-------- Original Message -------- Subject: wired Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 10:43:17 -0500 From: Bob Broedel <broedel at RAY.MET.FSU.EDU> Reply-To: Science for the People Discussion List<SCIENCE-FOR-THE-PEOPLE at LIST.UVM.EDU> To: SCIENCE-FOR-THE-PEOPLE at LIST.UVM.EDU
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/weekinreview/23JLEE.html
SOURCE: New York Times DATE : 23 FEB 2003 TITLE : How Protesters Mobilized So Many and So Nimbly AUTHOR: JENNIFER 8. LEE
WASHINGTON Before the global protests against war in Iraq last weekend, organizers were already making conference calls andpassing out fliers for their next set of demonstrations, including one scheduled for next Saturday, outside the White House.
But then, the worldwide protests drew millions of people onto the streets, from San Francisco to London, and the Bush administration hit some diplomatic roadblocks. Sensing delay in White House momentum, the organizers themselves paused and decided to make a strategic move, delaying the demonstrations from March 1 until March 15. They spread the news the old- fashioned way, through alternative radio stations and word of mouth, and the instantaneous way, through Web sites and e-mailmessages.
Organizing a protest is fundamentally about logistics: where do people meet, how do they get on a bus, who will order portable toilets. Obviously, the Internet, like fax machines and copiers, has made the tasks easier. Before last weekend's protests, for example, people registered online for buses to New York. And a mass e-mail notice was sent out to New York protesters, informing them about public bathrooms in Midtown Manhattan and giving them a number to call in case of arrest.
But the Internet has become more than a mere organizing tool; it has changed protests in a more fundamental way, by allowing mobilization to emerge from free-wheeling amorphous groups, rather than top-down hierarchical ones.
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E-mail lists have allowed individuals to create groups that defy geography and time. Thousands of people have joined hundreds of antiwar lists, and diverse streams of messages fly back and forth quickly, vastly different from the information flow in hierarchies. Since the beginning of the year, 300 messages have been posted on a popular antiwar list in Sydney, Australia, that has almost 900 members. The notes range from solicitations for donations to United Nations updates to appeals for local volunteers.
This is mass mobilization, but also nimble mobilization. Protesting a war that hasn't begun requires a constant eye on the calendar of government action. And the movement's flexibility maximizes its impact, organizers say. A protest date can easily be moved, timed to affect the latest diplomatic maneuver.
"We are trying to stay a step ahead of the administration by our planning," said Damu Smith, chairman of Black Voices for Peace, one of hundreds of groups involved in last week's demonstrations. And staying ahead of the game "is absolutely strategically central in our ability to be effective in what we are doing."
Military theorists are fond of saying that future warfare will revolve around social and communication networks. Antiwar groups have found that this is true for their work as well.