BATTLE OF SEATTLE MEANT?

Seattle became a symbol and battle cry for a new generation of

activists Jeffrey Juris

The city of Seattle hosted the WTO Summit in November 1999. Sixty thousand

protesters invaded the streets, mostly organized by Greenpeace and the AFL-CIO, one of the US

most powerful labor unions (Barlow and Clarke, 2001). This alliance was strongly symbolic,

since the environmentalists and the unionists have historically been opponents4.

The Battle of Seattle gave rise to a new framework of mobilization, the anti-

Globalization framework, capable of uniting different social sectors against common enemies,

the international organizations (Staggenborg, 2008). Seattle 99 became a symbol that would

inspire a new generation of activists.

On November 30, activists succeeded in shutting down the meetings and preventing

another round of trade liberalization talks (Juris: 194). Within hours, the police, the FBI, the

Secret Service and the Delta forces were randomly beating and arresting protesters (Barlow and

Clarke, 2001).

4 Environmentalists, it is said, push for their goals (e.g., shutting down a polluting factory) without considering the

unemployment and social consequences. Unionists depict environmentalists as rich-white students or professionals

that dont understand the life of a worker. They rather have jobs than clean air.

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US and foreign media newscasts (and independent media reports) spread throughout

the world in seconds, spectators were presented with the first big, legitimate and undeniable

critic against the WTO and the globalization model. Seattle became an icon and a watershed of

the globalization debate.

Most importantly, for the raison detre of this essay, Seattle meant a global spread in

the use and popularity of technology-based movements, tactics and cyberactivism; for example,

the birth of the Independent Media Center (Indymedia). Mobilizations provided a physical space

where independent journalists, video editors and computer nerds could meet and network (Juris,

2005).

INDYMEDIA: WHATS IT ALL ABOUT?

The Independent Media Center (Indymedia) is the icon of alternative media. It was

originated in Seattle during the anti-WTO protests. Today, it is an organized network of

collectives in more than 30 countries that reports on news about various mobilizations and

demonstrations (Langman: 61).

Their online reports in www.indymedia.org, usually related to the anti-Corporate

Movement receive more than 2 million page views per day (Juris: 200). They report the

information not covered (poorly covered or discredited) by the mainstream media.

Beyond journalistic work, Indymedia tries to aid the protester groups serving as a

meeting point and safe space during protests5 and offering protesters legal advice,

accommodation, workshops, teach-ins, etc.

5 Indymedia Centres (Protest Headquarters) are established prior, during and after the mayor protests. They are large

open-air tents or lofts with tons of computers, cameras, modems and editing equipment used by hundreds of

independent journalists from across the world.

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Indymedia centers carry several operations: they send e-mails to each other,

facilitating coordination; they generate formal updates instantly posted online; they upload and

disseminate videos and photographs; they facilitate the exchange of ideas, information and

resources in order to edit videos and documentaries; and they even carry complex actions like

streaming live video and audio (Juris: 201).

They use Open Source Publishing, refusing editorial control and allowing users to

freely upload, modify, update and contest the content; empowering grassroots users by

participating in the production process (Juris, 2005).

BEYOND MEDIA REPORTS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND DOCUMENTARIES

Besides alternative media (Indymedia being the perfect example) the anti-

Globalization Movement displays other strategies referred to as tactical media (Kreimer, 2001), I

will describe briefly some of the most important.

Websites (mostly used by NGOs) and blogs (mostly used by individuals or informal

groups) are used to share information, raise awareness among the members and as a means to

take collective decisions.

Blogs (weblogs) have the characteristic of permitting users to comment on the posts,

motivating debate and allowing users to network with each other (Beers, 2006). They are

constantly updated with new multi-media material (documents, images, audio, videos, texts, etc).

Websites, which require more resources for their maintenance than blogs, have been

used recently by NGOs as a fast and easy way to receive donations by their members. Also, as a

means to coordinate campaigns and recruit online visitors as cyberactivists, those who will

eventually engage in virtual sit-ins, email flooding, boycotts, marches, flash-mobs, etc.

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E-mail flooding consists when thousands of people send an e-mail to a targeted

recipient (usually government officials or TNC CEOs) demanding certain policy changes. The

letter is usually in text-form, other times it might be a photograph displaying certain message.

Sometimes the e-mail flooding is executed at a precise time and date, with the intention to block

and paralyze the targeted e-mail account.

Client-side distributed denial-of-service (also called virtual sit-in) occurs when

thousands of cyberactivists simultaneously access a website, saturating the servers capacity to

handle requests and display the information (Electrohippies Collective, 2001). This tactic has

been used by the Electrohippies Collective in the Battle of Seattle and by the Electronic

Disturbance Theater in 1998 against the Mexican president Zedillo, the Pentagon and the White

House protesting the treatment of Zapatista rebels in Mexico (Kreimer: 158)

The mentioned tactics require the effort and coordination of several or even thousands

of activists. I will now mention a couple of tactics executed by individuals, actions also known as

haktivism, or electronic civil disobedience (Juris: 203).

Server-side distributed denial-of-service consists in breaking into computer systems

worldwide and install software that generate thousands of hits to targeted sites, consequently

saturating the server and blocking a website (Electrohippies Collective, 2001). Some haktivists

attack e-commerce websites like Amazon and Ebay, as a critic of the current economic model,

resulting in millions of dollars lost.

Website defacement (compared to website graffiti) happens when the visual

appearance of a website is changed by haktivists. The new website usually displays satirical

messages and critics to the targeted actor, usually government offices or corporations 6.

6 Three weeks ago, a group ofhaktivists defaced thirty-three websites of Mexican state governments, local

newspapers and companies. http://www.proceso.com.mx/noticias_articulo.php?articulo=73967

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Hijacks are similar to website defacement, when trying to access a website, users are

automatically redirected from one website to another7. These attacks might be accompanied by

the installation ofmalware and viruses to damage the servers and computers integrity. As well as

the theft of valuable information that can later be used to affect the public reputation and

accountability (Kreimer, 2001).

CONCLUSIONS

Technology-based tactics in the anti-Globalization Movement are more than means to

achieve goals or tools to convey messages. They are new organizational forms that allow

consensus and horizontal decision making: the same type of democracy they demand from their

governments and international institutions. Indymedias use of Open Source Publishing or the

Electrohippies demand-of-server attacks (both rely on the organized efforts of tens of thousands

of cyberactivists) have become experiments for democracy, they have become an extension of

free-speech rights (Kreimer, 2001). These political values have crystallized in theNo Border

Camps, a communal living space for activists during major protests, an experiment in collective

living and grassroots self-management (Juris: 203). They have transformed cyber-democracy

into tangible examples and concrete experiences.

Despite the use of democratic organizational experiments and technologies, this tech-

facet of the anti-Globalization movement is still, in essence, restrictive. The Digital Divide

(Kreimer, 2001) has left out those who dont have the means to acquire Internet technologies.

7 For example (a funny one), visitors of kkk.com were redirected to hatewatch.org (Kreimer: 156).

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This movement is one of a global educated middle-class, mostly from the developed nations; a

population not representative of todays world. Hopefully for them, the Digital Divide is

expected to narrow with time as technologies become more accessible and as poor nations

develop.

Virtual social networks like Facebook are already playing major roles in todays protest

and activism organizing, making political engagement easier and more accessible to larger

numbers (political opportunities have broadened). Low-cost, long-distance, faster (and in some

cases anonymous) decision-making have become advantages only cyberactivism can offer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

JOURNALS

Beers, David. The Popular Media, Education and Resistance. Canadian Journal of

Education 29 (2006): 109-130.

Electrohippies Collective. Client-Side Distributed Denial-of-Service: Valid Campaign

Tactic or Terrorist Act?Leonardo 34 (2001): 269-274.

Juris, Jeffrey S. The New Digital Media and Activist Networking within Anti-Corporate

Globalization Movements.Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social

Science 597 (2005): 189-208.

Kreimer, Seth F. Technologies of Protest: Insurgent Social Movements and the First

Amendment in the Era of the Internet. University of Pennsylvania Law Review 150

(2001): 119-171.

Langman, Lauren. From Virtual Public Spheres to Global Justice: A Critical Theory of

Internetworked Social Movements. Sociological Theory 23 (2005): 42-74.

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BOOKS

Barlow, Maude and Tony Clarke. Global Showdown: How the New Activists are

Fighting Global Corporate Rule. Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 2001.

Munck, Ronaldo. Globalization and Contestation. The New Great Counter-Movement.

New York: Routledge Press, 2007.

Staggenborg, Suzanne. Social Movements. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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