Cross-posted at ASR with citation links.
As the Wikileaks drama has continued to unfold, my level of concern has steadily increased. Public figures (both nationally and locally) have called for the extra-judicial murder of the organization’s founder, Julian Assange, and members of Congress have begun using its existence as a justification to implement Internet censorship systems akin to those used in China (with Senator Lieberman going so far as to publicly hold China up as a model for emulation). Such horrifying realities brought me to realize that simply promoting and defending Wikileaks from behind a computer screen is no longer sufficient – the stakes are just too high.
After some reflection, I came to the conclusion that the most effective thing to do would be to organize a public rally in support of the right to a free press and in solidarity with Wikileaks in my community of Burlington, Vermont. Such an action would be especially effective, I reasoned, because it seems that the majority of people have yet to develop hardened opinions of the topic which have been integrated into their identities. Instead, as an almost totally novel phenomenon, undecided folks are looking to their environment for cues as to how they should feel about it. They’ve been hearing the drum-beat of “treason, egomanic, putting the troops in danger, etc.” from much of the mainstream media and political elite, so it is urgent that supporters of Wikileaks provide a counter-narrative. For all of the fence-sitters who feel sympathetic (but isolated, because the neo-McCarthyist mass media they consume is attempting to equate such sympathy with treason), to see fellow supporters publicly demonstrating (in the most literal sense of the word) their feelings could be just the nudge that is needed to push them into action.
To get the ball rolling, I created a Facebook event and sent emails to every activist and activist list-serve that I’ve come in contact with over the past few years. I followed up with phone-calls and made sure to stress how important I felt it was to turn out. Often, people are jaded about rallies because they are generally a show of strength on an issue about which most people already have a set opinion, so the impact of any one person’s attendance is negligible. Once I communicated the above idea that most people are undecided and that a public show of support could have a powerful effect, however, excitement began to grow. For a time, we picked the evening rush-hour on the one of Burlington’s major arteries, Williston Road, and met in front of the Staples Plaza. Several interested and enthusiastic people couldn’t make the rally itself, but generously donated their time, energy, and artistic skills the previous evening at a sign making party, so we had plenty for supporters to hold.
When I showed up at 4:15pm, it was about twenty degrees, snowing, and (it being northern Vermont) getting dark. I took out my first sign, emblazoned with “Honk 4 Wikileaks!”, and set up shop by the side of the road. Within a couple of minutes the first supporter arrived, and we soon had a contingent of close to a dozen heavily bundled people lining Williston Road in support of Wikileaks (including one man who saw what we were doing, stopped, and asked for a sign). The ideological diversity of the participants was truly staggering, and demonstrates breadth of the coalition that has formed around the website; standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the President of the St. Michael’s College Conservatives was an IWW Delegate. Though we came from many perspectives, unity was found in our common commitment to the defense of press freedoms.
The response to our rally from passing commuters was both encouraging and informative in a few ways. First, we received a lot of positive honks and thumbs-up – according to one of the group’s elders who has been participating in such actions for many years, we had one of the most positive response rates that he’d ever seen when sign-waving. Second, the many confused and interested stares we received confirmed the idea that lots of people are still unsure of what to make of the Wikileaks controversy. The fact that those people not only saw our commitment to brave the elements in support of the issue, but also heard their fellow motorists honking their support hopefully had a powerful impact on their perceptions and attitudes. Finally, as with any sign-wave, we received a few middle fingers. However, in at least one of those cases, the driver was obviously supportive of us while his passenger was flicking us off – I can only imagine that the rest of their journey was marked by interesting conversation.
By the end of rush hour, we were cold, wet, and exhausted, but also exhilarated because it was clear that we’d had a real impact. While packing up, a high-schooler approached us and asked about our protest, because she was doing a project on human rights for her class. We told her the story of Wikileaks and pointed her to the Collateral Murder video, and she thanked us for having provided her with a topic to work on. Even if we’d had no other impact, inspiring a young mind to dig into these issues made all of the planning, work, and cold entirely worth it.
While subsequently warming my hands (and insides) with a hot toddy, I reflected on how the day’s activities are reflective of the strategy that the defenders of Wikileaks need to adopt. We are of the Internet, and the Internet generation is widely “on the bus” in terms of Wikileaks; according to a recent poll, more than 50% of people aged 18-29 believe it is be Constitutionally protected speech. Unfortunately, that rate of support declines with every subsequent age cohort, bottoming out at 20% for those 60 or older. I believe this has much to do with the fact that, while the Internet is a primary space for young people, it is more peripheral to the lives of many individuals who were not socialized into it as children. As such, if we are to reach out to those people, we need to bring our narrative to the spaces they inhabit and media they consume – radio, television, and, most importantly, the street. It is my sincere hope that the number of spontaneous demonstrations will begin increasing dramatically in the upcoming weeks as the pressure mounts and the struggle to maintain our right to a free press reaches a critical stage. If you don’t take the initiative, who will?