INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS: GEOGRAPHIES OF THE INDYMEDIA NETWORK OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTRES
VIRGINIE MAMADOUH Department of Geography and Planning, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-Mail: [email protected]
Received: June 2003; revised November 2003
ABSTRACT This paper addresses the role of the Internet in global collective action through an analysis of the scale practices of the Indymedia network. Indymedia is a worldwide network of interlinked websites run by volunteers organised in local Independent Media Centres (IMCs). These websites, a global site at www.indymedia.org and over one hundred local sites, are meant to empower activists groups by providing them with a media platform. The case study focuses on the role of the Internet in four facets of collective action: grievances and alternatives, organisation, mobilisation and identities. The analysis deals more specifically with scales, examining scaling practices in the light of three scale metaphors (scale as level, scale as size, scale as relation). While scales are also framed as bounded areas (territorial communities to be served) and as levels when targeting specific government agencies, the prevailing scale frame is that of a network of scales in which the local and the global mutually constitute each other.
Key words: Collective action, Internet, scales, globalisation
The anti-globalisation movement is not use the Internet and how does it affect their simply a network, it is an electronic network, geographies and more specifically the ways they it is an Internet-based movement (Castells organise and mobilise at different scales? Does 2001, p. 142). the Internet indeed empower global grassroots and how is it used to navigate between places The global dimension of the Web facilitates and between scales? transnational movements transcending the This paper explores the role of the Internet boundaries of the nation state (Norris 2001, in the multi-scalar politics of the global grass- p. 191). roots. It presents a case study of the Indymedia network, analysing the material scale pro- INTRODUCTION duction in the organisation and the mobilisation of the network and the discursive scale production While it is nowadays customary to acknowledge on its websites. The next section briefly reviews the potential of the Internet for global col- social movement approaches and discusses lective action, the ways grassroots groups and scale issues and the potential role of the Inter- organisations actually use the Internet are still net. The remainder of the paper analyses the rarely scrutinised (for a recent exception see: role of the Internet in Indymedia, a worldwide McCaughley & Ayers 2003). How does the Inter- network of news websites for grassroots activists. net influence the nature and shape of political The audience of the network was estimated organising? How do social-movement groups at 400,000 individual visits per day (in January
Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2004, Vol. 95, No. 5, pp. 482–497. © 2004 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA
INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS 483
2002, reported in Uzelman 2002; p. 17). The at the national level only and neglecting local paper presents the Indymedia open publishing configurations of resources and local oppor- software; it analyses the use of the Internet to tunity structures inside the same country (Miller organise the Indymedia network and to mobi- 1994, 2000). Moving across scales, i.e. ‘jumping lise activists at different scales; and it examines scales’ is an important strategy for protagonists the use of the Internet in the framing of In- in a conflict. An action group might try to mobi- dymedia and the global grassroots and their lise individuals and seek support and allies at multiscalar practices. the scale with the most opportunities. Scales are therefore crucial to issues of empowerment COLLECTIVE ACTION, SCALE AND (Staeheli 1994; see also the notions of ‘spaces of THE INTERNET dependence’ and ‘spaces of engagement’, Cox 1998). Moreover it is not only about jumping Studying collective action – Broadly speaking pre-existing scales, but also about producing four approaches to social movements can be them. It is nowadays common in geography to distinguished. Early research on collective view scales as social constructs (Leitner 1997; action focused on grievances to explain why Delaney & Leitner 1997; Marston 2000; Bren- people get mobilised. By contrast, the resource ner 2001; Marston & Smith 2001; Herod & mobilisation approach (RMA) stresses the Wright 2002; Kurtz 2003). importance of resources available (or not) to The overused concept of globalisation sug- individuals and groups involved (or not) in gests the emergence of a new scale of politics: collective action (McCarthy & Zald 1973, 1977). the global scale, and a new scale of collective The third thread, sometimes labelled the Politi- action with a global grassroots (or globalisation cal Process Approach, criticised this actor- grassroots, as phrased by Appadurai 2000 centred approach and focuses on the political and Routledge 2003). Social movements are context with the central concept of political acknowledged to play an important role in opportunity structure (POS) (Kitschelt 1986; the renegotiation of political scales, as show Kriesi et al. 1992). While the RMA questions why examples concerning environmental issues some groups are more active than others, the (Lipschutz 2000; Heins 2000; Soyez 2000; Schä- POS approach wonders why groups in certain fer 2000) and the anti-globalisation movement countries or periods are more successful than and its resistance against global neo-liberalism others. A fourth strand of social movement (Routledge 2000, 2003; DeFilippis 2001). The research turns away from the material aspects relation between global and local is crucial of social movements to underline their discur- to these analyses. DeFilippis (2001) is worried sive practices: it focuses on so-called new social about disconnected scales (pp. 369–371): resist- movements (NSM) that challenge the hegem- ance to neoliberalism needs to be both global onic framing of social issues (Melucci 1989, and local, as capitalism. Others state that these 1996; Tarrow 1995). ‘These are movements to movements are ‘anchored locally, linked glo- seize the power of the mind, not state power’ bally’ (Soyez 2000), underlining the multi- (Castells 2001, p. 141). Collective action frames scalar politics of the anti-globalisation movement feature motivational elements (defining the (such as the Peoples’ Global Action analysed in community), diagnostic elements (stating the Routledge 2003). Transforming ‘local’ distur- problem) and prognostic elements (proposing bances into global activism (Herod & Wright a solution) (Martin 2003). These four appro- 2002, p. 4), ‘going globile’ (Routledge 1998, aches address different aspects of grassroots 2000), globalising resistance, globalising networks mobilisations and point at four complementary of communication, solidarity information sharing perspectives to structure this case study: griev- (Routledge 2003) are seen as crucial to oppose ances, resources, opportunities and identities. neoliberal globalisation. By contrast, Gibson- Graham (2002) (please note that Gibson-Graham Global grassroots and scale issues – Scale issues is the pen name of Katherine Gibson and Julie are generally neglected by collective action Graham) questions the ways ‘geographical research that tends to focus on the national rescaling’ is often depicted and the frequently scale, analysing resources and opportunities declared need for resistance to neoliberalism
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484 VIRGINIE MAMADOUH to organise globally (for example: Hardt & Negri to share information and ideas across space, in 2000): and contends that local resistance is no other words to jump scales, and how this scale less important, and no less challenging to the politics of telecommunications alters the bal- global economy (Gibson-Graham 2002). ance of power in social struggles. This raises an Without taking a definitive position in this important question for the present study: How debate, it is important to underline that collec- do grassroots activists use the Internet to jump tive actions produced their own ‘scalar narra- scales between local, national and global pol- tives’ (Kelly 1997) or ‘scalar discourses’ (Herod itical arenas, to articulate new agendas and to & Wright 2002). ‘Scale frames’ (Kurtz 2003) can frame the configuration of local and global be seen as strategic discursive representations of issues? social grievances, including the practice of nam- The Internet is a communication network ing (i.e. constructing a social grievance), blaming linking computers worldwide. As such, it is (i.e. providing explanations for the present- both a communication medium and an organis- day situation), and claiming (i.e. formulating ational infrastructure. It can be an instrument solutions). This framing does not necessarily for collective action; Internet-based arenas involve one single scale, on the contrary, collec- (such as BBS or forums, and the Web as the pub- tive action groups might appeal to national lic space of the Internet) offer new arenas for solutions for local problems and vice versa collective action; Internet-based communi- (think of local nuclear free zones in campaigns cation allows for new forms of framing charac- against nuclear weapons). There is no necessary terised by interactivity, hyperlinked literacy, and relationship either between the scale of ma- multimedia; and, at the same time, the Internet terial spatial practices and the scale of represen- itself is a stake. The Internet is not only an tations of these practices (Miller 1997). instrument; it can be assessed along the four Scale metaphors may help in characterising dimensions of collective actions, as a grievance, these scale frames. Howitt (2002, 2003) argues a resource, an opportunity and an identity frame. that geographers use scales in three different Regarding scale, it is important to acknowl- ways: as size, as level and as relation. Herod & edge that the Internet connects individuals Wright (2002, pp. 5–9) distinguish for example, ‘surfing alone’ as Barber (2001) calls it. Com- two broad narratives about scales: bounded puter networks are individualised networks areas and networks. When scales are seen as (Wellman 2001) radically transforming re- bounded areas they can be framed as a ladder, lations between individuals in different places i.e. a hierarchical and fixed order of scales and affecting scales. Despite its individualised (scale as level), as concentric circles or nested character (pertaining to the scale of the body) dolls (scale as size). When scales are framed as and its potentially global reach (global is here a network; the metaphor is that of a set of roots worldwide), the Internet is not necessarily con- or tunnels (scale as relation). These scale meta- nected to a specific scale. It can be used by pol- phors imply different framings of the global. itical actors organising in any place and at any If scale is size, the global is the largest scale; if scale and in networks of political actors between scale is level, the global is the highest level of different places and different scales. Therefore government (federal or supranational); but if actual Internet uses need to be scrutinised. In scale is relation, the local and the global are this case study, we focus on the uses of the Inter- intertwined in a network of scales. net in the material and discursive production of scales by the Indymedia network through the The Internet, collective action and scale – Infor- scaling of grievances, resources, opportunities mation and communication technologies are and identities. crucial to scale negotiations as they make com- munication possible over large distances. Ana- A CASE STUDY: INDYMEDIA lysing the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philippine People The Indymedia network consists of a large net- Power Movement in 1986 and the Tiananmen work of interconnected websites, among which Square occupation in 1989, Adams (1996) has one global site www.indymedia.org and 122 shown how telecommunications can be used local websites. Indymedia activists are organised
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INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS 485 in local collectives of volunteers that collaborate Indymedia IMCs at different scales, the third in a global network. Each of the local Indy- with the role of the Internet to mobilise and media independent media centres (IMCs) adopts seize political opportunities at different scales, and publishes a charter with the principles of and the fourth with the use of the web to frame the collective. Common grounds among these the Indymedia network and its multi-scalar local IMCs pertain to their main objectives and politics, and more generally that of the global the ways they organise themselves. The ‘prin- grassroots. ciples of unity’ of San Francisco Indymedia offers a good illustration of these characteristics: OPEN PUBLISHING AT INDYMEDIA 1. We strive to provide an information infra- Indymedia is short for independent media and structure for people and opinions who do the Internet as a new medium is central to the not have access to the airwaves, tools grievances articulated by Indymedia activists. and resources of the corporate media. Their main concern can be described as the This includes audio, video, photography, closure of the communication commons (Kidd Internet distribution and any other com- 2003). They are upset about the commerciali- munication medium sation of the Internet. While mass media 2. We support local, regional and global strug- systems are predominantly national, and there- gles against exploitation and oppression. fore difficulties in maintaining independent or 3. We function as a non-commercial, non- alternative media vary nationally, the Internet, corporate, anti-capitalist collective.1 framed as a global common, refers to global The main tool they use to empower groups grievances common to all IMCs. Internet- is the Internet: IMCs maintain local and global related grievances address the power of corpo- websites on which the public can publish its own rations controlling software packages, and news, i.e. ‘be the media’. Some IMCs are more states enforcing copyright laws for both soft- explicit than the San Francisco IMC regarding ware and contents. the struggles they support and emphasise their The solution put forward by Indymedia and rejection of the neo-liberal globalisation and likeminded media activists, encompasses free their support for the so-called anti-globalisation software, copyleft, and open publishing. All or altermondialist movement, and more gener- websites are run with open source software, ally for the international movement for social hence the expression ‘Reclaim the streets, justice.2 Finally their organisational philosophy reclaim the code’ putting the reclaiming of the is based on participatory democracy, decen- digital code by media activists on a par with the tralised and horizontal decision-making, and reclaiming of the streets by urban protesters. autonomy. They enforce decision-making pro- Free software (such as Linux and the GNU cedures based on consensus in both local IMCs projects) is their response to the privatisation and the global network. of information by multinational corporations. The analysis of the Indymedia network pre- With open source software, the code is public; sented in this paper is based on surveys of the it can be improved by anyone, but further develop- constituting sites in the winter of 2003,3 a large ments have to be made public. The code is the body of documentation about the network and collective good of those willing to use and the individual centres archived on Indymedia improve it. Copyleft is a procedure to protect websites and available online, and on additional software or content as public goods: copyrights sources, such as (online) published narratives laws are used to prevent privatisation. by activists, opponents and observers, and Open publishing is the key technological academic accounts. The findings are presented innovation that characterises Indymedia web- in four sections, based on the four main sites. This innovation originates from the wish approaches to collective action introduced at to publicise global protests in alternative ways the beginning of the paper. The first deals with and goes back to June 1999, when the Peoples’ the role of the Internet in the grievances voiced Global Action (PGA) organised its second by Indymedia IMCs, the second with the role of Global Action Day on 18 June (J18) the day a the Internet as a resource to organise the G8 meeting was held in Cologne. To cover J18
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486 VIRGINIE MAMADOUH activities in Sydney, the Australian action group, deadline (48 hours for example) to protest Community Activist Technology also known as against the decision of an individual. (CAT) Cat@lyst 4 experimented with software To address the information overkill, editorial that enables people to put their reports online policies discourage double posts, including the without the mediation of an editing team. This posting of the same message on different web- software, known as open publishing, was further sites (links can be used to draw the attention of developed by Australian and American techies visitors of one local site to a relevant post on (i.e. technical activists) to cover the protests another site) and there have been experiments against the third ministerial meeting of the with selecting mechanisms, allowing readers to World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle rate the posts and using these appreciations to six months later and put into practice the first rank the messages on the newswire, putting the Indymedia IMC established for that occasion.5 most valued messages at the top, instead of in Over time, different versions of open publish- order of posting. To tackle the practical and ing software (active, sf-active, DadaIMC, MIR, democratic problems involved in the editing of IMCSlash, etc.) have been developed in the Indy- the newswire, techies are now advocating open media network and customised for numerous editing:7 software that enable the public to carry languages (including Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, out editing tasks such as hiding inappropriate Russian and Japanese), and are in use on dif- messages and categorising, prioritising relevant ferent websites. messages, and even editing and improving the The main characteristics of open publishing content. is that volunteers maintain the software and the The websites of the Indymedia IMCs are open public act as publishers, while media producers for grievances articulated at any scale. The gen- might take care of editorial parts, the editing of eral purpose is to empower the powerless, to the newswire and the producing of other media enable individuals and groups to voice their products. The visitors to the websites are en- opinions and to publicise their actions and couraged to write their own news as demonstrates opinions. Open publishing might privilege the the slogan ‘don’t hate the media, be the media’.6 body and the local as the scales of experience, The open publishing websites have run into because it encourages personal reports. several problems. The misuse of open publish- However, by organising the websites in scalar ing has prompted the need for editing/moder- terms (global website vs local websites) Indy- ating the newswire despite the fact that it con- media explicitly provides a platform for those flicts with the open publishing philosophy. voicing grievances framed as global as well; it The newswires and the many websites have also also brings scale issues to the foreground, pre- produced an overwhelming quantity of infor- ssing contributors to decide whether their mation, causing information overload. Both message is meant for a local or a global audience. problems are addressed with editorial policies developed by each local website. Generally ORGANISING LOCAL IMCs AND THE there is some control afterwards: irrelevant INDYMEDIA NETWORK messages (geographically or linguistically), test messages, duplicates, commercial messages, spam Resources available to Indymedia pertain to dif- and obviously incorrect messages are removed, ferent scales: the body (resources of individual as well as contributions that transgress certain volunteers), the local (resources of local IMCs) rules (racism, anti-semitism, homophobia, sex- and the global (resources of the global net- ism, ageism, etc.). On many websites, posts are work). The Internet is obviously a key resource visible before they are ‘validated’ by the gate- for Indymedia, and so at each of these scales. keepers (it can take several days as the organ- The ability to use the Internet however depends isation depends on volunteers) but they are on other resources of individuals (access to the identifiable as such. On most websites, rejected Internet, technical skills, time, literacy, edu- messages remain available in a special section cation, financial means, mobility, civic rights), ‘hidden articles’. Most editing teams aim at local groups (venue, amenities, hardware, such making decisions by consensus, which is gener- as modems and servers) and the global network ally done pragmatically by enforcing a short (time and technical support of local volunteers
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INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS 487 and groups, as Indymedia has no central organ- Internet is also used to share documentation, isation). blueprints and media content in many lan- The Internet is a local resource for IMCs as guages (including files featuring paper publi- they often run their decision-making through cations, radio and television broadcasts, and electronic lists, on top of regular meetings documentaries) on the many process and (often weekly). This resource is even more project websites.8 This include documentation, crucial to sustain the global network. The co- software and other resources for collectives ordination activities of the global network occur wanting to establish a new IMC. through computer-mediated communication: Finally, individuals participate directly in the via mailing lists and IRC chats. Volunteers can global network. Any individual having access to join dozens of electronic lists dealing with the Internet can connect to any website, local various technical and substantive themes and group or mailing list, depending of individual projects, ranging from technical issues (about resources (e-access, e-literacy, language, skills, computer codes and procedures) to political time, etc.). Technical collaboration also involved issues such as the Tibet list. Offline meetings, individual networking, such as the original online ‘meatings’ so to speak (McCaughley & Ayers collaboration between Sydney-based Matthew 2003, p. 4) are extremely rare. Indymedia meet- Arnison and American activists to develop and ings have been convened occasionally, during implement open publishing for the first In- protest events (such as Seattle 1999, Prague dymedia in Seattle. Volunteers also travel, visit 2000, Genoa 2001), alternative gatherings and participate in other IMCs at the occasion (such as the World Social Forum in Porte Alegre of summits, caravans or personal travels.9 in 2002) and media events (such as the Press Indymedia faces several organisational prob- Freedom Conference in San Francisco in 2001 lems regarding the Internet as a resource. The or the fourth Next Five Minutes Conference main problems are centralisation trends and about tactical media in Amsterdam in 2003). power imbalances between different groups in The application procedure to set up a new IMC the network and issues of sustainability. The as part of the Indymedia network is also an expansion of the global network makes decen- online process: the local group should file a tralised decision-making increasingly difficult. request, set up a mailing list, fill the different The e-mail lists flood volunteers with discus- documentation forms, get connected to the sions. Consensus is more difficult to achieve global mailing lists, ask for a URL, fulfil cer- with an ever-increasing number of players with tain technical conditions, choose software and an increasingly diverse background, confronted develop a site. with increasingly diverging local situations. The Even more importantly, the Internet is need for more explicit and effective procedures a translocal resource, as it mediates other to run the global network, improving trans- resources (time, technical skills, hardware) parency and reducing the information overload from one place to another. IMCs depend on is widely acknowledged and proposals are dis- each other for technical support. Software cussed on several internal lists and at ‘meat- expertise is often located with the first IMC that ings’. Power imbalances occur at different has started developing it (‘active’ in Sydney and scales, at local IMCs and in the global network, Seattle, ‘sf-active’ in San Francisco, ‘DadaIMC’ between techies and media producers, some- in Baltimore, ‘MIR’ in Germany, ‘IMCSlash’ times reinforced by a gendered digital divide, in Philadelphia, etc.). The servers are another and in the global network a sharp divide core feature of the network. Most websites are between North and South. Recently, American hosted on North American servers, originally IMCs have organised in a national network, in on Stallman in Seattle. These servers are often an attempt to be less predominant in the global named after computer activists like Richard network. The technical dependence on some Stallman, Christopher Montgomery (Monty) or North American IMCs maintaining the servers Sarai (an Indian group of media activists) and hosting most of the Indymedia websites is a pre-Internet activists such as (Peter) Kropotkin, source of worry, while the overall dependence (Agnes) Inglis, (Hannah) Arendt, (Alexander) on technical volunteers and donations is a liab- Berkman, Judi (Bari) and Che (Guevarra). The ility for the sustainability of the network. Still,
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488 VIRGINIE MAMADOUH in 2002, the decision of the Urbana-Champaign DC with the summit of the International IMC to apply10 and accept a $50,000 grant from Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on the Ford Foundation for a Indymedia Conver- 16 April, 2000 (known as A16). The first Euro- gence Fund to support regional gatherings of pean Indymedia was established in London to Indymedia participants, led to fierce discussions. cover Mayday2K on May Day 2000 in the United The Internet is a crucial resource for both the Kingdom. IMCs were also part of the local prepa- Indymedia network and the local IMCs. Besides, ration for protests around American elections it alters the relation between scales by enabling with the Republican Convention in Phila- individuals to get directly involved in groups of delphia and the Democrat Convention in Los their choosing, either small but global thematic Angeles, in August 2000. The summit of the groups, or local groups anywhere, not neces- IMF and the World Bank in Prague on Septem- sarily in the IMCs closest to their place of ber 26, 2000 (known as S26) was covered by an residence. IMC that disappeared after the summit. Indy- media Italy was established to cover the meeting TACTICS: MOBILISING GLOBALLY AND of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation LOCALLY and Development (OECD) in Bologna in June 2000. Indymedia France emerged in Millau From the perspective of the political oppor- in Southern France with the trial against José tunity structure, the role of the Internet pertains Bové, the chair of the French farmers’ organi- to different scales. Summits of institutions of sation Confédération Paysanne in summer 2000. global governance (World Trade Organisation, He was charged with the destruction of a World Bank, World Economic Forum, etc.) McDonald’s during a protest against global fast offer a temporary stage with worldwide media food chains, the agro-industry and the Ameri- attention to events in the same city, favourable canisation of popular culture in general. to the development of Indymedia initiatives. Quebec started in October 2000 to prepare the IMCs are also highly dependent on the national Summit of the Free Trade Area of the Americas and local opportunity structure: freedom of (FTAA) of April 2001. IMC South Africa was cre- press and civic rights are decisive when it comes ated in the run-up of the UN World Conference to political organisation, demonstrations, mani- Against Racism (WCAR) in summer 2001 in festations such as street parties, information Durban. Apart from such like websites covering gathering and distribution; access to the Inter- ‘global events’, the global Indymedia site at net infrastructure (both physical and insti- www.indymedia.org fulfils this function per- tutional access) is another crucial asset. On the manently, as do thematic websites of global other hand, the Indymedia network alters op- relevance.11 portunity structures, as it allows local IMCs to Summits are opportunities to mobilise the benefit from local political opportunities else- local grassroots: the venue of a remote agency where, for example, to organise a campaign serves as a powerful catalyst. Such a global event in one place to advocate changes in another. is a boost for local activists, not only because of Moreover, Indymedia websites can be used to the excitement of the protest and the interest mobilise at different scales and therefore affect of activists from all over the world, but also the political opportunity structure (POS) of because the major input of activists from else- other activists. Because websites are scaled, where to set up and run the website and to pro- these extra opportunities are scaled too: they vide content. In Seattle in December 1999, 400 can be used to mobilise globally and locally. media activists participated in the IMC coverage The Indymedia websites offer platforms for of the protests, and 800 in Washington, DC in global mobilisation, especially the global web- April 2000. site, thematic ones and the websites set up to Nevertheless, most local websites emerged cover specific global events. The first IMC from local initiatives, without waiting for such was established in Seattle to cover the protests an occasion and their main objective is to serve against the third WTO ministerial conference their local community. One year after Seattle, of 1999. Successive IMCs were created to cover by the end of 2000, there were over 30 Indy- such protest days. After Seattle, came Washington, media local websites, and 60 by the end of 2001
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INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS 489
(Hyde 2002); by the end of 2002 they were over platforms to mobilise activists at different scales 100, and about 125 by the end of 2003. In at once, with global sites addressing a global Prague, the IMC established to cover a global audience and local sites addressing local ones, event – the World Bank meeting on 26 Sep- but both scales are entwined, constantly con- tember, 2000 – disappeared after that, but a nected through newswires and links. Besides new local IMC with the same name was re- they offer individuals the opportunity to plug established in 2002. into local arenas of their choosing, not neces- Indymedia websites face several problems sarily the local place where they happen to live. regarding mobilisation due to limitations im- posed by digital and linguistic divides. The FRAMING INDYMEDIA AND THE GLOBAL unequal access to the Internet among social GRASSROOTS groups, gender groups, places, and more specifically the divide between a wired North Online geographies: a global network of local and a poorly wired South, turns open publish- IMCs – The Indymedia websites provide a rep- ing into a toy for Northern activists with wide resentation of Indymedia as a global network of access to the Internet; in the South the websites local sites. These frames deserve careful ana- function more as a resource for media activists lysis. How are websites labelled or named? To to produce offline media for a broad public (i.e. which places, to which scales do they refer? How newspapers and radio broadcasts). Problems are they grouped? How are they linked? originate from the huge differences in local The connections between the websites are situation regarding access to the network and dense. Access to Indymedia websites is available resources to travel and attend offline events. through a list of links (the master list) in a left More in general, in the anti-globalisation move- banner that is featured on almost all home ment, summit-hopping has been criticised on pages and subsequent pages of the Indymedia many occasions for being vain, superficial, eco- websites. Therefore, each local site is a portal logically damaging, and reinforcing differences to the complete network.12 In addition, news between the activists who have the resources to features often include links to other Indymedia travel and those who do not (i.e. between the or activist sites. This global interconnectivity global North and South). Therefore protests contrasts with findings among regular websites against global events are often organised in that most links are to websites based in the same many places at the same time. These synchro- country.13 nous, local actions are then linked together 122 local websites were listed on the master through online communication. list of the global Indymedia site by the end of The linguistic diversity also limits the access October 200314 (Table 1). Local sites are named of individuals or local groups to the network of after a place: a locality, framing the local scale local websites. The global website produces as the scale of territorial communities of various mainly posts in English that are not accessible size, ranging from places as large as Russia to to those who do not speak that language. Indy- cities as small as Danbury, Connecticut. Half of media attempts to deal with linguistic diversity the local websites are named after a city or an through translation teams and translation soft- urban agglomeration such as the San Francisco ware. This can mean that volunteers translate Bay Area. This is true of all sites in Australia, important posts from one language to the other many sites in Northern America, and one third and re-post them, and that readers can run the of the European sites. Others are named after translating software to decipher a message in a a country, a Member State of the European foreign language. The first requires a lot of Union, an American state or a Canadian pro- sparsely available human resources, and the vince. Few are named after a region (Table 2). selection depends on the choices of the volun- This geography is pretty conventional. In rare teers; automatic translation gives poor results so occasions, disputed names are used, referring far. to indigenous languages displaced by the mod- The Internet plays a crucial role in the mobili- ern state: the New Zealand website is called sation process creating new political oppor- Aotearoa (the Maori name of the Northern tunity structures. The Indymedia websites provide Island – literally ‘land of the long white clouds’
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490 VIRGINIE MAMADOUH
Table 1. The 122 local websites of the Indymedia network in October 2003.
Region as named Area Name of the site, according to master and ranked on the list on global site (alternative names global website also in use on the local site itself)
Africa (3) Nigeria Nigeria South Africa South Africa Southern Cameroon Ambazonia Canada (11) Alberta Alberta (also Calgary) British Columbia (2) Vancouver, Victoria New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maritimes Prince Edwards Island, Newfoundland Ontario (5) Hamilton, Ontario, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Windsor Quebec (2) Montreal, Quebec East Asia (1) Japan Japan Europe (32) Andorra Andorra Austria Austria Belgium (2) Belgium, West Flanders Cyprus Cyprus Czech Republic Prague France (4) Lille, Nice, Paris (also Paris-Ile de France), Nantes Germany Germany Greece (2) Athens, Thessaloniki Hungary Hungary Ireland Ireland Italy Italy Netherlands Netherlands Norway Norway Poland Poland Portugal Portugal Russia Russia Serbia Belgrade Spain (5) Barcelona, Euskal Herria, Madrid, Galicia, Estrecho/Madiaq Sweden Sweden Switzerland Switzerland Turkey Istanbul UK (2) UK, Bristol Latin America (15) Argentina (2) Argentina, Rosario Bolivia Bolivia Brazil Brasil Chile Chile Colombia Colombia Ecuador Ecuador Mexico (4) Chiapas, Mexico, Sonora, Tijuana Peru Peru Uruguay Uruguay Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Qollasuyu (also Qollasuyu Tawaintisuyu) Colombia, Chile, Argentina Oceania (8) Australia (5) Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth New Zealand Aotearoa Indonesia Jakarta Philippines Manila
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INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS 491
Table 1. Continued.
Region as named Area Name of the site, according to master and ranked on the list on global site (alternative names global website also in use on the local site itself)
South Asia (2) India (2) India, Mumbai US (47) Arizona Arizona Arkansas Arkansas California (4) L.A., San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area (sf), Santa Cruz Colorado Rocky Mountain Connecticut Danbury Florida Tallahassee-Red Hills Georgia Atlanta Hawaii Hawaii Idaho Idaho Illinois (2) Chicago, Urbana-Champaign Louisiana New Orleans Maine Maine Maryland Baltimore Massachusetts (2) Boston, Western Massachusetts Michigan Michigan Minnesota Minneapolis/St Paul (also Twin cities) Missouri St Louis New Jersey New Jersey New Mexico New Mexico New York (5) Buffalo, Ithaca, NY capitol (also Hudson-Mohawk), NYC, Rochester North Carolina North Carolina Ohio Cleveland Oregon (3) Eugene, Portland, Rogue Valley Pennsylvania (2) Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Texas (3) Austin, Houston, North Texas Tennessee Tennessee Virginia Richmond Utah Utah Vermont Vermont Washington Seattle Washington, DC DC Wisconsin (2) Madison, Milwaukee West Asia (3) Israel Israel Palestine Palestine (also Jerusalem) Lebanon Beirut
– which is now often used for the whole coun- roon. This region in the north of Cameroon try), while the South American site labelled is the southern part of British Cameroon that Qollasuyu (Quechua for Southeast) refers to was united with French Cameroon after in- one quarter of the Inca empire. Sometimes, dependence (the rest of the British colony went disputed territories claimed by political move- to Nigeria) and some claimed secession from ments are established online through a specific Cameroon after the installation of a unitary website. One African site is called Ambazonia, state in the 1980s. One European site is named referring to the territory of Southern Came- after Euskal Herria, the larger territory claimed
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Table 2. Name types (according to the main entry on the master list of local sites) (October 2003).
City or Country1 Region Disputed Total agglomeration territory
Africa 2 1 3 Canada 7 3 1 11 East Asia 1 1 Europe 122 16 3 1 32 Latin America 33 924 115 Oceania 7 1 8 South Asia 1 1 2 US 295 12 6 47 West Asia 1 1 1 3 Total 60 46 12 46 122
1 States, EU member states, Canadian provinces and American states. 2 Including Paris – Ile de France. 3 Including Mexico DF. 4 Mexican federal states. 5 Including Danbury, CT, San Francisco Bay Area, Twin Cities, Urbana-Champaign, Washington, DC. 6 Ambazonia, Euskal Herria, Qollasuyu and Palestine.
by Basque nationalists including two Spanish peculiar world division, featuring continents regions (the Basque Country, Navarra) and (Europe, Oceania), macro-regions (Latin three former French provinces. Aotearoa, Palest- America, South Asia, West Asia, East Asia) and ine and Qollasuyu also refer to disputed terri- countries (Canada, United States). Jakarta and tories, the latter promoting the independence Manila are anchored in Oceania (formerly of Tawaintisuyu (the four quarters of the Inca labelled Pacific) with Australia and New Zea- empire) now divided among Ecuador, Peru, land, not in Asia with India. Russia, Turkey and Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina. Cyprus are anchored in Europe. Puerto Rico Only a few websites are named after terri- is filed under Latin America, not under the tories crossing official boundaries. Some are dis- United States. The regions are ranked alpha- puted territories: Euskal Herria, Qollasusyu betically, as are localities inside the groups, not Tawaintisuyu and Palestine, that claims Jerusa- by country. On local websites, the master list lem. Less controversial are the following cross- might be slightly different: the list might not be border initiatives: Maritimes serves the Canadian up-to-date; the regional groupings might be provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, different and ranked differently. Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Another online geography is based on sym- Labrador; Tallahassee-Red Hills serves the Red bolic location, this is the one displayed in the Hills bioregion across the boundary between universal resource location (URL), i.e., the Florida and Georgia; Rogue Valley intends to address of the websites. Nine out of ten websites serve the region ‘known in past as the State of have a URL situating their city or country ‘in Indy- Jefferson (or the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion)’ media’: for example, vancouver.indymedia.org. in Southern Oregon and Northern California, Seven American websites, as well as Puerto Rico The recently established site Estrecho/Madiaq and Tijuana, use an address combining their (literally: strait) aims at covering a cross border place name and Indy or IMC (for example region around the Strait of Gibraltar includ- www.phillyimc.org for Philadephia). The other ing Andalusia, the Maghreb, and the Canary alternative is to locate symbolically Indymedia Islands. in the own locality, i.e. state: for example On the master list, local sites are grouped www.indymedia.nz for Aotearoa. Apart from New by regions. This grouping displays a somewhat Zealand, it is done in Hungary, the Netherlands,
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INTERNET, SCALE AND THE GLOBAL GRASSROOTS 493
Norway and Israel. Finally, the website of the sometime even one state (i.e. the United IMC at Danbury, Connecticut has no place States). This global scale refers primarily to reference in its URL. This IMC is called ‘The supranational levels (or at least federal) of Mad Hatters independent media center’ after government. an important event in local social history (the As a whole, the network brings together news hatters’ struggle for better working conditions) about a wide collection of grassroots initiatives and its URL is www.madhattersimc.org. addressing a wide range of issues including globalisation, feminism, land issues, genetic Scaling the global grassroots – Last but not least, manipulated organisms, peace and war, nuclear the contents posted on the websites provide energy, racism, media, and migration. Local scalar frames of the global grassroots reported on. priorities vary with the local salience of these The websites combine multiple media, allowing issues, but overall the mix remains extremely for the posting of text, photographs, video and diverse. The Indymedia network of websites audio fragments, generating a rich and com- provides a sense of global solidarity, demon- plex framing of protest events that are reported strating the scope of synchronous protests in (richer than in conventional media). Besides different places: local activists may be few, but the reports are centred on the protesters, while still feel supported by the many likeminded conventional media focus on representatives of around the world. It also creates a sense of a governments and agencies. The local websites common multi-scalar agenda, with local, cover mainly local protests (such as meetings, regional, national and global calendars of gatherings, demonstrations, boycotts, exhi- upcoming protest events. Finally, it produces bitions, etc. but also follow-up, such as lawsuits a common memory of the global grassroots. against militants, police repression, etc.) or Many reports on past protests are still available local inputs in protests elsewhere. The global online, including accounts of important protest dimension of the protest is often highlighted by days, stories, photographs, video, and more revealing the global interactions that result in technical documents such as the evaluations of local problems, or more directly by framing past initiatives (for example about A16, Wash- local protests as part of global campaigns of ington, DC 2000) and of technological projects synchronous actions, either campaigns planned that contribute to a global learning process. long in advance (counter summits, global Using different languages and different sites, action days, international buy nothing days, and the Indymedia network is able to give a face – the like), or more spontaneous ones like the and a voice – to protest constituents in many global mobilisation against the war of the US- places targeting different scales, for reference led coalition on Iraq in the winter of 2003. publics at different scales simultaneously. Typically, the global website aims to highlight stories from the local sites, for example through Truly a global network? – Indymedia websites features posted by the local IMCs and through frame Indymedia as a global network of local the open newswire, while it can also be a IMCs and the anti-globalisation movement as a podium for those reporting from communities movement of local grassroots acting both glo- not served by a local IMC. Local events may bally and locally. These online geographies also have global significance for various reasons: the show that despite its truly global reach, the net- nature of the conflict, the originality of the pro- work is rooted in some places more than others. test, the harshness of the repression, the urge All continents are represented, but the distri- for outside support, etc. The global is framed bution is skewed, with a strong presence of as the scale of mobilisation against globalisation Northern Americans with almost half of the from above, which manifests itself at different sites (58 sites). Combined with Latin American scales. Therefore protests target agencies at dif- sites, they add up to almost two thirds of the sites ferent scales. Some are local (municipalities pri- (73 sites) for the Western hemisphere; com- vatising water networks for example); others are bined with Europe, Australia and New Zealand, global, ranging from worldwide agencies such they add to three quarters of the sites (96 sites) as the WTO and the World Bank to regional for the global North. In addition Asian and agencies such as the EU, NAFTA and FTAA and African sites are much less dynamic in content,
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494 VIRGINIE MAMADOUH with the exception of the South African site. Three scale frames are represented on Indy- Overall the geographic pattern of the network media websites. Scale frames in the name of the is the result of geographically unevenly distri- websites underlines territorial communities (scale buted factors: access to the Internet, tradition of as bounded areas), while URLs point at network grassroots activism, political rights and civic lib- of scales. In the contents, policies and agencies erties. In addition counter-summits and proactive at different levels of government are targeted, events functioning as catalysts to establish an but the intermingled character of scales is strongly independent media centre under the umbrella expressed through multiple hyperlinks between of the Indymedia network are also more often local and global websites and through meta- than not organised in the global North. phorical links between local and global agendas. Finally relations between scales are some- times more complicated than the dichotomy CONCLUSION local versus global suggests, neglecting inter- mediary scales. Local websites framed as websites The Internet is without doubt the backbone of serving a whole country (e.g. when the local and the Indymedia network, in terms of both its national collapse) are often run by several local internal organisation and its external activities. groups, located in different cities or regions. The four perspectives on collective action were This is the case in New Zealand with IMCs in useful to disclose the many facets of its Internet Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Welling- practices. As a tool of communication, the ton. Seven Italian regional sites are hosted on Internet is part of the core grievances addressed the Italian IMC site (Lombardy, Naples, Perugia, by media activists, but also part of their instru- Roma, Sicily, Toscana, Triveneto), two local ments to provide alternatives. It is also a key British sites on the UK site (Scotland and resource to organise both the local centres and Manchester), although Bristol has its own website the global network. It is an opportunity to take and IMC Scotland is presently in the process of action and in turn the websites provide political getting independence from IMC Britain. In opportunities to other activists. Last but not Belgium, the national site is run by ten regional least, it is the main tool used to represent the IMCs, named after the provinces and one in Indymedia and the global grassroots. Brussels. In addition, local IMCs in West Scale issues are negotiated through the Inter- Flanders and Liege have their own websites and net materially and discursively (Table 3 for a direct connection to the global website. The summary). Materially the Internet allows for website of West Vlaanderen has in turn its own internal communication in groups that are not subdivisions with contacts in Brugge (Bruges), bound by physical proximity. They can organise Ieper, Kortrijk, Ostende, Roeselare, and Westhoek. in networks (electronic lists or forums) for While the number of local sites keeps grow- specific projects. This undermines the framing ing, regional sites are seen as an attractive inter- of scales as bounded areas (scale as size or mediary level between the local sites and the level). The websites, set up as global and local global site. The first regional site, established in platforms, also determine the scalar relevance 2003, Oceania, functions as ‘a portal site syn- of messages posted there. Local websites shape dicating news from local Independent Media a local audience with local reports or posts loca- Centres (IMCs) in the region’. It federalises lising global events; features on the global posts eight Oceanic IMCs (five in Australia, one for address purposely a global audience by cover- New Zealand, one in Indonesia and one in ing global events or highlighting local events as the Philippines) and three Australian websites globally relevant. The abundant hyperlinks not directly participating in Indymedia, but among Indymedia sites (but also with numer- using similar open publishing software (active ous other activists’ sites) reinforce the net- software): Canberra, Wollongong, and Tasma- worked identity of the collective. In addition, nia. Basically it enables visitors to check one the imaginative geographies in the names and website to monitor new postings on all these URLs of the websites participating in the net- local websites at once, a function the global site work strengthen the multi-scalar identity of cannot fulfil anymore with over hundred local Indymedia as a global network of local, place sites. embedded groups of volunteers.
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Table 3. Summary: scale framing at Indymedia.
Internet uses and scale framing
Grievances Global grievance related to privatisation and commercialisation of Internet. Free software and open publishing as resistance at different scales. Resources Internet as local resource for the organisation of local IMCs. Internet as global resource for the organisation of global network.
Internet as transindividual and translocal resource (local IMCs and global network)
Opportunities Indymedia offers global platforms: the global website, thematic websites, and topical websites covering special events. Indymedia offers local platforms: the local websites. Identities Indymedia represented as a global network of local websites serving territorial communities. Protests represented as multi-scalar politics: global and localised protests against supranational levels of government (regional and global), globalised protests against local and national levels of government.
As such, the Indymedia network is also an 3. A broad but superficial survey included all web- icon of the anti-globalisation movement and its sites. More indepth explorations of the websites ambition to remain a non-hierarchical, non- were limited to those in languages accessible to centred network of grassroots movements. So, the author. The inventory of the websites has while scales are also framed as bounded areas been updated in October 2003 while revising this (territorial communities to be served) and as paper. levels (the ladder metaphor) when targeting 4. ‘Low tech grass roots net access for real people. specific government agencies, the prevailing Pedestrians, public transport and pushbikes on scale frame is overwhelmingly that of a net- the information super hypeway’
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Change Summit, Bonn, in July 2001 and stayed Halavais, A. (2000), National Borders on the World online until the beginning of 2003. Wide Web. New Media & Society 1, pp. 7–28. 12. Depending on the software used, the list can be Hardt, M. & A. Negri (2000), Empire. Cambridge, placed on a separate page and ‘hidden’ behind Mass.: Harvard University Press. a link ‘to other IMCs’. Heins, V. (2000), From New Political Organizations 13. On US websites, as few as 10% of the links were to Changing Moral Geographies: Unpacking international links (Halavais 2000). Global Civil Society. GeoJournal 52, pp. 37–44. 14. There were 111 on the master list in the winter Herod, A. & M.W. Wright, eds. (2002), Geographies of 2003. Additional websites were identified dur- of Power; Placing Scale. Oxford: Blackwell. ing the survey; they were either inactive or had Howitt, R. (2002), Scale and the Other: Levinas and not yet completed the approval procedure to join Geography. Geoforum 33, pp. 299–313. the network. Between March and October 2003, Howitt, R. (2003), Scale. In: J. Agnew, K. Mitchell, two websites disappeared form the master list: & G. Toal, eds., A Companion to Political Geography. Central Florida (which had crashed in December pp. 138–157. Oxford: Blackwell. 2002) and Finland, which has been closed in Kelly, P.F. (1997), Globalization, Power and the Politics Summer 2003. Fourteen new websites appeared: of Scale in the Philippines. Geoforum 28, pp. 151–171. Perth, Manila, Andorra, Belgrade, Estrecho -Madiaq, Kidd, D. (2003), Indymedia.org, a New Communi- Galicia, Nantes, Puerto Rico, Beirut, Japan, New cation Commons. In: M. McCaughey & M.D. Ayers, Orleans, Rogue Valley and Tennessee. These 122 eds., Cyberactivism, Online Activism in Theory and websites are used in this section to analyse the Practice. pp. 47–69. New York: Routledge. representative geographies of the network, as it Kitschelt, H. (1986), Political Opportunity is the inventory enacted by the global network. Structures and Political Protest, Anti-nuclear Movements in Four Democracies. British Journal of Political Science 16, pp. 57–85. REFERENCES Kriesi, H., R. Koopmans, J.W. Duyvendak & M.G. Giugni (1992), New Social Movements and Adams, P.C. (1996), Protest and the Scale Politics Political Opportunities in Western Europe. Euro- of Telecommunications. Political Geography 15, pean Journal of Political Research 22, pp. 219–244. pp. 419–441. Kurtz, H.E. (2003), Scale Frames and Counter-scale Appadurai, A. (2000), Grassroots Globalization and Frames: Constructing the Problem of Environmental the Research Imagination. Public Culture 12, pp. 1–19. Injustice. Political Geography 22, pp. 887–916. Barber, B.R. (2001), The Uncertainty of Digital Leitner, H. (1997), Reconfiguring the Spatiality Politics. Harvard International Review 23, pp. 42–47. of Power: The Construction of a Supranational Brenner, N. (2001), The Limits to Scale? Meth- Migration Framework for the European Union. odological Reflections on Scalar Structuration. Political Geography 16, pp. 123–143. Progress in Human Geography 25, pp. 591–614. Lipschutz, R.D. (2000), Crossing Borders: Global Castells, M. (2001), The Internet Galaxy, Reflections Civil Society and the Reconfiguration of Trans- on the Internet, Business, and Society. Oxford: Oxford national Political Space. GeoJournal 52, pp. 17–23. University Press. McCarthy, J.D. & M.N. Zald (1973), The Trend in Cox, K. (1998), Spaces of Dependence, Spaces of Social Movements in America: Professionalization and Engagements and the Politics of Scale, or: Looking Resource Mobilization. Morristown, NJ: General for Local Politics. Political Geography 17, pp. 1–23. Learning Press. DeFilippis, J. (2001), Our Resistance Must be as Local McCarthy, J.D. & M.N. Zald (1977), Resource as Capitalism; Place, Scale and the Anti-globalization Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory. Protest Movement. City 5, pp. 363–373. American Journal of Sociology 82, pp. 1212–1241. Delaney, D. & H. Leitner (1997), The Political Con- McCaughley, M. & M.D. Ayers, eds., (2003), struction of Scale. Political Geography 16, pp. 93–97. Cyberactivism, Online Activism in Theory and Practice. Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2002), Beyond Global vs. New York: Routledge. Local: Economic Politics Outside the Binary Frame. Marston, S. (2000), The Social Construction of Scale. In: A. Herod & M.W. Wright, eds., Geogra- Progress in Human Geography 24, pp. 219–242. phies of Power, Placing Scale. pp. 25–60. Malden, Marston, S. & N. Smith (2001), States, Scales and MA: Blackwell. Household: Limits to Scale Thinking? A Response
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