Michael Y. Dartnell, Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict.
Smith, Peter J.
Michael Y. Dartnell, Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global
Conflict (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2006)
WHAT IS MEANT by the claim that politics increasingly speaks with
an "Internet accent"? The title of Dartnell's book
provides a good indication of the answer. According to Dartnell we are
entering an era in which the Internet is becoming the media of choice,
if not necessity, for marginalized non-state actors challenging the
historical grip that states have had on the media and publicity. The
results are potentially immense. States, claims Dartnell, are
increasingly losing their control over their borders, territories, and
identities.
Theoretically speaking the implications are also significant. This
is particularly true of international relations realist theory which
argues that "states and the principle of sovereignty shape the
international system and provide a structure to contain the chaos of
human diversity." (13) Today, Dartnell contends we are entering a
post-realist era in which non-state actors are, by means of the World
Wide Web (www), able to produce and distribute information, thus
providing a means of independently shaping public perceptions of events
on a global basis. These changes are of such significance that Dartnell
claims that "web media are part of a shift in politics that could
be as far-reaching, profound, and unpredictable as the rise of print
technology, mass literacy, and nationalism in the late eighteenth
century." (15)
These are strong words indeed. However, in itself this is not a
novel argument. Writings on the Internet and digital technologies tend
to lean to either of two poles, the first a cyberpessimism in which the
state and corporations "normalize" information technologies,
the second a cyberoptimism in which ITS take on emancipatory qualities.
While Dartnell leans towards the latter he makes more modest claims on
the ability of Web activism to transform states and societies. Rather
than threaten to displace the state "or its ability for autonomous
action" Web activism "transforms" and complicates the
internal and external environment in which states operate. (10)
The strength of Dartnell's volume lies not so much in his
theoretical insights, but in succinct theoretical analysis of three very
interesting case studies. Theoretically speaking other IT theorists such
as Manuel Castells have made similar arguments particularly on the
relative decline of the state, class-based politics, and the emergence
of non-territoriallybased identities. These identities are being
(re)articulated in a global mediascape and identity-based conflicts,
once localized, are spilling out beyond the borders of the state.
As the case studies illustrate, these challenges to the state come
in the form of Web-based "insurgencies" which, interestingly
for the readers of this journal, come from the political left. The
selection of case studies is very much a matter of choice as the author
could have just as easily selected cases from the right, neo-Nazis and
al-Qaeda, for example. Here Dartnell focuses on the Irish Republican
Socialist Movement (IRSM), the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA), and, in Peru, the Moviemiento Revolucionario Tupac
Amaru (MRTA). Each online insurgency reflects different aspects of Web
activism--networking, global witnessing, and media relay respectively.
While each case is distinct, all three organizations "are strongly
marked by the failure of the state." (5) Each organization,
moreover, "emerged in settings in which state formation is
incomplete, weak, or deeply flawed." (13) All three organizations,
while acting transnationally, put a premium on the identarian politics
of place.
The first case, the IRSM, centres on a paradox, that is, the use of
transnational Web activism to promote nationalism which, in turn, is
based on place and the common history of a particular group. In this
instance Dartnell succinctly describes the conditions in Northern
Ireland and Ireland which gave rise to the IRSM. As a party the IRSM
espouses Marxist-Leninist principles, including a revolution which would
end partition, seize the state, set up a "dictatorship of the
proletariat," and construct a socialist society. However, while it
appeals to the transformation of politics within a specific territorial
context it employs Web activism to reach and motivate a geographically
dispersed Irish disapora spread over three continents. This global
network of support serves to breathe new life into what would otherwise
be a dying IRSM message.
The Web activism of RAWA differs from that of the IRSM, relying on
Web activism in a struggle against patriarchy and for women's
rights in Afghanistan. As an organization of Afghan women RAWA was
established in Kabul in 1977 to fight for human rights and social
justice. Forced by the Taliban to flee to Pakistan RAWA has continued
its activism by means of an online insurgency against religious
fundamentalism in Afghanistan. During the rule of the Taliban RAWA
adeptly used its website to provide a "global witnessing" of
the plight and oppression of Afghanistan women, a function it continues
to perform albeit with strong condemnation of the current regime and the
American (and Canadian) occupation of Afghanistan. Those who visit the
site (over five million hits by August 2003) will encounter a powerful
moral-emotional appeal of globally directed texts and multimedia which
once viewed is not easily forgotten.
Finally, Dartnell examines the MRTA, one of the very first groups
to employ Web activism in a struggle for social justice against an
authoritarian Peruvian government. MRTA emerged during the period of
civil war in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s. MRTA portrayed itself as an
"organization of the people," a coalition of trade unions,
workers' groups, students, and peasants (78) opposed to
neo-liberalism and dedicated to creating a socialist society. MRTA had a
flare for publicity, deftly employing a website among other media tools.
This website carried its message to a global audience during its four
month occupation of the Japanese ambassador's residence which began
in December 1996. During the occupation MRTA used its website (created
and managed by a Toronto activist group) to present its case to a global
media, thereby thwarting the ability of the Peruvian government to
control and frame the media message. While the occupation ended in the
death of all 14 members of the MRTA occupation force, MRTA'S
activism did help undermine the government of Alberto Fujimori by
exposing its corruption, incompetence, and human rights abuses.
Dartnell has chosen his cases well. Yet, in the end, his claims on
behalf of Web activism are modest. He admits "Web activists have an
impact, but they do not overthrow states or necessarily even redirect
public policies. The change is wide-ranging rather than deep."
(101) Herein lies the problem of almost all analyses of Web activism
including these three cases. What exactly is their impact? How can this
impact be measured? What difference does Web activism make? The above
notwithstanding, Web activism has added new spaces of publicity, ones
that challenge the ability of the state to control the mediascape and
shape public perceptions. In a post 9/11 world where, thanks in part to
the presence of IT, the us has increasingly lost its capacity to shape
public perceptions (think of the huge February 2003 anti-war
demonstrations organized largely on-line) this is no small
accomplishment.
PETER J. SMITH
Athabasca University