real revolutions, Twitter, Facebook and a message to all the walls
The rebellion is underway in Tunisia, Ben Ali falling reverberates across North Africa and it is frightening at the same bourgeoisie of France, which are "back yard" (as we in the U.S. .) Attached to the news of the revolution that spread all means, come back again allusions to the "role of the Internet", especially "social networking" as Facebook and Twitter, YouTube also in "preparation" and "development " the survey. Most of the articles on the fall of Ben Ali made mention of this, but especially in Europe the idea was embraced with enthusiasm and debate on various blogs and sites, and the theme recurs in the new activism in the world ... some Titles on Tunisia are illustrative: "The revolution broke into computers" "The power of social networks in a revolution," "It might be the revolution Tunisia Twitter?" , "Tunisia, The First Revolution Wikileaks" , "revolution in social networks" ... and so are (they are chosen at random among many). Still one of the most interesting articles is an excellent title that suggests otherwise: "Not Twitter, Not WikiLeaks: A Human Revolution" ("No Twitter, no WikiLeaks: Human Revolution"), which contains several links the debate more interesting (in English, but can use the google translator to safa). The latest news ( 17-01) announce the formation of a "coalition government" between the majority of supporters of Ben Ali and the opposition parties (who were in tow of events). In the past two days armed gangs, death squads roamed the streets spreading terror and killing protesters, according to several media outlets reported. It also indicates that the population in neighborhoods legitimately began to organize "popular defense committees" to control the passage of vehicles and some form of territorial self-defense. The news says "bands" would favor Ben Ali, his "guard" that "want to provoke chaos" an internal fight "power "Tunisian puny ... what is clear is that this continuity of repression serves the whole of the Tunisian regime that was hanging air, and has to discipline. On the streets is the youth, workers, the people of Tunisia enraged and victorious, spreading Algeria?, Egypt?, France ...? While all the mechanisms of diversion and deception begin to be implemented.
With these challenges ahead of us strive to build discussion Internet and "social networking" in Tunisia may seem secondary, just thinking about what they are facing falling off mature should be armed with much more than and cellular networks to be found. But at the same time I think it is a good place to intervene with some thoughts in a discussion that will recur and there will follow. "Networks" here to stay and provide a mechanism unique to the media that were available in the 70s, coming out of the Second World War in 1917 and not talking about 1871, but the problem is to put things in perspective, even for "honor."
For those who were not directly internalized in the subject, the facts of "communications battle" was fought and bring up to highlight the role of the Internet are more or less the following (taken from various sites, but there here an abstract base):
"In the famous Wikileaks revelations, leaked details of the lavish and extravagant life of Tunisian President Ben Ali and his family, and the high level of corruption in the country. The site Wikileaks was censored by the government. One thing: his son, Sakher the Materi, had a tiger in a cage chickens eat four a day, more than many families can afford in a month ... "Then
this network 'cyber' Anonymous launched an "attack" in December, # OpTunisia against the Tunisian government sites to keep them out of operation. The government argued that in many cases they themselves had come down to stop the attack (?) ... One thing: 17/01 today came the news that a group of hackers did "waive" the foreign minister of Tunisia . In fact a false resignation went to the website of Minister of Foreign Affairs and the government had to go out and deny it.
"When the revolt began, the Tunisian government began blocking pages of activists and with the advance of the protests intensified censorship. It was alleged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which had detected a script injection when accessing popular pages to know the user names and passwords for bloggers, journalists, political activists, etc. All these data stolen were used to eliminate groups on Facebook, pictures and comments against the regime. The thing did not stop there, the next step was to arrest and imprison bloggers and activists. One thing: in Tunisia, Facebook has a dominant position, with about 3 and a half million Internet users, 1.4 million have an account on Facebook.
-Finally, and perhaps principal, the Arab bloggers, journalists and activists reported and at all times supported the revolt, giving information and trying to organize from Twitter and Facebook. One thing: this is a conclusive event.
-As regards the international mass media these fulfilled the role expected, hiding the situation in Tunisia before and after, were accomplices of imperialist support the regime and echoed "news" , when the revolution was tweeted. Now in Tunisia had "dictatorship." They were quicker to raise the "citizen journalism" in Iran, when news agencies were the political interest of echo of the riots.
The facts listed above are cited to think about the potential and actual role that the Internet had in the uprising, but that is where the thing because there was "messages" stronger boiler feed popular and show that "the network" is only a vehicle on which are expanded concrete experiences in the class struggle, the personal courage and even desperate political action. No complaint
Wikileaks was required for Tunisians derogatorily called "the family" clan Ben Ali, who came "documenting" the last 23 years. If "cables" brought new news was not more severe than that suffered in the flesh. "According to an official study conducted by the Tunisian ministry of employment in collaboration with the World Bank, if the rate overall unemployment was 14% in 2008, youth aged 18 to 29 years was nearly 3 times higher than that of adults "(Le Monde, 01/07/1911). In that sense it is no wonder that youth unemployment is "the spark that caused this revolt" ( cited here).
Bouazizi Mohamed, the 26-year-old Computer, whom police did not even sell vegetables left in the street to survive and who blew himself up in front of the municipality of the city of Sidi Bouzid, starting to revolt wrote on the wall of their Facebook page :
"I'm going, Mom, I ask your forgiveness and without reproach, I'm lost in a way that did not control, forgive me if I disobeyed you, blame these days, not me ..."
carried out an action Bouazizi desperate, terrible, his message was political, but despite scoring a crushing already "no future" or "present." Its action is reminiscent of a striking theme of the demonstrations in Algeria in 2001 when young Berbers rose and one of the most widespread slogans were "You can not kill us because we're already dead."
The fury unleashed by the immolation of Bouazizi, whom the same executioner Ben Ali went to the hospital in a disgusting act, sparked the demonstrations and the government unleashed death. Days later, another young man committed suicide by jumping into some power lines while shouting against unemployment and the high cost of living.
What is the message that the networks and the Internet in any case be encrypted expanded?: "we are willing to surrender everything, even life," "not afraid of death," so Ben Ali had to flee and none of his moves could save him, nor the repression that killed at least 77 recovery. This determination in youth with all its contradictions mark a revolutionary turn.
In such a situation, when the process is so deep, the movement takes over the media you have on hand and if there are created, never backward. In Oaxaca, Mexico, in the area of \u200b\u200ba city were the key radios taken and to making and commissioning of the protesters under control of the TV channel. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were appropriated by the Tunisians for the immediate purposes of the fight. http://www.nawaat.org/ site became a mainstay of information because its structure is armed from the confluence of different social networks. And it showed that the monopoly on information and communication in the hands of tight power may be useless to the class struggle. The government failed to censorship by the simple fact that you can not control the violent eruption of millions in government of their own destinies .
A final pose at the end, perhaps the most important I think the problem is not the media (networking and communication) in the class struggle but the objectives and those objectives determine also means fighting for nothing virtual . A rebellion can be a revolution if the process of struggling youth, workers, mass organizations build their own democratic decision-making and arm themselves to repel the attacks of bourgeois power, a tip to defeat the forces of repression. Then all the new communication tools and cyber activism can work to this new power is born. That is not happening in Tunisia but I think that is the message to twitter and write in all "walls."
Javier Gabino ( member www.tvpts.tv "the channel of the left" / PTS Argentina)
With these challenges ahead of us strive to build discussion Internet and "social networking" in Tunisia may seem secondary, just thinking about what they are facing falling off mature should be armed with much more than and cellular networks to be found. But at the same time I think it is a good place to intervene with some thoughts in a discussion that will recur and there will follow. "Networks" here to stay and provide a mechanism unique to the media that were available in the 70s, coming out of the Second World War in 1917 and not talking about 1871, but the problem is to put things in perspective, even for "honor."
For those who were not directly internalized in the subject, the facts of "communications battle" was fought and bring up to highlight the role of the Internet are more or less the following (taken from various sites, but there here an abstract base):
"In the famous Wikileaks revelations, leaked details of the lavish and extravagant life of Tunisian President Ben Ali and his family, and the high level of corruption in the country. The site Wikileaks was censored by the government. One thing: his son, Sakher the Materi, had a tiger in a cage chickens eat four a day, more than many families can afford in a month ... "Then
this network 'cyber' Anonymous launched an "attack" in December, # OpTunisia against the Tunisian government sites to keep them out of operation. The government argued that in many cases they themselves had come down to stop the attack (?) ... One thing: 17/01 today came the news that a group of hackers did "waive" the foreign minister of Tunisia . In fact a false resignation went to the website of Minister of Foreign Affairs and the government had to go out and deny it.
"When the revolt began, the Tunisian government began blocking pages of activists and with the advance of the protests intensified censorship. It was alleged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which had detected a script injection when accessing popular pages to know the user names and passwords for bloggers, journalists, political activists, etc. All these data stolen were used to eliminate groups on Facebook, pictures and comments against the regime. The thing did not stop there, the next step was to arrest and imprison bloggers and activists. One thing: in Tunisia, Facebook has a dominant position, with about 3 and a half million Internet users, 1.4 million have an account on Facebook.
-Finally, and perhaps principal, the Arab bloggers, journalists and activists reported and at all times supported the revolt, giving information and trying to organize from Twitter and Facebook. One thing: this is a conclusive event.
-As regards the international mass media these fulfilled the role expected, hiding the situation in Tunisia before and after, were accomplices of imperialist support the regime and echoed "news" , when the revolution was tweeted. Now in Tunisia had "dictatorship." They were quicker to raise the "citizen journalism" in Iran, when news agencies were the political interest of echo of the riots.
The facts listed above are cited to think about the potential and actual role that the Internet had in the uprising, but that is where the thing because there was "messages" stronger boiler feed popular and show that "the network" is only a vehicle on which are expanded concrete experiences in the class struggle, the personal courage and even desperate political action. No complaint
Wikileaks was required for Tunisians derogatorily called "the family" clan Ben Ali, who came "documenting" the last 23 years. If "cables" brought new news was not more severe than that suffered in the flesh. "According to an official study conducted by the Tunisian ministry of employment in collaboration with the World Bank, if the rate overall unemployment was 14% in 2008, youth aged 18 to 29 years was nearly 3 times higher than that of adults "(Le Monde, 01/07/1911). In that sense it is no wonder that youth unemployment is "the spark that caused this revolt" ( cited here).
Bouazizi Mohamed, the 26-year-old Computer, whom police did not even sell vegetables left in the street to survive and who blew himself up in front of the municipality of the city of Sidi Bouzid, starting to revolt wrote on the wall of their Facebook page :
"I'm going, Mom, I ask your forgiveness and without reproach, I'm lost in a way that did not control, forgive me if I disobeyed you, blame these days, not me ..."
carried out an action Bouazizi desperate, terrible, his message was political, but despite scoring a crushing already "no future" or "present." Its action is reminiscent of a striking theme of the demonstrations in Algeria in 2001 when young Berbers rose and one of the most widespread slogans were "You can not kill us because we're already dead."
The fury unleashed by the immolation of Bouazizi, whom the same executioner Ben Ali went to the hospital in a disgusting act, sparked the demonstrations and the government unleashed death. Days later, another young man committed suicide by jumping into some power lines while shouting against unemployment and the high cost of living.
What is the message that the networks and the Internet in any case be encrypted expanded?: "we are willing to surrender everything, even life," "not afraid of death," so Ben Ali had to flee and none of his moves could save him, nor the repression that killed at least 77 recovery. This determination in youth with all its contradictions mark a revolutionary turn.
In such a situation, when the process is so deep, the movement takes over the media you have on hand and if there are created, never backward. In Oaxaca, Mexico, in the area of \u200b\u200ba city were the key radios taken and to making and commissioning of the protesters under control of the TV channel. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were appropriated by the Tunisians for the immediate purposes of the fight. http://www.nawaat.org/ site became a mainstay of information because its structure is armed from the confluence of different social networks. And it showed that the monopoly on information and communication in the hands of tight power may be useless to the class struggle. The government failed to censorship by the simple fact that you can not control the violent eruption of millions in government of their own destinies .
A final pose at the end, perhaps the most important I think the problem is not the media (networking and communication) in the class struggle but the objectives and those objectives determine also means fighting for nothing virtual . A rebellion can be a revolution if the process of struggling youth, workers, mass organizations build their own democratic decision-making and arm themselves to repel the attacks of bourgeois power, a tip to defeat the forces of repression. Then all the new communication tools and cyber activism can work to this new power is born. That is not happening in Tunisia but I think that is the message to twitter and write in all "walls."
Javier Gabino ( member www.tvpts.tv "the channel of the left" / PTS Argentina)
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