Re: How anti-Iraq war protesters employed technology
As a follow up of this discussion, I wonder if anybody has got any sources to point to as to the organization of anti-war demonstrations via the internet?
I do, but I can't disclose them, because they're not public. While the activity you see above board and featured in the mainstream media is highlighting those activities where white people predominate, there is a major undercurrent of organizing activity amongst people of color, especially in the United States, that is a part of a meta-dialogue which ties together the organizing that was done pre-911 for the World Conference Against Racism and feeds into the growing demand for Reparations for Black African-descendents in the U.S. and elsewhere. Much of this work does not occur in full view of the public because of it's sensitive nature. It manifests itself in the larger public activities, but it's not something you can just signup to an email list to join in on. People of Color, and especially Black people, having a 500 year legacy of genocidal-like policies to deal with, are less interested right now in drawing the biggest crowd, and more concerned with being able to trust, develope lasting political relationships, and build movements. Long after the white folks go home or get bored with anti-war work, people of color will continue to be racially profiled and have their humanity assaulted on a daily basis. While white folks act like we just hit a crisis, Black people and other people of color in the U.S. knew there was a crisis back in November of 2000 when the ghost of American Apartheid reared it's ugly head, again. The missing element in all the so-called analysis thus far is that while we have more speed and breadth, we have little depth. There are more people on the streets now, but is this actually building a long-term movement for social justice, one that will go beyond dealing with the current fascist leader of the U.S. and deal with the ongoing injustices which started with the birth of modern Capitalism. As any idiot knows, Globalization didn't start with NAFTA, the WTO, the World Bank, or any other multilateral institution, it started with the Atlantic Slave Trade. Black bodies are the original commodities of the global market. Have the postmodern theoreticians, anarchists, cyberfeminists, and academics learned nothing from the legacy of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other grassroots organizing movements? Let's take all this newfangled technology, remove our heads from our asses, and start using it to build and nurture real communities, the places where if a bullet hits you, you can't just press the "new game" button. Things were fucked up before September 11th, they were fucked up after September 11th, and they'll continue to be fucked up, war or no war, until people start thinking and working together in a more systemic and long-term manner. Art
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Art McGee