Bodies on the line: Physical protest

The usefulness of organised protest is often called into question in this electronic media-dominated age, when to bring bodies together around a demand or set of demands can seem somewhat archaic. So many of the occasions where we previously had to turn up personally have been superseded as we connect frequently but briefly, spontaneously but not necessarily simultaneously. Slogans have become eclipsed by SMS texts. So many of our messages are in cyberspace rather than on calico banners. Is there the need for physical protest? I will argue that there is, but that we need to understand how our protests relate to time and space

Convivial media

The Net has been used in numerous episodes of people\u27s action in varying ways, from straightforward communication to Website blockades and sabotage. Here we look briefly at two Net campaigns: the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and the ongoing Net campaign in support of the Zapatistas in Mexico. These case studies help provide insight into features of convivial media that activists should be using and promoting

Net resistance, net benefits: opposing MAI

Multinational corporations (MNCs) enjoy enormous structural and resource advantages over employees and citizens. Yet when the MNCs and major governments tried to expand those advantages through the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), they were stymied by a global alliance of activists. MAI opponents made heavy use of electronic mail and the World Wide Web in raising the alert, sharing information and coordinating actions. They worked collaboratively, flexibly and imaginatively towards their goals while MNCs and governments were working secretively and within more traditional hierarchical models. This article appraises the role of the Internet in the campaign and discusses why it can give activists an edge over hugely better resourced MNCs. It warns against activist groups setting up bureaucracies and provides a number of insights for the ongoing struggle. While the MAI has been defeated in name, there is no doubt that MNCs will try other methods and arenas for achieving its content

Lessons from the 1991 Soviet Coup

Given the large number of coups and attempted coups in numerous countries over the years, it is intriguing that there appears to have been so little study of what is most effective in supporting or opposing them.[1] In this paper we examine the resistance to the 1991 Soviet coup, looking for general insights into how to make opposition effective. We suggest that each coup brings its own set of circumstances which protestors must be prepared to understand and use to their advantage. Nonetheless, there are several factors which are common and generally useful to bear in mind. These include the crucial part played by the military, the likely volatility of loyalties in the military and the delicate balance of many coups, especially with regard to their ability to attain legitimacy. Governments obviously have little interest in disseminating information on how to help coups succeed. Their prime concern is maintaining their own power, and even to stir up thinking about the hypothetical possibility of a coup could be destabilising. Governments seek to prevent plotting and launching of coups, typically by ensuring loyalty and squashing challengers. For elected governments, the usual approach is to ensure that military forces are loyal to the civilian government itself, often by fostering an ideology of the military being above politics. In dictatorships, military loyalty may be maintained by ruthless repression of actual and potential challengers

Nonviolent action and people with disabilities

One of the often-noted advantages of nonviolent action is that it allows just about anyone to participate. Military troops, in contrast, mostly consist of young, physically fit men. Very few women, for example, engage in front-line combat. Civilian-based defense, the nonviolent alternative to military defense, uses lots of methods -- including rallies, strikes, boycotts and sit-ins -- that allow full-scale participation without regard to sex, age or ability. To be specific, that means that women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities or who are physically unfit can participate along with young fit men. The advantages of such participation include better representation of diverse needs and perspectives, greater opportunities for solidarity and potential for more shared knowledge

Nonviolence Speaks: Communicating Against Repression

This book addresses the power of popular nonviolent action against repression, aggression and oppression. A crucial aspect of effective nonviolent action is communication. Activists need to be able to contact each other and to mobilise support from other parts of the world. However, within the nonviolence literature, communication has been almost entirely neglected, while within the communication literature, nonviolent action is seldom mentioned. This is the first major study to focus on the joint dynamics of nonviolence and communication. Three case studies are examined in depth: the popular action that forced the resignation of Indonesian President Suharto in 1998, the successful people\u27s resistance to the Soviet coup in 1991 and the successful internationally coordinated campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1998. In each case, special attention is given to the role of communication in the struggle. Then comparisons are made with situations where there was less effective resistance: during the Indonesian massacres of 1965-1966 and the Indonesian invasion and occupation of East Timor from 1975, during Soviet rule under Stalin, and during the early introduction of structural adjustment programmes. Special attention is made to barriers to communication during these periods of less action