Collaboration and Social Activism: Research Report
From English 194 Wiki Site
By Tiffany Kimoto
11:40, 9 May 2006 (PDT)
Contents |
Abstract
This report provides perspective into the ways that collaboration (see Collaboration defined) is used within social grassroots movements and how it has evolved since the addition of the Internet. I will juxtapose earlier cases of activism, as in the civil rights movement, with more recent events, like the anti- WTO protests in Seattle, to show how movements have developed and learned from previous social events. Public activism has developed much more sophisticated tactics over the past few years with the aid of the Internet. Activists are learning more effective and creative forms of protest and are consequently obtaining more attention by the broader public. I will dispense detailed information about the different communication and organization tactics of today’s world and explore how the age of technology has influenced the construction and nature of social activism. This essay maintains the idea that the collaborative efforts by people from the grassroots level have the power to produce a positive change, even more so with the help of today’s technology.
Description
Social Activism has relied on the collaborative efforts of mass groups of people to incite successful movements. From the civil rights period of the sixties to more recent protests against globalization, grassroots organizing has proven to make a difference. Today, the Internet has become an essential tool in activist efforts to increase awareness and communication in a global society. As an effect, the Internet Age has changed the ways activists communicate and work to fufill their goals.
Analysis and Evaluation
People are by nature social creatures. We interact through oral, written, and active communication everyday of our lives. Collaboration is such an ingrained part of society that it often goes unnoticed. However, there are some endeavors that require obvious and deliberate acts of collaboration in order to be successful. Such is the case with social activism, which relies completely on the communion of a group of people willing to stand up for a specific set of beliefs. Without a collective effort, social change would be nearly impossible. From civil rights activism of the sixties to more recent protests like the Battle of Seattle in 1999, people who have organized at the grassroots level have proven that they can make an enormous difference. More recently, the emergence of the Internet has given people more opportunity to become activists and collaborate in a very effective and creative manner.
In the article, “On the Origins of Social Movements,” author Jo Freeman asserts that although social movements have rather unclear points of inception, they all rely on a “preexisting communications network,” -- people who share beliefs and are able to communicate-- to produce a successful movement. Once that is formed, the network of people needs to be “co-optable,” and accepting of the propositions and solutions for the future. Once this “co-optable communications network” exists (or is on its way into existence) one of two situations can spark a full-fledged movement. The first is a "crisis," which sends the network into “spontaneous action." However, this situation also demands that the network be properly organized to keep itself stabilized and focused while the movement develops. The second situation is more pro-active; a movement is incited by a thoroughly developed and organized network. Either way, movements are founded on cohesive collective efforts by the participants in a group. From there activists are agents of social change; they participate in strikes, marketing campaigns, rallies, petitions, boycotts, among many other types of direct action, all in an effort to challenge the status quo and provoke reformation.
Freedom rides were another main form of direct action in the Sixties. Organized by members of SNCC, buses of black and white students were scheduled to ride from Washington D.C. into the deeply hostile and deeply segregated New Orleans over a two-week span. The freedom rides paved the way for more civil rights activities, including the Mississippi’s freedom schools of 1964, which focused on providing blacks with voter literacy, political organization and knowledge, in general. The elaborate production of the freedom schools was a collaborative undertaking between members from SCLC, NAACP, CORE and SNCC, who merged to form the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). Together, volunteers taught, provided legal aide and monetary funding for the schools anywhere they could, including back porches and in churches. The collective efforts by individuals at the grassroots level provided citizens with the essential tools to help liberate themselves from racial hatred and oppression. The civil rights supporters engaged in local community activism and struggled to produce change from a bottom-up strategy.
However, the advancement of technology has also allowed oppressive governments and corporations to capitalize on the weaknesses of other countries. "Globalization from below," a term coined by scholar Richard Falk, is a social activism strategy which counter attacks global corporations through beginnging at the grassroots level. Ordinary people from all different organizations and backgrounds (human rights, environmental issues, worker unions and other labor laws, and many others) join together in efforts to reform, restructure, or rid the world of institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO)—which are believed to oppress and exploit disadvantaged countries and its citizens through their economic advantages.
One of the most notorious examples of globalization from below occurred in 1999 at the Seattle, Washington protests of the WTO quarterly meeting. There, between 50,000 and 100,000 people gathered to spread anti-WTO messages. Affiliation of all different causes spread news of the forecasted WTO Seattle meetings, which resulted in members coming from out of state, and even out of country to rally against it. After months of preparation, labor union groups, environmentalists, students, anti-capitalists, and many others marched, carried banners, and handed out informative leaflets to other people. Four days of scheduled meetings were greeted by heavy protesting. As rallies have grown in size, new tactics are being excercised. Social activist networks, like the Direct Action Network and People’s Global Action, organized its members into smaller factions, called affinity groups, which were stationed amid various key protest sites to create a feeling of coherence. Although the protesters had to face police brutality, most continued to respond through nonviolent actions. Ultimately, the combined efforts of the participants succeeded in impeding the WTO meetings from reaching their goals.
Although the reasons for protest have changed over time, the activist work of yesteryear called for the same amount of dedication and support as it does today. Rallies require hours of detailed instruction and organization, ranging from specific strategies to mapping out which routes to barricade. Alliances hold several meetings to set-up protests to ensure adequate knowledge and common understanding by all of its members. Now that many of today’s battles are against large-scale, multi-national institutions instead of smaller scale protests on buses and campuses, organized networks are ever more important in executing movements. Groups need to be persistant in gaining new membership and spreading awareness in order to be successful. However, the creation of the Internet has vastly increased the speed and facility of communication necessary for larger fights against globalization. Websites like Protest.net issue information on upcoming protests and gatherings worldwide that anyone can attend.
Now, more than ever, people are able to defy geographical boundaries and connect with others in virtually anywhere on the planet. People can use the Internet to research, reach out or join in. Social groups can assert their voice by creating informative websites, chat forums, and blogs with relative ease in significantly less time than it takes to publish a book. The Internet is in itself a collaborative tool that allows organizations to link together and network through each other. Anyone with access to the World Wide Web can search areas of interest and behold an enormous amount of digital literature relating to their topic. Thus, every Internet user becomes a potential participant in social activism. Through the knowledge people acquire online, they can help protest in fairly simple and easy ways.
The Internet has changed the face of protest. The creation of online petitions and virtual sit-ins—a sort of website blockade that impedes other users from buying products off the site—exemplifies how people can collaborate without leaving their home. One of the main obstacles of social activism is getting others involved. Many feel overwhelmed by the issues at hand and that the problems are too big for them to solve. As a result, people become apathetic and stop listening to probable solutions. Others don’t participate because they do not feel comfortable protesting in large rallies or other verbal forums. Today is unique in that, for the first time, the Internet provides an alternative channel for social activism. The idea of collaboration itself is evolving. Now, people are able to communicate with strangers, build trust, and change laws while sitting in front of their home computers and maintaining their anonymity. Organizations are able to replace concrete meeting places with a virtual one. The Internet is evolving the definition of social collaboration.
The digital era has trained social activists into a web savvy people. Once someone develops the appropriate technological skills, he or she has the ability to not only create his or her own intellectual online space, but to alter corporate websites. Such cases of “digital direct action” include altering the work of an original site or a redirecting a link on the webpage, so that visitors who click on it are taken to a different site (that usually expresses an opposing or criticizing viewpoint). In this instance, authorship is greatly misrepresented. The element of anonymity that the Internet provides results in a new digital ambiguity. The World Wide Web is a complex network full of millions of sites accessed by millions of users. An individual’s website is subject to hacking and discredit by “hacktivists", people who vandalize another's website with the intent to inform others of the problems or evils associated with its existence. The emergence of such activity breeds new concerns on how to curb and control it, such as, is there a way for web designers to protect their property? And, how will this change the way people validate the Internet as an informative source?
These questions are difficult to answer; however, in theory, they are no more complex than the issue of applying the proper credibility to authors of written works. Websites will have to be watched more closely, and the true authors will need to develop new tactics that make decoding more difficult to do. The efforts of social activism will not diminish under the issues of digital authorship; people will continue to organize and collaborate and develop other methods of action, regardless.
Works Cited
- Freeman, Jo, “Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies", On the Origins of Social Movements, 1983. New York: Longman, 1983.
- iEARN
- Child Soldier project
- Comfort Quilts project
- HIV+ Testimonies project
- Examples of Effective Action
Edited by: Ashley Kaye 17:32, 29 May 2006 (PDT)
