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A Talk on the Ukrainian-Russian War Aug 31 23 Wikileaks and the Politics of Information international |
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 Sunday December 05, 2010 00:42 by Dara
"In order to make any sensible decision you need to know what's really going on, and in order to make any just decision you need to know and understand what abuses or plans for abuses are occurring.” (J. Assange)
The institutions and organisations that shape and misshape the world are rarely interested in transparency, and journalism’s decline has been a boon for the powerful. They have their ‘information warriors’, but WikiLeaks can make us all into information guerillas.If we want to understand our world better, if we want to manage our own perception, we should support WikiLeaks, we should support whistleblowers, and we should find ways to make journalism work for the people, not for power. [Castellano]
Wikileaks and the Politics of InformationIt is an uncommon pleasure to see the world’s politicians scuttling around furiously, much like woodlice uncovered by the lifting of a rock. WikiLeaks are the ones who did the lifting, and have exposed for us the working of US diplomacy; the information, intentions and concerns of the world’s dominant power.
It is not surprising then, that WikiLeaks have received hostility from American politicians and apparatchiks, but the extent of their threats is quite shocking. The Right has begun a game of blood-thirsty one-upmanship in their calls for retribution. Sarah Palin has called for Assange to be “pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?”. Similarly, a previous contender for the GOP presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee, said that Assange should be tried for treason and executed. North of the border, Tom Flanagan, the eminence grise behind Canadian president Stephen Harper, commented that Assange should be assassinated, saying "I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone, or something." Flanagan later retracted the statement, and the comments of Huckabee and Palin can be ascribed at least partially to nationalist showboating, but such threats indicate the strong rightward push of American politics. "In the absence of governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the area of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry -- in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government.. . . . Without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people."Declining press sales have led to many such homilies from endangered news organisations, but have not inspired these organisations to come to the support of WikiLeaks. This was particularly noteworthy in the support given by representative organisations to an anti-WikiLeaks amendment to the proposed federal shield law. Since 2004, American journalists have sought such a law for protection from the wrath of governments. This is an increasingly pressing issue, as the Obama administration pursues an unprecedented four simultaneous prosecutions against leakers from the military and security agencies. But in their zeal for protection, legislators and journalists alike are eager to distinguish the journalists that are worthy of protection from those who are not. As Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press told Time magazine, “It’s data dissemination, and that worries me...Journalists will go through a period of consultation before publishing sensitive material. WikiLeaks says it does the same thing. But traditional publishers can be held accountable. Aside from Julian Assange, no one knows who these people are.” Responsibility is the watchword of the corporate media, but it is always responsibility to power, not to the people. Their eagerness to distinguish WikiLeaks from journalism fits neatly with that of the US Government; State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley commented that “Mr. Assange obviously has a particular political objective behind his activities, and I think that, among other things, disqualifies him as being considered a journalist.” Jay Rosen, a professor of media studies at New York University has commented that the watchdog press died during the Iraq war, and WikiLeaks has stepped into the gap. We should not over-state the importance of the neoconservative crusade; media subservience to power is nothing new. However, we can agree with Rosen that the mainstream media have singularly and spectacularly failed to fulfill their role in democratic theory. This is what Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair have called the Death of the Fourth Estate. Major media organisations are increasingly captured and manipulated by power bodies, parroting state misinformation and corporate agendas. The Iraq war was the most notable, but not the only example of the adroitness with which the American state and its various organs can manipulate public opinion to their benefit. This war provided us with the greatest recent example of reporting that never was, as a barrage of misinformation, distortion and outright lies were ferried from the belligerent nations to their populations via the major news organisations. Nonsense stories about Al Qaeda links and 45 minute WMD launch times filled broadsheet and broadcast alike, while the drumbeat grew louder. There’s billions of dollars tied up in ‘perception management’ and the War on Terror has been big business for the managers, self-styled ‘information warriors’ like John Rendon who bivouac by the intersection of Madison Avenue and the Washington Beltway. Defined as “actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning” perception management entails the controlling the flow of information and framing issues to shape the target’s response. While lefties typically blame press timidity on issues such as ownership, dependence on advertising, etc., a large amount is due to the dominant practices of news corporations, which are much the same as elsewhere; more work, less wages. A reliance on and vulnerability to institutional sources, is underpinned by a basic lack of resources for investigating new stories. In a report on media independence by MediaWise and Cardiff University, researchers found that 60% of press articles and 34% of broadcast stories come wholly or mainly from one of these ‘pre-packaged’ sources [PR or wire services, such as Reuters and Associated Press] and also “found that 19% of newspaper stories and 17% of broadcast stories were verifiably derived mainly or wholly from PR material, while less than half the stories we looked at appeared to be entirely independent of traceable PR."[5] The study was commissioned by reporter Nick Davies for his book Flat Earth News, which places the blame for newspaper dependence on corporate ownership and the management practices that come with it, with journalists increasingly incapable of doing the basics of their job. Assange has commented, “in order to make any sensible decision you need to know what's really going on, and in order to make any just decision you need to know and understand what abuses or plans for abuses are occurring.” In the face of perception management, WikiLeaks is information sabotage; disrupting the control that state and corporate bodies exert over information. The institutions and organisations that shape and misshape the world are rarely interested in transparency, and journalism’s decline has been a boon for the powerful. They have their ‘information warriors’, but WikiLeaks can make us all into information guerillas. If we want to understand our world better, if we want to manage our own perception, we should support WikiLeaks, we should support whistleblowers, and we should find ways to make journalism work for the people, not for power. References[1] http://rixstep.com/1/20101001,01.shtml [2] http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/daskrapital/20...0%A6/ [3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20....html [4] http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/08/02/should-the-u...ange/ [5] http://www.mediawise.org.uk/display_page.php?id=1000
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HauptseiteSupport Sudanese anarchists in exile Joint Statement of European Anarchist Organizations International anarchist call for solidarity: Earthquake in Turkey, Syria and Kurdistan Elements of Anarchist Theory and Strategy 19 de Julio: Cuando el pueblo se levanta, escribe la historia International anarchist solidarity against Turkish state repression Declaración Anarquista Internacional por el Primero de Mayo, 2022 Le vieux monde opprime les femmes et les minorités de genre. Leur force le détruira ! Against Militarism and War: For self-organised struggle and social revolution Declaração anarquista internacional sobre a pandemia da Covid-19 Anarchist Theory and History in Global Perspective Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation [Booklet] Reflexiones sobre la situación de Afganistán South Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Death or Renewal: Is the Climate Crisis the Final Crisis? Gleichheit und Freiheit stehen nicht zur Debatte! Contre la guerre au Kurdistan irakien, contre la traîtrise du PDK Meurtre de Clément Méric : l’enjeu politique du procès en appel International | Imperialism / War | en Fri 19 Apr, 12:52
Australia’s militaristic national myth was founded on the Gallipoli landing. The dead Anzacs are conscripted for service in all of Australia’s wars. They have sanctified Australian imperialism in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, the national commemoration of the Anzacs will be in the service of the developing conflict with China and the drive to war. It must not be uncontested. Instead of glorifying the military prowess of the Anzacs, we should be building the working class movement which can sweep away all capitalist States. We need a revolution that will establish libertarian communism, a world of liberty, equality and solidarity, where war and militarism exist no more, except as exhibits in museums and lessons from history. Today, the gangs that the states created for their interests are running away though the ruins they are leaving behind in Kobanê. While the victory of resistance is echoing in the free streets of Kobanê, the There are two possible futures. In one of them, the conflicts between the imperialist countries, and between them and China, will grow until some miscalculation leads to a nuclear war which could destroy humanity. The other possibility, the only means of avoiding that fate, is a workers' revolution to abolish capitalism and eliminate the causes of war. We can do it and we start by building the labour movement and taking a stand against militarism today. Instead of idolising the Anzacs, we should mourn them, and instead of glorifying the military, we should oppose its very existence. Statement of Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group. [Italiano] Latest news from our Syrian comrade Mazen Kamalmaz: The situation looks quite bleak for the future of the Arab peoples' revolutions: the official machine of the regimes' repression is unleashed to its maximum in several countries, threatening to put down by brutal force the uprisings of the Libyan, Bahraini and Yemeni masses. Our solidarity is needed in terms of actions of support!
Unlike the capitalists, the working class can unite across national boundaries. We can sweep away the capitalists and their State, with its armies, police and prisons. We can build libertarian communism, a world of peace and plenty, a world of both freedom and security. We can and we must.
When news from the destruction of Gaza- which has claimed more than 200 lives- reached New York City, communities jumped into action. 90 years later, let 4 November be a day for repudiating war, for anti-militarism and non-violence between peoples, for ceasefires and the de-militarization of all war zones, for the withdrawal of the Italian army and all armies from fake peace-keeping missions. [Italiano]
For those of us involved in the fight for workers' power, the 1st of May gave us much to be cheerful about. Traditionally a day to celebrate working class solidarity and militancy, workers in America and Iraq, marked May 1st with a wonderful demonstration of both of these fine qualities. more >>
A talk on the Ukrainian-Russian war, from an anarchist perspective. I reviewed my reasons for being in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. But revolutionary anarchists should give no political support to the Ukrainian government nor to the U.S. imperialists who help it.
As far as I can tell, Ukrainian anarchists have in fact followed Malatesta’s approach. Virtually the whole country has risen up to oppose the invasion. There is voluntary organizing throughout the nation, both military and providing social services, despite chaos and destruction. Ukrainian anarchists have not made fools of themselves by opposing the resistance of the people. Instead they have merged with the broader movement of Ukrainians. Some have provided non-military services through mutual aid groups, such as food distribution. Others have formed a military unit composed of anarchists and anti-fascists. Although they have a good deal of autonomy, they coordinate with the Territorial Defense Forces.
This article covers the impact of the sanction on all sides. But the real losers are the working class and the oppressed people. It shows the way how we can fight back against both wars: the current military one and the sanctions war.
A group of Ukrainian anarchists living in Kyiv declared that they have joined popular resistance against Russian invasion and organized their own group- leading to many debates among anarchist circles. As long as we do not exactly know their own circumstances, one might think that they are purely pro-NATO people, confused nationalist-anarchists or even neo-Nazi supporters. Actually, they are not! According to their declarations before and during the war, they do exactly know what NATO, capitalism, nationalism and imperialism is; and they are against all of them. For me, they are just a group of comrades who found themselves in the middle of a war and trying to find out a way to defend their own lives and their own ideas.
Both NATO and Russia must be opposed, and should war eventuate, our job is not to pick a side but to work to end the war as quickly as possible. Should war break out then the spectre of 1917 needs to be made a reality again. The best defence against imperialist wars will always be a powerful, militant working-class and the fear of revolution that brings. more >>
Australia’s militaristic national myth was founded on the Gallipoli landing. The dead Anzacs are conscripted for service in all of Australia’s wars. They have sanctified Australian imperialism in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, the national commemoration of the Anzacs will be in the service of the developing conflict with China and the drive to war. It must not be uncontested.
Instead of glorifying the military prowess of the Anzacs, we should be building the working class movement which can sweep away all capitalist States. We need a revolution that will establish libertarian communism, a world of liberty, equality and solidarity, where war and militarism exist no more, except as exhibits in museums and lessons from history.
There are two possible futures. In one of them, the conflicts between the imperialist countries, and between them and China, will grow until some miscalculation leads to a nuclear war which could destroy humanity. The other possibility, the only means of avoiding that fate, is a workers' revolution to abolish capitalism and eliminate the causes of war. We can do it and we start by building the labour movement and taking a stand against militarism today. Instead of idolising the Anzacs, we should mourn them, and instead of glorifying the military, we should oppose its very existence.
Statement of Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group. [Italiano]
Unlike the capitalists, the working class can unite across national boundaries. We can sweep away the capitalists and their State, with its armies, police and prisons. We can build libertarian communism, a world of peace and plenty, a world of both freedom and security. We can and we must. more >> |
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Spring zu Komment: 1 2 3 4Wonderful article, but while I completely agree that WikiLeaks has every right to publish the information they receive, regardless of whether or not anyone can be held "accountable," I do believe more precautions need to be taken in order to protect the source of the leaks. The more people prosecuted for the leaks, the less people will be willing to give, and the quicker we descend into a state of media-darkness. Hopefully WikiLeaks is stepping up its game, as some of the scheduled releases are somewhat far ahead, but that is my only real concern.
Long live the internet, the glorious equaliser!
Please see what Assange wrote in 2006 to understand the purpose behind WikiLeaks
http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf
it is not so much to make us all 'information guerillas' as it is to make the authoritarian states (aka conspirators) hesitant to communicate since they recognize the threat that their communications could be made public. Thus, they will put stricter controls on their communications, which will limit their ability to conspire, thus hampering them in (making and) carrying out their plans...
"The more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in minimization of efficient internal communications mechanisms (an increase in cognitive “secrecy tax”) and consequent system-wide cognitive decline resulting in decreased ability to hold onto power as the environment demands adaption. Hence in a world where leaking is easy, secretive or unjust systems are nonlinearly hit relative to open, just systems. Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance." - Julian Assange
It's a good article, I read it previously. Not sure how it contradicts what I'm saying though?
Assange is doing what we all should be doing, blowing the lid off hidden strings of power, the "invisible hand", back channel negotiations, etc. The implications of the Age of Info, the Internet, the McLuhan electronic "Global Village" is an end to secrecy. Ending secrecy outflanks all revolutionary strategies in effectiveness in this era of instantaneous global communication which is LATERAL DEMOCRATIC and NON HIERARCHICAL. Yes, the bosses are starting to sweat, but not due to disruption which creates market fluctuations which can be exploited in both their upward and downward movements, rather, due to sending the arrow deep into the most vulnerable of the magicians' weak spots, their ability to deflect attention from their actual mechanisms of wealth accumulation. Assange has created the equivalent of a thousand Barcelonas, minus the bloodshed. A hundred Assanges could change history overnight BECAUSE the Internet is anarchy incarnate. Yes, hideous technology has given humanity the greatest power it has ever possessed. If we don't use it, we are fools.