davidianrobin

[davidianrobin]

We Have to Stop the Machine

It's been 50 years since the Free Speech Movement began on the UC Berkeley campus. This speech by Mario Savio is still very relevant today:

“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

America has been shifting into a corporate state for the past 30 years and we see the effects all around us. The financial crisis in 2008 resulted in massive bailouts and bonuses for the power elite, and austerity for the rest of us in the form of drastic cuts to education, healthcare, and other social services. Meanwhile, wages have been stagnant during the past 25 years for a majority of Americans and our youth are drowning in student loan debt, as tuition continues to skyrocket. Neoliberalism has turned all of our public goods into businesses which only cater to those with capital and property.

Our earth is being ravaged by huge oil companies who are immune to prosecution or even feeling the effects of the damage they wrought around the world. Half of the earth's wildlife has disappeared in the past 40 years and if current projections hold up, we are headed for a climate catastrophe. Our entire government is ineffective because corporations with billions of dollars in profits are somehow considered human beings and money is in some bizarre way equal to free speech. Enough is enough.

How can you sit around and just accept these issues intensifying around you. There are no saviors in Washington, the ballot box is not the lifesaver which will pull you from the rough seas of 2014 America.

The operation of the machine has only become more odious since Mario Savio stood in front of Sproul Hall on that December day. Personally, it makes me very sick at heart. I have been involved in activism ever since the first chants of 'All day. All week. Occupy Wall Street.' but I have never had the opportunity to engage in civil disobedience. Yet.

We have tried voting. We have tried holding rallies with hundreds of thousands of people. We've tried calling our senators, our representatives, our governors, our president. We have tried signing petitions, putting our names next to thousands of others from around the world. We have tried marching through streets, holding signs, chanting slogans.

Now we have to put our bodies upon the gears, the levers, the apparatus.

We have to make this sick machine stop.

[davidianrobin]

How the Right-Wing Attacked the "Dirty, Unwashed Hippies" of #FloodWallStreet and #PeoplesClimate

Countless journalists and social theorists have postulated a link between Twitter and democracy, ever since Bouzazi sparked the flame which burned him to death while igniting a wave of protest which quickly engulfed the Middle East in early 2011. Revolutions obviously aren't new, they have occured throughout the course of human history, but never has the contagion been as quick as 2011, with movements spreading across populations in months, sometimes even a couple of days. Theorists like Lotad, Boyd, and others explored the information flows of these short-form messages networked to the twitterverse via mentions and hashtags, and hyperlinked to a multitude of other locations on the world Wide Web. They examine who was tweeting with the #tunisia and #egypt hashtags as the revolution spread, and demonstrate how these messages and articles flowed throughout the world in minutes. 

This spread of communication across long distances can certainly have a positive effect on democracy. individuals have the ability to seek a dizzying range of information quicker than ever before, as decentralized Web 2.0 technologies facilitate the bottom-up production of information with a much lower participation cost. A television studio, millions of dollars, and a contract with a cable network are no longer required for producing content which has the ability to go viral and spread through global networks. As Castells wrote in "Networks of Outrage and Hope", virtual social networks facilitate spaces of autonomy which are "largely beyond the control of governments and corporations that had monopolized the channels of communication as the foundation of their power, throughout history." The increased ability of marginalized populations to communicate instantly, with only an Internet connection can subvert governments, as state control of media discourse becomes much more difficult to maintain. Social movements which used to be suppressed by the state-controlled media now have participants chanting 'the Whole World is Watching'. We live in a global village, and social networks such as Twitter cam be seen as facilitating a new global democracy, beyond the traditional structures of state and corporate media.

While this view is certainly tempting, especially considering the role of social media in spreading movements ever since the Green Revolution in Iran in 2010, it is technologically deterministic, as technologies such as social media and blogs are extensions of identities and power relations which comprise our physical world. Sure there are a wider range of information sources, but how many of these blogs and news sites are just echo chambers of strict belief systems?

In other words, while information is more accessible and easy to disseminate, thus raising the possibility of spreading education and as a result, democracy, the Internet alone might not be useful for fostering the deliberation necessary to construct a functioning democracy. For example, there are right wing blogs like Red State and National Review, and left wing blogs like Daily Kos and Truth Out, with viewpoints that reach a wider audience than before the internet transformed the media landscape. However, are there actual debates happening? Are the citizens of the Internet discussing issues and ideologies or are these blogs and message boards creating segmented communities, where individuals meet others with the same narrow viewpoint, thus sparking virtual interactions which continuously echo their construction of reality?

A majority of the tweets using the #ClimateMarch and #FloodWallStreet hashtags were positive. However, some of the volume which caused them to trend were actually oppositional tweets. These messages barely challenged the actual issue of climate change itself, and seemed to be focused primarily on attacking the protesters, which served to distract from the narratives which fueled the collective action.

Even the tweets which did actually address the issue weren't an aspect of a deliberative democracy, but rather, seemed like a weird combination of the Tonight Show and Fox News. For example:

#ISIS is responsible for thousands of deaths. #Globalwarming hasn't even claimed it's first Polar Bear yet... #FloodWallStreet #tcot — Paul Tully (@Papatul) September 23, 2014

After the march, rather than actually interviewing the participants about their views and why they felt like it was important to travel to New York for the event, the Gothamist posted an article which focused on the large amount of trash left by protesters. While the debris left by the massive protest is certainly a legitimate issue, it is just another example of how the messaging of protests is frequently littered by attacks on the actions and appearance of the participants, rather than the content of their signs and chants. Many of the oppositional tweets referenced this article, or others which were spawned from the Gothamist's narrative:

Climate March or Garbage March? http://t.co/fgzfaCpB5p #climatemarch #FloodWallStreet #tcot #tlot pic.twitter.com/GmGWEcFl6k — Garrett Humbertson (@G_Humbertson) September 22, 2014

Left wing extremists leave their usual mess at #floodwallstreet Pictures, video http://t.co/fvOKvYX43k #tcot #tgdn pic.twitter.com/8Bb5biEb91 — ┌П┐(•_•) (@exposeliberals) September 22, 2014

Other tweets focused on the crowd numbers, framing them as underwhelming despite the turnout of over one-thousand people on a Monday morning. The below tweet also ignores that the event wasn't only New Yorkers, but featured activists from around the world.

In liberal #NYC this is all they could get for a turnout? #TCOT #FloodWallStreet — Mike (@mrjc1) September 22, 2014

A few tweets framed Flood Wall Street as having a lack of diversity, due to Monday's actions including many white members. While this could very well be a valid criticism of the event's inclusivity, it ignores the notion that participants included only those who could afford to get arrested on a Monday morning in New York City.

Today’s Leftist #FloodWallStreet Protest: A Sea Of White Faces, Stunning Lack Of Diversity… http://t.co/TiiWc7Kqq8 #cnn #ac360 #nyc #tcot — Truth Tweeter (@redostoneage) September 23, 2014

Here is a similar example from Occupy Wall Street in 2011:

The "Occupy" movement still is run by the dominant progressive white males http://ow.ly/6RAoA #OWS #tcot #teaparty — Mike (@beesnguns) October 9, 2011

The most prevalent criticism found through searching through #FloodWallStreet and #ClimateMarch is typical of the conservative framing of left-wing movements as comprised of privileged rich youth, commonly coded as "hipsters" or "hippies", who either live in their parents' basement or have their housing costs paid for through family trust funds. Thus, they are considered lazy 'leeches' of the system, rather than active members of our society who are voicing valid systemic criticisms. This serves to minimize the messaging of the protesters, and is a very broad stereotype which can't possibly apply to such a diverse movement, and attempts to de-legitimize the protesters.

Couldn't help myself, this summarizes the #FloodWallStreet crew. #TCOT pic.twitter.com/6TwXrg4k5u — Mer (@ItsMoi_Merry) September 22, 2014

Do these morons really expect to be taken seriously??? #FloodWallStreet #tcot #RedNationRising pic.twitter.com/Tpy0dKlPGL — Young Conservative™ (@steve0423) September 23, 2014

Demonstators choose sitting on Wall Street over working anywhere else! #Obama and all leftists dream world! #FloodWallStreet #tcot — Jason Billings (@SingleDallasGuy) September 22, 2014

Nearly 1000 protesters at the #FloodWallStreet protest, bringing a combined 6 months of work experience to the event NY. #tcot — Fred Wimpy (@fredwimpy) September 22, 2014

Who will crap on a cop car at #FloodWallStreet ? #tcot — Mike (@mrjc1) September 22, 2014

#FloodWallStreet

- GREED

#GrowUp #tcot pic.twitter.com/5lTWL2NMZn

— Amy Mek (@AmyMek)

September 22, 2014

#FloodWallStreet

- Stay Out Of My Way & Keep Your Needy & Lazy Hands Out of my

#HardWorking

Pockets!

#tcot pic.twitter.com/LOjK9NyEb2

— Amy Mek (@AmyMek)

September 22, 2014

I'm concerned about the sulfur compounds being released into the atmosphere by a mass of unwashed hippies. #FloodWallStreet #tcot

— Deadlock Victim ✡ (@DeadlockVictim)

September 22, 2014

#FloodWallStreet

brought to you by the

#OccupyAnythingButaJob

crowd!

#tcot

— Fred Wimpy (@fredwimpy)

September 22, 2014

For comparison, here are examples of the same oppositional framing, utilized during the height of Occupy Wall Street in 2011:

#OWS

the only exploitation is committed by politicians who use tax $$ to subsidize the victim class in exchange for votes

#Iam53 #tcot #p2

— MAW (@themick1962)

October 10, 2011

Wealth isn't "distributed", it's CREATED or EARNED. Welfare checks are "distributed". #tcot #tlot #tpp #teaparty #patriot #gop #p2 #iam53 — Gene Taylor (@GeneTaylorUSA) October 10, 2011

#iam53

Stop whining. Start working.

http://t.co/vlJU2WKk

— Kevin Swan (@TheiSwan)

October 7, 2011

#Iam53 http://t.co/Sn0aXRPv

"I would never poop on a NYPD car." — Kelly (@KLSouth)

October 13, 2011

A variation of this attack is the idea that since protesters were participating in capitalism, via their consumption of clothing and electronics, they are hypocrites for challenging the current system. While the movement may certainly contain hypocritical elements, this is a ridiculous premise, since it would be impossible to survive in our advanced capitalist society without active participation, even if working toward an alternative system. For example, if someone doesn't have a cell phone or internet access, they are far less likely to obtain a full-time job, thus rendering survival impossible. However, right-wing twitter used this false contradiction quite widely:

Using capitalist goods to denounce capitalism is like using air to argue against the existence of air. #FloodWallStreet #tcot — Mike (@mrjc1) September 22, 2014

Marchers: Stop Wall Street and stop free market capitalism *using new apple iphone #tcot #FloodWallStreet — Mitch Behna (@MitchBehna) September 22, 2014

If capitalism is so bad, I challenge #FloodWallStreet to turn in their smartphones & designer clothing. Right now. #tcot — Mike (@mrjc1) September 22, 2014

Here is a similar example from 2011:

#OWS

the only "class" in USA excluded from reaping the benefits of capitalism is the class that chooses not to participate.

#Iam53 #tcot #p2

— MAW (@themick1962)

October 10, 2011

While the tools of Twitter certainly provide the framework which could foster a deliberative democracy through interactions among diverse groups, we must remember that each technology is just an extension of our divisive society. Twitter can spread information that builds movements, and can provide live coverage which was previously impossible, but as these oppositional tweets show, when there is conflict, the medium takes on a form similar to the echo-chambers of MSNBC and Fox News or the message boards on DailyKos and The Blaze, rather than any sort of debate which compares and contrasts viewpoints to build consensus.

Another glaringly obvious feature of these tweets which I have mentioned numerous times, is that they usually criticize and attack the character of the participants, rather than actually addressing the content behind their protest. This is also characteristic of how the mainstream media represents dissent, especially regarding predominantly left-wing protests. This was seen frequently during Occupy Wall Street and is also emblematic of how the press covered the Global Justice Movement, especially the anti-WTO Protests in Seattle and Washington DC during the turn of the millennium. Rachel Coen analyzed these media reports in an article for FAIR and found a similar trend. These mainstream sources used a "tactic of interviewing Jane or Joe (or better yet, Mango) Protester and identifying his or her views as representative of what is, in fact, a complex global movement...References to hair color, body-piercing and clothing were also frequent."

Jules Boykoff also performed a study on both television and newspaper coverage of the same protests, presented in her article "Framing Dissent: Mass Media Coverage of the Global Justice Movement", where she defines the five frames which the mainstream media utilized to represent the anti-globalization movement. One of these was the freak frame, where "the more radical elements of the global justice movement - in terms of both outward appearance and ideology- are transformed into a synecdoche for the entire movement".

Similar dynamics were present during the 1960s anti-Vietnam War/Civil Rights Movement, in how hippies and other counterculture protesters were framed by the mainstream media. For example, Todd Gitlin, in "What Really Happened to the 1960s: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy", described how Time portrayed the participants in the October 1967 March on the Pentagon, as "hard-eyed revolutionaries and skylarking hippies, ersatz motorcycle gangs and all-too-real college professors." Once again, protesters are framed as the "other", freaks who are fundamentally different than the majority and are thus not to be taken seriously. Another topic which would be interesting to explore is how a hashtag itself can provide multiple virtual spaces, which could possibly foster the networking necessary to build both on and off-line communities. Take this tweet as an example:

I'm having a great time networking with conservatives who are pwning #FloodWallStreet #tcot — Mike (@mrjc1) September 22, 2014

In a future post, I will also analyze the content posted by popular Twitter accounts who contributed to these oppositional tweets to ascertain how they use Twitter on an everyday basis. I also want to unpack the sociological definition of a "troll" and determine if it applies to these users.

For now, I will leave you one final question: How can we use networking tools like Twitter and Facebook to either organize debates or use social media directly to debate issues, thus contributing to a real democracy?

[davidianrobin]

Tweeting From the Barricades: The People's Climate March and Twitter

When the C train slowed to a halt at Fulton Street station on last Sunday morning, I saw an assortment of anti-Tar Sands and anti-Keystone XL signs. As I boarded the train, I quickly realized that almost each passenger on the quick ride uptown with me were also heading to Central Park West, to protest against the climate inaction of the past twenty-five years. Seeing floods of protesters walking onto the train as we ventured uptown confirmed what I suspected, that the People's Climate March would be larger than any protest I've been to in my whole life. When getting off at 72nd Street around thirty minutes later, the conductor said 'have a good day at the march, make it count' over the intercom. This wasn't anything resembling a normal New York City demonstration. Concerned citizens from all over the United States were in Manhattan and it wasn't for an over-hyped award show or fashion week. The people were here to save the climate.

At over 310,000 people, the People's Climate March was the largest protest in the Big Apple since the Democratic National Convention in 2004. It was also touted as the largest climate protest in history, achieving the goal set by 350.org, Avaaz, and hundreds of other participating organizations. Even with established groups bankrolling the outreach for the event, including advertisements on ten percent of the subways in New York City in the weeks leading up to the march, the historic day came together from the ground up, via decentralized hubs which featured listservs, weekly conference calls, and frequent planning meetings. While thousands of people were lining up next to Central Park, thousands more were following the event on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.

While all of the popular social networks featured content promoting and covering the march, I want to focus on Twitter, which has once again played a vital role in event planning and promotion for a new networked social movement. Below is the tweet frequency for #PeoplesClimate and #ClimateMarch, the two main hashtags used for the event, taken from Topsy Analytics:

While #PeoplesClimate was a far more popular hashtag, both were used prior to the march, likely to promote the event and feature content from news sites and blogs which pertained to climate issues. The frequency of both hashtags began to rise on September 19th, and subsequently spiked for the following two days: the weekend of the march. Once the sun rose on September 22nd, the hashtag frequencies were back at pre-event levels.

What kind of tweets comprised the activity spikes during the march? While it is impossible to outline the many variations of social media activity while climate activists marched through Midtown, I have provided some examples.

Many tweets were posted by new media websites, who were promoting their coverage of the event, while providing a brief description of the events taking place:

Follow us for live updates on the People's Climate March in NYC, which is expected to draw thousands: http://t.co/uPtbgq2VOK #PeoplesClimate — Mashable (@mashable) September 21, 2014

Thousands join global #PeoplesClimate protests for action on climate change http://t.co/FpNKglk0wM (Photo: AP) pic.twitter.com/ICuFCiFHw9 — GuardianUS (@GuardianUS) September 21, 2014

See our photos from #PeoplesClimate on #Facebook: http://t.co/riHof31Wiu Watch #livestream http://t.co/fITGicJC3M pic.twitter.com/VRlFQbhe9V — Democracy Now! (@democracynow) September 21, 2014

Other organizations and individuals live-tweeted pictures which were taken from the ground:

Taking over Times Square! #SaveTheArctic #PeoplesClimate pic.twitter.com/bHVPpUxiLR — Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) September 21, 2014

Moment of silence in #NYC for victims of climate change. #PeoplesClimate pic.twitter.com/7ovAUTdPwO — Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) September 21, 2014

#peoplesclimate

This is Central Park West and 72nd Street right now. via

@NoahFR pic.twitter.com/BA4uXoTNfx

— 350 dot org (@350)

September 21, 2014

#PeoplesClimate

March NYC Sunflower banner

pic.twitter.com/l9EWye5BeP

— DCMediaGroup (@DCMediaGroup)

September 21, 2014

Folks still waiting to march at 83rd. #PeoplesClimate #PeoplesClimateMarch @MathaiWanjira @kuminaidoo pic.twitter.com/H1pRZXJfaM — cynthia ryan (@cynryan) September 21, 2014

The People's Climate March certainly could be seen as a unification of the climate movement, as labor, faith, radicals, students, and other active practitioners of democracy were marching in solidarity, demonstrating how climate change is the issue that could potentially unite the human race, as carbon dioxide levels continue to rise throughout the developed world. However, there were many in the crowd who believed that a permitted march, where the route was negotiated beforehand with the New York City Police Department, was not enough to disrupt the business as usual which is exacerbating the climate crisis.

Thus, the following morning, over a thousand activists gathered in Battery Park, before marching down Broadway in an attempt to Flood Wall Street, much like after Superstorm Sandy but this time with bodies, signs, and chants. While the activists weren't able to actually shut down Wall Street itself, due to the network of police barricades and officers blocking their entry, they still held multiple blocks on Broadway for over 8 hours. I was following the event on Twitter, and noticed that #FloodWallStreet was the number one trend in New York for most of the day.

Below is the frequency from Topsy, compared with #PeoplesClimate:  

According to the graph, #FloodWallStreet was never more widely used than #PeoplesClimate, except for the actual day of the action. #FloodWallStreet began to rise on the day of the Climate March, likely due to their active participation, and as #PeoplesClimate sharply decreased on the day after the march, #FloodWallStreet spiked, as activists were sitting on Broadway in Manhattan's Financial District. The twitter content which comprised the spike was once again divided by live-tweets which came directly from the street, and tweets containing links to coverage, which were hosted on other websites. 

Examples from the web:

#FloodWallStreet - in pictures (Photo: EPA) http://t.co/ZxAzDPDAmp pic.twitter.com/ENianMpOUO — GuardianUS (@GuardianUS) September 22, 2014

Thousands of climate activists are on Wall Street right now http://t.co/OZBPP4ex7N #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/sdqe6MQqrH — Mashable (@mashable) September 22, 2014

CNNMoney's @ben_rooney has updates and photos from #floodwallstreet today pic.twitter.com/O4jjJBLdKH” — CNNMoney Investing (@CNNMoneyInvest) September 22, 2014

Examples directly from the streets:

Police have arrested the polar bear #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/jKq7byFUxG — Jordan Mammo (@jordanmammo) September 22, 2014

These 2 guys are taunting the cops #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/jN6wwOta9C — Evan Engel (@evanengel) September 22, 2014

Amy Goodman is interviewing Chris Hedges at #FloodWallStreet demonstration. http://t.co/fITGicJC3M pic.twitter.com/sp2D8NPyMz — Democracy Now! (@democracynow) September 22, 2014

The Angry Pacifist is taking a nap in front of a line of riot police on Broadway #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/nlhnIZHLAD — Jeff Rae (@jeffrae) September 22, 2014

Final warning issued, arrests have started #BreakingNews #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/IooF9ZEg4m — Josh Einiger (@JoshEiniger7) September 22, 2014

Four activists in wheel chairs arrested. #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/6KewEmmhnt — Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) September 23, 2014

Looking through the top tweets for both hashtags, these two types of tweets were the most prevalent, although there were also users who simply commented on the event, also using the hashtag. These people could be considered the imagined audience of the event, either watching live streams or following live-tweets:

This is so cool! Largest climate march in history! Over 300,000 changemakers in NYC #PeoplesClimate

— ian somerhalder (@iansomerhalder) September 21, 2014

Incredible photos from the #peoplesclimate march in NYC. Latest estimates say 300k+

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) September 21, 2014

We must keep in mind that while a majority of the most popular tweets were covering the event or providing statements of solidarity and support, there was also oppositional messaging, which re-appropriated the hashtag by attaching criticisms of the movement and the protesters involved. Who comprises this group and what were the themes of their tweets?

In my next article, I will post tweets from the detractors, many of whom could likely be considered trolls, and will perform a content analysis to provide insight on how Twitter is not only used to build movements, but also provides an outlet to those who are in opposition to the aims, spreading their opinion in messages using the same hashtags. Does the Twitter usage of these two divergent groups in the same virtual space contribute to a deliberative democracy, or hyper-segmented echo chambers which reflect the polar opposite viewpoints which comprise the fragmented American political sphere?

[davidianrobin]

Crisis

Time is running out The co2 is rising like our income inequality The oceans acidify like our hopes after graduation day The polar caps are melting, like our real wages, Our pensions, Our future. Save the planet The clock is ticking The temperature is rising like our student loan interest rates The plankton is dying like our chances of economic stability The fossil fuel reserves are dwindling, like the chance of our children surviving We are being threatened by ourselves We can't just focus on one issue The same fossil fuel funding, also fuels the military industrial complex All of our injustices are caused by the evil leaders of the faux democracy

[davidianrobin]

Photos from  TruTalkTV on Facebook

Vote on September 9th.

Go to TeachoutWu.com

[davidianrobin]

[davidianrobin]

#NMOS14 - How Ferguson Became a Nationwide Movement

The small city of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, has been all over the news ever since Darren Wilson fired six shots into Michael Brown, leaving the seventeen year old lying face down on the pavement in broad daylight. Residents gathered at the site of a the incident soon after, and the protests, riots, and looting have been playing out ever since, with protesters on the streets since August 9th. For the first couple of days, the news unfolded primarily on Twitter, through vines posted by St. Louis alderman, @antoniofrench  and others who live tweeted information, pictures, and video from the scene. The local media also covered the events early on, including Fox 2 Now (KTVI) who had a live feed as well as frequent Twitter updates.

As the story of what happened on that fateful Saturday afternoon developed, and the protests continued to play out on the streets of Ferguson, the mainstream media began to arrive in the St. Louis suburb to cover the story from the ground. Ryan J Reilly of the Huffington Post, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post, and Julie Bosman of the New York Times were some of the first mainstream sources on the ground, writing articles about what was taking place for a larger audience while also providing up-to-the-minute live-tweeting on their Twitter accounts. On Wednesday August 13th, the police escalated their response, and Reilly and Lowery were assaulted and arrested in a McDonald's after taking pictures of the police, refusing to show their identification, and not packing up fast enough. The news first broke through their Twitter accounts:

SWAT just invade McDonald's where I'm working/recharging. Asked for ID when I took photo. pic.twitter.com/FOIsMnBwHy

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 13, 2014

Police come into McD where me and @ryanjreilly working. Try to kick everyone out. — Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 13, 2014

Soon, the world was watching as they both called into MSNBC with the accounts of their arrest. Al Jazeera America was also in Ferguson, and posted a video of the police shooting tear gas at them and then taking apart their equipment before they left:

Al Jazeera TV crew scrambles for cover as police fire tear gas into their reporting position in #Ferguson | AP Photo pic.twitter.com/FIy6qMtHiZ

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) August 14, 2014

Ferguson has been called the first post-television news story,  as the major events have been breaking on Twitter, through live-tweets with pictures and vines, as well as links to YouTube videos and livestreams from citizen journalists. As the 24-hour news networks like CNN and MSNBC began to pick up the story, their footage was comprised of many of the same videos and pictures which were first seen on Twitter. This dynamic is not new, as the news about Occupy also initially spread through social media, with the news picking up videos which were first posted as tweets, like the female protesters who were pepper sprayed by Tony Bologna:

Looking at these events supports the argument that without individuals covering the events live on Twitter, it is possible that these stories wouldn't end up appearing on CNN and MSNBC, as the initial buzz is comprised of tweets, mentions, and hashtags. Having social media outlets like Twitter is essential for increasing the visibility of stories which might otherwise be ignored by major media outlets. Zeynep Tufekci wrote an article called “What Happens to #Fergeson Affects Fergeson “, which makes the argument that net neutrality must be preserved to keep stories which feature marginalized voices, like the events of Ferguson, from being buried in favor of tweets or Facebook posts which are less contentious. In fact, on the first night of the Ferguson protests, many observed their Twitter feeds being blown up with live coverage from the streets, while the events were completely absent from Facebook news feeds until the next morning. While Twitter plays an essential role in spreading news stories with live updates, I want to examine how the social network can be used to organize decentralized protests, like Occupy in 2011. Last Thursday, there were large protests in cities around the country demanding justice for Mike Brown, as well as an end to police brutality, murders of minorities, and police militarization. How were protests organized in over 100 cities less than a week after Mike Brown was shot in Ferguson? The answer is: #nmos14. This hashtag, which stands for National Moment of Silence 2014, was organized by @feministajones, a blogger and activist who used her diverse Twitter network to organize activists all around the country in a very short time period. It all started with a series of tweets by @FeministaJones:

National Moment of Silence = #NMOS14 Thursday, 8/14 7pmEST/4pm PT ppl around the country gather in smaller vigils and observe moment — #NMOS14 (@FeministaJones) August 10, 2014

What we need to do is develop quick FB pages, someone who does graphics can make a quick logo, maybe folks at @ColorOfChange #NMOS14

— #NMOS14 (@FeministaJones) August 10, 2014

  It is a small gesture, IMO, but one that could tangibly unify us, ALL of us, as a launching pad for further action #NMOS14

— #NMOS14 (@FeministaJones) August 10, 2014

If you're in a major city and willing to be a point person, let me know #NMOS14 — #NMOS14 (@FeministaJones) August 10, 2014

  Now, who among you is willing to take a lead in your city and gather people together? #NMOS14 — #NMOS14 (@FeministaJones) August 10, 2014

Due to a combination of her popularity on Twitter, with over 34,000 followers, her entrenchment in activist networks, and the energy and emotion behind the Ferguson protests, people quickly began to answer her call:

@FeministaJones please share. #Houston #NMOS14 at Emancipation Park. 8.14.14 at 6pm.

— Ashley. (@fashionfwd_ash) August 10, 2014

  I'm in #SanDiego, I'll make it happen here RT @FeministaJones: Anyone in Oakland, LA, San Francisco willing to make it happen? #NMOS14

— Kim Moore (@SoulRevision) August 10, 2014

Soon after, Facebook events for #NMOS14 in different cities were created and shared through tweets by local activists:

Here is the event page for #NMOS14 in NYC: https://t.co/9vsZerhl1a. National Moment of Silence for Victims of Police Brutality 2014.

— Francia N. Brito (@FrancianB) August 11, 2014

Chicago peeps, here's the link to #NMOS14 for this Thursday. Share please https://t.co/stSk8EP1T5

— You, Me and He (@marvel_girl88) August 10, 2014

Here's the FB event for #NMOS14 in #Oakland this Thursday, 8/14 at 4pm. RT to share. https://t.co/IKOcaM1kgK Share on FB as well.

— Thot Provoking (@unbtheredblkgrl) August 10, 2014

While Twitter was essential in the initial organizing for #NMOS14, these linked Facebook events provided communicative spaces which were focused on events in specific locations. The public walls of these pages were used to plan the specific event, share information about additional events, and discuss strategies for mobilizing supporters, which is instrumental in building movements. Also, according to the Pew Internet Project's social networking research, as of September 2013, 71% of online adults use Facebook while only 19% use Twitter. Thus, using Facebook as a medium for organizing these events opens the potential visibility to a much wider range of individuals who aren't familiar with the hashtags and mentions of the Twitter environment.

The organizing of #NMOS14, which scheduled moments of silence for Mike Brown and other victims of police murders in over 100 cities, occurred mainly between August 10th and 11th.This highlights the strength of social media in organizing decentralized protests dispersed through many locations, a common feature of new networked social movements. It is important to note however, that the popularity of the Ferguson issue combined with the associated emotions, certainly sped up these processes. Replicating this organizing structure for other issues and causes will certainly be helpful in mobilizing supporters, but there are four factors to keep in mind:

The public sentiment of the issue, which effects the willingness of people to organize and attend rallies.

The public's sense of urgency to quickly organize local events.

The popularity of the Twitter accounts involved in the initial organizing and dissemination of the message.

Preexisting local activist networks fighting for the issue who are connected via Twitter and Facebook.

#NMOS14 was the perfect storm, as #Ferguson has made police brutality against black and brown people a primary issue, many activists from around the country were already protesting police murders and institutional racism before the death of Mike Brown, and @FeministaJones is very popular on Twitter, with many local activists following her.

Another important aspect of the rapid pace of social media organizing was a central location for all of the planning to take place. In addition to the #NMOS14 hashtag, which in itself became a collaborative activist space, there was also a main Facebook page  which was created on August 10th and consists primarily of links to the Facebook event pages for each individual vigil. This represents a network of networks, as users can join the NMOS2014 community page, and then also find their local event to join., both of which become a communicative space, where networks of weak ties can be formed quickly and solidified through collaboration and deliberation.

Additionally, each vigil had a simple, focused message with the same meeting time across time zones, and the moment of silence beginning twenty minutes later, at 7:20pm Eastern and 4:20pm Pacific. The flexibility and quick dissemination of decentralized organization was necessary for planning so many events in such a short time period but concurrently, the centralized virtual spaces on Twitter and Facebook, and uniform event plans were necessary so that the actions were easily replicable. For instance, each Facebook event used the same poster as a basis for promotion:

A Google Doc was also created which listed the locations for each city and town which was holding a vigil. This space represents yet another decentralized social networking tool, as even though one person created the initial document, others can edit the content, based on the permissions set by the creator. Thus, while it's unlikely in this scenario that everyone was allowed to make changes, there was a group of organizers who had write permissions, and thus were able to add locations that other users would see in real time. While not a social network, decentralized document creation tools like Google Docs are useful collaboration platforms, utilized by members of both weak-tie and strong-tie networks.

Before the advent of social media, planning a nationwide event in four days would be almost impossible, and it certainly couldn’t have been easy even with Twitter and Facebook. This impressive mobilization was made possible through a multitude of social networking tools, all networked together to maximize visibility and participation. While the exact process of #NMOS14 doesn't need to be followed to create a successful movement with unified protests across a multitude of locations, these examples provide a blueprint of a networked social movements, and the tools used to organize #NMOS14, when utilized correctly, can facilitate social change.

Sure, the revolution might not be tweeted, and hashtag activism alone can't reform and recreate systems, but the networks formed through Facebook and Twitter can moblize decentralized protests and direct action, which indeed can have a transformative effect on our social world.

[davidianrobin]

Tactical unit assembles under church message in Ferguson. #MikeBrown http://t.co/GwwMKTzoom

[davidianrobin]

How Did the Mainstream Media Cover the Fight For $15 Convention?

Two weekends ago, over 1300 people convened in Chicago for the first ever Fight For $15 convention. While the low-wage worker strikes have been escalating over time, with an increasing number of workers and cities involved during each wave, and solidarity among the participants displayed on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, this was the first time that workers-turned-activists from different cities traveled to one location to discuss their experiences and plan for future actions. It could prove to be a major event which unifies the movement as they prepare for escalation in the form of civil disobedience and store occupations.

Due to the importance of this event, I decided to study how the mainstream media covered the gathering, if they even provided coverage. Using Google News, I searched for the term “Fast Food Convention”, which provided over 300 articles, all between July 25th and 28th. After analyzing the first 20 articles, I noticed an emerging pattern: A large majority of these articles were correlated from two Associated Press articles, one which previewed the event [example], and another which provided a recap. [example] 

Skimming the next few pages confirmed my suspicions, as each article is organized slightly differently, with a variation on the title and possibly some unique text added, but features similar interviews, layout, and wording. Most of these articles listed the Associated Press in the byline, although sometimes another journalist’s name was added as well. The only exception was the New York Times, where Steven Greenhouse authored a unique article which included the most in-depth interviews and coverage of any of these other sources found through the news aggregation.

The other media outlets weren’t actually covering the convention, but instead they were relaying the AP article to their reader base, which is still important for spreading the messaging of the movement. The articles had predominately positive interviews with both public figures and the workers who attended the convention. Below is a complete list of people who had a positive view of the Fight For 15 and were quoted in these articles:

Public Figures

Mary Kay Henry, President of SEIU

Kendall Fells, organizing director of effort, SEIU representative

Rev William Barber II, head of NC NAACP, Moral Monday organizer

Workers

Cherri Delisline, Mcdonalds employee from North Charleston, SC

Nancy Salgado, Mcdonalds Employee from Chicago, IL

Cindy Enriquez, Mcdonalds employee from Phoenix, AZ

Latoya Caldwell, Wendys employee from Kansas City, MO

Terrence Wise, Burger King employee from Kansas City, MO

Adriana Alvarez, Mcdonalds employee from Chicago, IL

While I considered a more detailed exploration, with a complete tally of how many instances of each interview was featured in the press, I decided that this wasn’t significant. The main point is that these people were interviewed, and they were featured repeatedly in a different order on a multitude of news sources. The only exceptions are Adriana Alvarez and Terrence Wise, who were only featured in the New York Times. The quotes from workers which are featured in the AP article highlight the struggles these workers face each day, including the interruption of their family life, inability to save money for advancement, and the lack of raises, even among veteran employees. These interviewees also acknowledge that they need to do whatever it takes to attain victories, referring to the vote of escalation with a wave of direct action. Other quotes from the public figures highlight why they are working toward raising the minimum wage for these workers, comparing the campaign to the civil rights movement.

Steven Greenhouse also interviews Glenn Spencer, the executive director of the US Chamber of Commerce Workforce Freedom Initiative, and Janice R. Fine, a professor of labor relations at Rutgers University. These interviews were neutral as they analyzed the struggle in political and historical terms, highlighting the dynamics of both sides, and providing a fuller perspective which was missing from the AP based articles.

The only dissenting voice in a majority of the articles was Scott DeFife, the executive vice president of policy and government affairs for the National Restaurant Association. He criticized the efforts, stating that the fast food industry opens doors for many people, steering the focus to job training programs and the unions, who he claims are simply interested in boosting their member base. He also warned that raising the wage would hurt small businesses and raise food prices. These arguments have been used frequently by opponents, and provide some ideological balance to the articles. Interestingly, his comments are featured near the end of each article, after quotes from workers and organizers, except for the Blaze, which lists his quote first, possibly due to their conservative bias. Another negative voice was Francis O’Donnell, the owner of a Buffalo Wings & Rings franchise in Chicago. He is only featured in the New York Times, claiming that he will have to raise prices, reduce staff, or shutdown if the minimum wage is increased to $15 per hour.

Aside from the interviews, the articles also mention other common topics, including:

The origin of the Fast Food worker movement: a one-day strike in November 2012 in New York City.

Seattle’s recent victory of gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

The role of the SEIU in funding the fast food movement, including the convention.

The efforts of Barack Obama and other democrats to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.

These help place the event in the larger perspective of the movement’s development and the surrounding political structure. They provide a more distant background to the interviews which feature workers and public figures on the ground at the convention.

Studying how the mainstream media represents movements like Fight For $15 is pivotal, as much of the public isn’t involved in the activist networks of Facebook and Twitter, and only skim headlines to become informed about the world around them. It is certainly possible that these articles which were recreated from wire services like AP are the only source of movement information that many people receive, structuring popular opinion which ultimately impacts the movement’s ability to enact change.

Now that we see a snapshot of how the mainstream media covered the convention, with only a few truly unique articles, it would be useful to study the media coverage from the previous fast food strikes, or future events for comparison. Additionally, I am currently studying the top tweets for #FightFor15 between July 25th and 28th, to see which tweets from the convention were viewed most , which accounts tweeted them out, and which of these articles were linked most frequently. Are there any articles which weren’t searchable on Google News but were featured by activists linking to twitter?

Most importantly:

How does the coverage on twitter compare with these articles from mainstream media sources, and how do these platforms work together to cover major movement events like the convention?

[davidianrobin]

An Urgent Letter to the Silent Majority

I am writing this letter to you.

Not those who already take the streets chanting 'What do we want? Climate Justice! When do we want it? NOW!'. This post isn’t directed at the brave activists who are blocking the Keystone XL and Enbridge pipelines with their bodies. Nor is this addressed to those rebuilding the lives of residents in the Rockaways, Staten Island, the Jersey Shore, and other areas devastated by Superstorm Sandy. I am not trying to reach those who block the water shutoff tanks in Detroit to prevent poor residents from being denied their basic human right to running water.

No, these people already understand the urgency that we face as the global temperatures rise and extreme weather patterns intensify. The activist networks that comprise the climate movement already realize what is at stake, and truly understand that protests and direct action are the most effective forms of resistance to these threats.

In the late 1960s, Nixon campaigned and won the presidency, in part due to appealing to what he called the 'silent majority', those who weren't active in the anti-war and civil rights movements, and took a much more moderate stance. Today, I am writing for a different 'silent majority': the two-thirds of US residents who believe that the effects of global warming will occur during their lifetimes. Those who are aware of the issues of climate change, and believe that it needs to be solved, but don’t fully understand the crisis unfolding in front of us.  

You might read articles in the Climate section of ThinkProgress and sign petitions on MoveOn, urging our politicians in the United States and throughout the world to act on climate issues. When Election Day approaches, you scan campaign websites, researching the environmental positions of each candidate. You might feel like you are doing your part, participating in the democratic process. Maybe you even recycle, or bring reusable bags when you shop, or donate money to organizations that are fighting for climate action. But we are at a point where this alone is truly not enough.

While you are looking at scientists and politicians for the answers, contributing donations, votes, and petition signatures, they are gazing back hoping that you raise your voices. The truth is, we don't have as much time as you might think. We already see pictures of the polar ice caps liquidating, buildings being destroyed by the strongest storms we've seen in centuries, and reports of temperatures rising all over the world.

The National Climate Assessment released in May by the White House, states that we need to take action now, as the climate has already changed significantly, with strong storms like Hurricane Sandy and serious droughts like what we are witnessing in California signaling the beginning of the end. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also released a report last September that we only have 30 years left before our “carbon budget” is spend. A third report, from the Canadian group Our Horizon, states that we only have 16 years before greenhouse gases lead us to a tipping point that will be impossible to recover from. Whether or not we agree on exactly how long we have left, there is consensus that this process is intensifying and will not be stopping anytime soon, which will be devastating for our entire planet.

Despite what you might think, there is no opposition. The only groups and scientists releasing reports that counter these claims are funded by the Koch brothers and big oil interests like ExxonMobil, whose economic interests are directly threatened by the fight against climate change. In fact, a study released in January 2014, found that only .01% of peer-review authors reject that global warming is man-made, and a significant threat to our way of life.

Does this scare you? Good. You need to be alerted of the urgency of this issue because if you continue to simply contribute from a distance than our time on this planet is over.

I want you to close your eyes. Now think deeply about what you are thankful for. What do you care about more than anything else?  Why do you wake up in the morning? What keeps you going, even through the tough days?

Still thinking? Is it your friends? Your family? Your career? The trees and air around you? The Internet? No matter what you cherish, it is all being threatened and if you don't act, you will lose it all. We will lose EVERYTHING.

What can you do? Speak up and get active in the climate movement, because mass resistance is the only way that we can defeat the millions of dollars spent by the most powerful lobbyists in the world.

As you may have heard, there will be a huge UN summit of world leaders meeting on September 24th in New York City. Three days before this meeting, Avaaz, 350.org, and hundreds of organizations, including unions, faith groups, students, environmentalists, and many others are planning the People’s Climate March, the largest in US history. We will march through Manhattan with thousands of people, sending the message that we need climate action. Not in a decade. Not five years from now. RIGHT NOW.

As the promo video states, “To change everything, It takes everyone." Silence is no longer an option.

Join us in New York City on September 21st. Bring all of your friends! Volunteer to help spread the word. Share the message on social media as often as you can and spread it to every person you know.

It's up to you. It's up to all of us.

We can't afford to lose.

[davidianrobin]

Detroit: Palestine solidarity demonstration, July 13, 2014.

"The demonstration in Detroit today drew links between the shut-off of water in the city and the denial of water resources to the people of Gaza and Palestine in general. The crowd of more than 1,000 marched up Woodward Ave. for a rally at the park located at the corner of Warren Ave. in Midtown."

Photo and report by Abayomi Azikiwe

[davidianrobin]

By now I hope at least some of you have heard of Javier Payne, a 14-year-old black boy from the Bronx who was attacked by the NYPD last weekend as he was walking home from a hookah shop in his neighborhood.

Cops said he was fighting with another boy, a 13-year-old neighbor in the area. 

So what do you do when two boys are fighting? 

Well, if you’re the NYPD, and the boys in question are black, you throw one of them through a window, puncturing his lung. As he lies there with blood filling his lungs, you handcuff him and refuse to call an ambulance. When you do call an ambulance, you enter the protocol for an adult drunk, instead of a dying child. When the ambulance comes, you refuse to let the paramedics uncuff him. Even as the paramedics explain that this boy is dying, you argue that he’s faking it and that he deserves to die there on the street for fighting with another boy.  When you finally do let the paramedics uncuff him and take him to the hospital, you fail to report that you threw him through a glass window despite dozens of eye-witnesses reporting the opposite.  When you are called upon by the community to account for your actions, you decide to do an “internal investigation” - therefore being accountable to no one outside your division. You encourage the deregulation of police conduct and refuse to let outsiders investigate how you train your officers.

And what do you do, if you’re a concerned citizen who is tired of seeing this? You write Bill de Blasio and you ask him to start an outside investigation into police brutality.  Or at least that’s what I did. And if you want to cosign what I wrote him, you can do that here. And if you want to signal boost that for Javier Payne, you can do that too. You can sign my petition letter here.

(Photo Credit to Enid Alvarez for the New York Daily News)

[davidianrobin]

[The] aim of the ethnographer’s work is that it be as objective as possible. This is not easy or simple, since it requires researchers to try to set aside their own values and assumptions about what is and is not morally acceptable — in other words, to jettison the prism through which they typically view a given situation. By definition one’s own assumptions are so basic to one’s perceptions that seeing their influence may be difficult, if not impossible. Ethnographic researchers, however, have been trained to look for and to recognize underlying assumptions, their own and those of their subjects, and to try to override the former and uncover the latter.

Elijah Anderson, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Code of the Inner City, 1999, pg 11. (via literary-ethnography)

[davidianrobin]

Documenting Resistance: Striving for a Living Biography of the Climate Movement

 I think that when organizing successful movements, especially for an issue as urgent as climate change, there is one golden question which is the key to mobilizing large segments of the population:

How do you spread your message to people who aren’t currently engaged in your movement?

How do you reach the segments of the population who didn’t sign the Keystone XL petition, the passive public who are waiting for Obama and other world leaders to make the decisions that will prevent this crisis of our human species? How do you shift the paradigm so that instead of people asking ‘What are the environmental groups and government organizations doing?’ they will be asking ‘What can I do to contribute?’

Two weekends ago, my friend Moumita and I did some impromptu subway canvassing for the People’s Climate March to determine the effectiveness of direct engagement tactics, which provide information about the People’s Climate March and surrounding issues such as property destroyed during Hurricane Sandy that still hasn’t been rebuilt, and the water shutoff crisis in Detroit. After speaking to strap hangers in multiple subway cars, we realized that our experiment was successful, as there were a few people in each train who didn’t know about the march and were engaged by the issues we mentioned. However, there were many others who were listening and told us that they felt it was important, but simply complemented us for our commitment, stating that they were glad that there were ‘People Like Us’ willing to spread the word.

This seems to be a common problem of movements in which there exists a general consensus about the aims but yet only a small percentage of the population desire to actively participate. There could be many reasons for their non-involvement, including the perceived inability of effecting change in the system, the rise of slacktivism on social media, and the fear of state retribution or surveillance. Facebook likes and retweets won’t be enough to halt this process of catastrophic climate change, so the movement as a whole must think consider two strategies:

How to mobilize people who already agree with the cause but don’t actively participate.

How to disseminate information to educate those who disagree.

While Ed Haas and I are still working on a documentary, we decided to initiate our project through YouTube, a medium which allows us to post short videos which tell the story of the climate movement in 2014. In the spirit of autonomous virtual space, we have decided that this project won’t be only the perspectives of two people with a deep passion for preventing climate change. Rather than just recording scenes from planning meetings, rallies, marches, and one-on-one interviews, which are important undertakings in themselves, we want to capture the stories of the people who comprise this expanding movement as we fight against time and the most powerful corporations on the planet Earth.

We want to hear YOU. How? We are asking that you create a short, 5-10 minute video where you tell your story while keeping in mind the following questions:

Why are you participating in the People’s Climate March? What first motivated you to get involved in the climate resistance movement?

How do you contribute to the cause? What events have you attended?

If you were a world leader attending the UN summit on September 24th, what policies would you propose?

We are working to create a living biography of the climate movement, and we hope that the project will grow with the numbers of people taking the streets demanding climate action.

In order for the movement to better mobilize supporters as well as educate opponents, which will answer the golden questions posited above, there needs to be an understanding of:

WHO is involved with the climate movement?

WHY do they choose to participate?

WHAT goals are they hoping to achieve?

As a sociologist, there is much that can be learned from these stories. Each piece of this project provides unique insight into the character of the climate movement. If we can discover how participants first became involved, it will uncover the mobilization structures that draw individuals into becoming active members. Hearing narratives describing what engages people to start attending meetings, rallies, and protests will provide a unique understanding of what frames motivate the public to take action. Listening to how individuals describe their involvement will provide perspective on the different levels and methods of participation. Finally, the solutions expressed by participants will better assist our understanding the aims of the movement, which likely aren’t as homogenous as some would expect.

As an activist, I want to state that while this is a blog centered around the sociological study of social movements, which strives to maintain neutrality, but this climate project is not a sociological study per se. We want these videos to spread virally to diverse elements of the climate resistance movement, which will provide organizing opportunities and foster a sense of community, as well as others who are either on the periphery, or aren’t involved at all, whether or not they agree with the messaging. Hopefully, these snapshots of the human experience of resistance will break through the mass media disinformation, showing that this isn’t a movement of “radicals” or “environmentalists”, but neighbors, friends, and co-workers.

We are running out of time and there are very powerful forces continuing their assault on both the environment and human rights as we speak. The only way that we are going to force reform and systemic change is through spreading the idea that simply knowing about the issues is NOT enough. Direct participation is needed before it is too late.

  There will be information on this project coming very soon. Stay tuned!

[davidianrobin]

Reflections from the People's Climate March Planning Meeting

Two weeks ago, after coming across the meeting invite, I imagined a large auditorium filled with organizers raising their hands in the hopes of expressing their opinion about how the People’s Climate March should be organized. My first perception was that one speaker, or multiple individuals at a table, would be on a raised stage in front of the crowd, calling on people to participate and weighing each suggestion. However, after walking through the front door of the Tishman Auditorium, recognizing the inside from my time as a New School student, someone handed me a packet which included the plan for the upcoming meeting. I soon realized that my initial thoughts were completely incorrect. Even though I had been participating in networked social movements since September 17th, 2011, I applied an old frame of thinking to the new formation of social movements.

After picking up some posters, which were being freely distributed, the event began with different speakers, who expressed why they were getting involved in the People’s Climate March, in front of a large crowd gathered in the auditorium. This section comprised a small portion at the beginning of the night because, as one of the main organizers said, this wasn’t a rally and we had work to do. After explaining how the website worked, we split into breakout groups featuring different segments of the population, including students, labor, social media, teachers, youth, and many others, which were meeting in different classrooms throughout the building.

Bill McKibben made the initial call in Rolling Stone for the People’s Climate March, and 350.org are major march organizers, but this movement has a minimally hierarchical structure. There is not one single march plan laid out by a group of environmental organizers in New York City who made all the decisions among their small cohesive group. This project has no leader who must approve all ideas before they are posted on the website or added to flyers. At the meeting, I felt the familiar notion that the ideas for mobilization, messaging, and community building come straight from the people, comprised of any of those interested in coordinating with others to plan the march. There are no dues to be paid and the participation opportunities aren’t limited to filling out the Contact Us form on a website.

Since we are working on a documentary, I really wanted to get a feel for how the march was being organized, and connect with other participants to hear their discussions about the People’s Climate March. Thus, we attended the 'New Ideas' group, which was for those who didn't consider themselves part of any of the other breakout groups or had innovative ideas for mobilizing. As I entered the classroom with Ed Haas, people were introducing themselves, and we gained an immediate understanding of how diverse the planning process really was. The group in that fourth floor room included activists from upstate NY who are deeply entrenched in the fight against fracking, a woman who helped organize in the projects of Lower East Side and East Harlem after Hurricane Sandy, a few people from Occupy Wall Street’s alternative banking group, an artist who was hoping to facilitate a day of action for other artists around the country, and others who were part of groups focused on climate justice. As the flow of ideas began I realized why these breakouts were important.

When you attend a community forum or other meeting and there are even only 100 people in the room, what is your chance of being heard? Will you be able to express your ideas and extensively deliberate with others? While some might contend that a more centralized structure is better organized and more focused, with a streamlined agenda, their framework can have a detrimental effect on marginalized voices and other individuals who might feel more comfortable expressing their ideas in smaller groups. Every perspective is important, and while a decentralized structure of multiple breakouts might lead to arguments and consensus building might become complicated, this structure is absolutely necessary as the voices of all participants need to be considered. The People’s Climate March, like Wikipedia, Indiegogo, and the constitution of Iceland, is being crowdsourced, reflecting the autonomous spaces of the Internet’s current formation.

Consider if this meeting had taken place before the spread of mobile phones, personal computers, and the World Wide Web. This type of structure would likely have been far more problematic before the spread of these instantaneous communication platforms. Having so many clusters of smaller numbers of people focused on different aspects of the march planning would have been far more complicated, as people would only be communicating via landline phone, sending mail, and meeting in person. Even though organizing the march would certainly still be possible, the diffusion of information would be much slower and visible to a far smaller subset of people.

One very interesting aspect of the planning process is that each of these breakout groups will have virtual spaces, “hubs”, where anyone with an internet connection can directly contact these groups and get involved, providing their own perspective and contributing their individual labor and power. At the meeting, each breakout group had a sign in sheet where participants added their contact info, so that the hubs could reach out to them and plan further meetings. I predict that these hubs will form many weak ties which have the ability to transform into strong ties over time, and these are needed for all social movements looking to take decisive action toward goals. I will be watching how these hubs form, likely discussing their structure and formation in future writings.

The networks of hubs are comprised of networks of participants, and they have a hybrid structure. Small, focused groups of organizers who meet in person and discuss ideas for planning the People’s Climate March, are also likely having conversions about the structure of the online hubs, which are in turn, visited by other individuals who are either solely interacting virtually, or will be drawn into physically attending these meetings in offline public space. There is no more distinction, these online and offline networks are interconnected and horizontal.

My belief is that this structure will have certain fissures, possibly surrounding the topic of systemic change. The familiar question arises: How far are people willing to go to save the climate? However, the structure is very also flexible and heterogeneous, so I expect the message to spread quickly, especially since it’s focused on one major issue: the climate.

While in the “New Ideas” breakout group, I noticed the people around me handing out business cards to each other, while others exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses. I soon recognized that weak ties were being formed right in front of my eyes, and many of these connections are likely bridging real and imagined communities who are all fighting for one cause: protecting the climate and forcing policy changes on all levels before we run out of time.

[davidianrobin]

[davidianrobin]

America’s National Security Agency gathers unfathomable mountains of Internet communications from fiber optic taps and other means, but it says it only retains and searches the communications of “targeted” individuals who’ve done something suspicious. Guess what? If you read Boing Boing, you’ve been targeted.

In a shocking story on the German site Tagesschau (Google translate), Lena Kampf, Jacob Appelbaum and John Goetz report on the rules used by the NSA to decide who is a “target” for surveillance.

Since the start of the Snowden story in 2013, the NSA has stressed that while it may intercept nearly every Internet user’s communications, it only “targets” a small fraction of those, whose traffic patterns reveal some basis for suspicion. Targets of NSA surveillance don’t have their data flushed from the NSA’s databases on a rolling 48-hour or 30-day basis, but are instead retained indefinitely.

The authors of the Tagesschau story have seen the “deep packet inspection” rules used to determine who is considered to be a legitimate target for deep surveillance, and the results are bizarre.

According to the story, the NSA targets anyone who searches for online articles about Tails or Tor Anyone who is determined to be using Tor is also targeted for long-term surveillance and retention.

Tor and Tails have been part of the mainstream discussion of online security, surveillance and privacy for years. It’s nothing short of bizarre to place people under suspicion for searching for these terms.

One expert suggested that the NSA’s intention here was to separate the sheep from the goats — to split the entire population of the Internet into “people who have the technical know-how to be private” and “people who don’t” and then capture all the communications from the first group.

http://boingboing.net/2014/07/03/if-you-read-boing-boing-the-n.html