Community organizers obsess over power. Not “how do we get it?” but “how do we destroy it?” Destroy, break, fracture, re-distribute, re-invent. We do this work because we believe that directly-affected communities DO have the power to fix the systemic imbalances that result in oppression and poverty… but we also do it, especially after a couple of years, with a certain degree of cynicism about whether the institutions by which the status quo maintains itself can ever be made just. Maybe we can imagine a criminal justice system that doesn’t screw over people of color so obscenely… but years of experience have made it hard for us to imagine the existing mechanisms of power (elected officials, agency administrators, facility operators) making any of the changes we want to see. Or when change does happen it’s at a glacial pace, with every step forward taking literally years - the victory of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, after six hard years of brilliant organizing, is a great example of that.

Which isn’t to say we should stop - just that community organizing is ONE OF many strategies that’s needed. More and more I’m wondering: what role can technological direct action play in creating systemic change?

I’m not talking about MoveOn.org-style online organizing. I’m talking about code interference intended to disrupt the function and administration of oppressive systems.

Looking at it from that perspective, this new article becomes particularly intriguing - from The Technology Review, Moore’s Outlaws, by David Talbot:

“Code is more complex, and that means more opportunity to exploit the code. There is more money to be made in exploiting the code, and that means there are more and more sophisticated people looking to exploit vulnerabilities.”

The article talks mostly about criminal interference - hackers, etc. And when he does discuss political cyber-interference, it’s generally carried out by some big scary players: the Chinese government, the Russian government (or, at the very least, the hacking advances the interests of those players, and punishes their enemies, even if it’s not at all clear if the attacks were carried out by the governments themselves or by zealous and patriotic computer geniuses…. but if suddenly the Dalai Lama’s email account is hacked and all his contacts find their computers wiped clean, I don’t imagine he sees much of a difference whether it was Beijing or just an enterprising lone cyber-gunman).

Looking Talbot’s outlaws, it’s fascinating to think about how direct action shaped by the demands of low-income people and backed up by solid technicians, carried out in cyberspace, could mess with business as usual… disruptions that could be carried out against BP and Monsanto as much as the U.S. Government; Scientology as much as terrorist networks. Wikileaks is a brilliant example, but the potential is so much wider. Think about how much of the work of governments is carried out through software - and therefore mediated by code: emails, logistics, distribution, coordination of massive amounts of resources. Think about how code can flip the script, so that “a small, committed group of people,” instead of distributing flyers outside a government agency office, can shut the office down for the day. Think about all the delicious new openings for subversion from below.

Everything is code. So let’s get to work.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 26th, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under The Poetry of Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.