Silicon Valley techs and engineers helped paralyse the city of San
Francisco in a day long series of actions and surprises, which closed off
freeways and most of downtown. Over one thousand were arrested - and the
final total may be much higher - creating havoc as a demonstration against
the war on Baghdad.
Protesters used lo-fi technology and distributed, or swarming techniques as
the local paper the SF Chronicle characterised it, in this story, entitled
"S.F. police play catch-up: Protesters roam in small, swift groups to stall
city traffic".
Valley engineers took the day off work to join them. We saw physicists
against the bomb and all kinds of engineers rallying in the city, and proud
to tell us that they were engineers. For example, a software engineer
called James who works at Apple, and who had this sign.
The extent of the many concurrent actions can be seen at SF's Indymedia site.
The decentralised and spontaneous nature of the action owes much to the
experimental techniques of derive of Amsterdam's Situationists - who marry
dada with an unforgiving critique of the media's collaboration with
capitalism. These were repeated by their Manchester counterparts in
England, MAP (Manchester Area Psychographic). A derive is a spontaneous
"wander" - it's French for 'drift' - through a city, using such disruptive
techniques as for example, taking a walk through Vienna using as your
guidebook the A-Z of London. With such "playful-constructive behavior", you
get to notice a lot more of the power alignments around you.
The Dadaists came up with the idea, but the Situationists added
detournement - repurposing something such as this Bebe poster, and there
was no shortage of Dada on display in San Francisco. One group held a Vomit
For Peace.
Bob Dickinson, who recently led a derive in Manchester, was glad to revive
the group after a few dormant years.
"We experimented with new techniques where groups went off on their own in
small numbers - the Dutch call it swarming - and it was a great success. It
became a history tour or a pub crawl, then, too," he told us.
The element of surprise was vital to the anti-war demonstrators in San
Francisco today, and can be considered a success: the demonstrators were
always one step of the authorities, as the SF Chronicle acknowledges. The
tactics were honed in Seattle, in the landmark protests against the World
Trade Organisation, but have been refined since.
It was strictly non-violent, which much have exasperated the authorities,
for as soon as one action appeared to be getting critical (as this chain-in
by A Jewish Voice for Peace) seemed to appear, it evaporated, and a new
action appeared. At times as many seven at once were taking place, and had
vans full of truncheon-armored, and teargas-armed cops veering from one
corner of the city to another. Overhead, from 7am when the actions started,
four or five helicopters hovered overhead: typically one or two police
rotors, and two from the TV networks. Who despite their airborne hardware,
didn't have a scope on the unfolding action. Half a mile away from the
nearest sit-down, in front of an empty Macy's store, a plush TV presenter
who looked like a tanned afternoon chatshow host was speaking to camera.
Apart from the police, he was the only one on the street.
But hang on, isn't IT supposed to be about this decentralised technology,
swarms, and stuff? That's where all the cool people go!
Well, not everyone. When Clay Shirky, who's written much about
decentralised technology, was asked about the Seattle WTO riots he had
something to say.
Helpfully Clay - who writes down everything he thinks and publishes it -
has given it a web page on his website of harvested thoughts: Clay Shirky's
Writings About the Internet - subheading Economics and Culture, Media and
Community, Open Source. Look, it's all there: and this observation has a
page of its own. Only this is very reactionary, and a case of not noticing
what you preach being practiced in front of your eyes.
Clay, meet swarm.
And only yesterday Doc Searls was bemoaning the scarcity of Peace Blogs,
observing: "There isn't a conversation about peace in the blogosphere to
equal the conversation about war."
He brought up a link to one of Clay Shirky's "Power Distribution Curves"
(whatever they are, but whatever they are is surely Very Important) to
prove it.
Except, the Peace movement had paralysed and entertained a city of a
million, and been reported around the world. Which takes a lot more
imagination and courage than hiding behind a computer screen, and surely
proves that you need to peer into Wetspace now and again - or at least out
of your window - to see what's happening in the world.
People were communicating to each other to provide 16 hours of spontaneous
entertainment for themselves and the city - but the answer isn't very sexy:
it wasn't weblogs, it was phones. Indymedia and lots of amateur
photographers have left records, but getting people to create this required
time in meatspace. To get thousands of people to create such a spectacle,
you might not really need weblogs at all. As a friend said today, it was
nice to see this kind out and about, enjoying themselves, and away from
their computers.
Similar demonstrations took place in many cities all over the world. It was
quite a day.
® Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article have
to stand on their own merits. PICS...worth a look.
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http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/03/21/0618073
