Re: Want to Join a Protest? Press 'Forward'

[ZoeScanner <zoescanner@yahoo.com>]

[: hacktivism :]


Um.....yeah...well...I dunna know if I would slap
meself on the back as much as this guy does.
True,the net is a wonderous aid for
enlisting,enmassing,and planning. BUT. Given my
own choice....I woulda rather have been there
getting gassed with the rest.Fact.
What I found most useful about WTO crusaid on the
net was/is that it makes a world of difference &
a much easier & thorough task of getting the
facts out to JQ Public. Feed em.
We loose something of ourselves  when we give up
the "take it to the street" action...It somehow
feels more real,more dramatic,and I would bet
thats how the majority of the masses looks at
it..Somehow, I just dont see JQ Public getting
all steamed up over news pictures of
*?*cyberprotests..I hope I never see the day when
*all* protesting is done here.
And I sure dont think Joe Hill would be so self
congratulatory if he did it all in cyberspace (
he would not be such a highly praised martyer
thats fore sure)
all in all, Sure....we did a good job...for those
of us that simply could not be there,we did our
part,the best way/s we could.  ...some like me,IN
SUPPORT of our comrads on the streets. We are the
newist war machine on the block...here,the war is
ViRtually bloodless.....faceless..nameless...cold
& impersonal. And very very effective.
No...I dont pat meself on the back that often.
peace
ZoeScanner
> 
> On Mon, 20 Dec 1999, Chuck0 wrote:
> 
> > [: hacktivism :]
> > 
> > Wow! This is a pretty good article!
> > 
> > LA Times 12-20-1999
> >
>
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/19991220/t000115904.html
> > 
> > Want to Join a Protest? Press 'Forward' 
> > 
> > WTO: As the Seattle demonstrations proved,
> there's a quiet revolution
> > being organized on the Internet.
> > 
> > By CLANCY SIGAL
> > 
> > My fantasy is that, like Dr. No stroking his
> cat, I masterminded
> > the "battle in Seattle" over the World Trade
> Organization. The reality
> > is
> > that on my personal computer I watched, then
> joined in, the drama of
> > organizing Seattle's shutdown two weeks ago.
> > 
> > My access to the Internet--the key organizing
> tool in bringing tens of
> > thousands to the port city in protest over
> the 135-nation WTO
> > meeting--gave me unparalleled political
> power. I did it comfortably from
> > my office chair. Lenin had to stand on a soap
> box freezing his backside
> > in snow blizzards. All I had to do was press
> the "F" for the forward
> > button and "mobilize the masses" at my
> fingertip.
> > 
> > As the legendary labor martyr Joe Hill might
> have said: Don't mourn
> > for me, computerize.
> > 
> > I allocate 15 minutes a day to browse the
> Web. From the free news-nets
> > I've signed up with--diverse organizations
> like Hackworth (a dissident
> > military group), the International Workers of
> the World, AlterNet,
> > Left-org and whatnot--I can usually figure
> out what's going on among
> > activists I've never met. These
> computer-literate comrades I know only
> > as
> > "Michael P" or "Flint Jones" or "Starhawk"
> the pagan witch. Even Gus
> > Hall, the Communist Party's leader-for-life,
> has a flashy Web page.
> > 
> > There is an unacknowledged youth revolt out
> there. Anyone who plays
> > Nintendo can join the revolution. Last month,
> for example, in the
> > largest
> > demonstration against a military facility for
> a decade, thousands of
> > computer-tied students and dropouts gathered
> at the U.S. Army School of
> > the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., dubbed
> "school of assassins" because
> > it trained so many Latin American military
> death-squad soldiers.
> > 
> > Prior to Seattle, across my screen, at
> lightning speed, flitted
> > messages from Nader's Public Citizen team,
> the Sierra Club, United World
> > Federation, the steelworkers' union,
> Teamsters, Sea Turtle Restoration
> > Group, Seattle Lesbian Avengers, various
> stripes of anarchism, "free
> > Mumia" adherents, a group dubbed "Art and
> Revolution"--a patchwork of
> > interests and philosophical camps. Hundreds
> of high school kids ditched
> > school by agreeing, via e-mail, to meet in
> Seattle.
> > 
> > The extraordinary thing was the level of
> literacy and awareness. Even
> > among 13-year-olds, there was genuine debate
> about unsexy subjects like
> > trade liberalization, tariff barriers,
> agricultural subsidies and export
> > regulations and fierce but friendly arguments
> about nonviolence versus
> > trashing "capitalist property." An electronic
> consensus was achieved,
> > namely, the WTO delegates' habit of secrecy
> was odious, and power
> > without
> > responsibility was uncool. It was as
> clarion-clear as a Tom Paine
> > pamphlet.
> > 
> > At the flick of my wrist I forwarded e-mail
> messages all over the
> > country and to Europe. Sometimes I entered
> the debate. More often, I
> > used
> > my computer as a message center, bringing
> together 
=== message truncated ===


=====

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