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  • 标题:Michael Y. Dartnell, Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict.
  • 作者:Smith, Peter J.
  • 期刊名称:Labour/Le Travail
  • 印刷版ISSN:0700-3862
  • 出版年度:2007
  • 期号:September
  • 语种:English
  • 出版社:Canadian Committee on Labour History
  • 摘要:Michael Y. Dartnell, Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2006)
  • 关键词:Books

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

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