Sociology of the Anarchists - Gozips.uakron.edu - The University of ...

INDYMEDIA
Don't hate the media,
become the media.
- Jello Biafra
Chuck D of Public Enemy once said that rap was Black America's CNN. 73 In a similar
light, the Independent Media Center (IMC) movement could be seen as the anarchist
movement's CNN. Like rap, IMCs were formed out of lack of other expressive avenues.
They also are enjoyed by others outside of Black America and the anarchist movement—
IMC websites are visited by other radicals, liberals, the curious, the trolling right-wing,
and police agents.
There are two important intersections of anarchism with the recent Independent Media
Center movement: 1) the common presence of anarchist participation in local IMCs and
2) the anarchistic nature, structure, and behavior of the Global IMC Network and of local
IMCs. Although the first intersection is interesting, I will spend most time discussing the
second intersection.
The IMC grew out of the anti-WTO demonstrations that took place in Seattle,
Washington during late November 1999. 74 Media activists suspected that once again the
message of demonstrators (especially those with the Direct Action Network) would be
blacked-out of the media or distorted beyond recognition 75 , and thus took it upon
themselves to set-up various mechanisms for distributing news about both the
demonstrations themselves and the WTO itself. These mechanisms took the form of a
central, clearinghouse webpage where anyone could get up to date developments from the
streets, share photographs, video footage, and first-hand accounts. The IMC broadcast a
30-minute TV program each of the five days of the demonstrations and put out a
newspaper each day. These TV broadcasts were carried on many independent
television/cable programs, such as Paper Tiger TV and have been collected in the video
“Showdown in Seattle” available from the Seattle IMC.
This model was so effective and inspiring that other anti-corporate globalization activist
decided to emulate the Seattle IMC in subsequent mass mobilizations in the US, the anti-
IMF/World Bank demos in Washington DC during April 2000 being the first. 76 Since
these decisions grew primarily out of the Direct Action Network and the spokescouncil
model, it is predictable that many anarchists would become involved in the functioning
and design of the IMCs.
73 Reference for Chuck D's “Black CNN” quote!! or whomever else said this...
74 See the coverage of the 1999 WTO demos from the Seattle IMC (now an independent/autonomous
entity) at their webpage: http://seattle.indymedia.org/wto/ (???what is the new correct c/site???)
75 Whether in the past (Hong 1992, Cobb-Reiley 1988) or in the present (McLeod & Detenber 1999),
media distortion has been a consistent dynamic during the entire history of anarchism in the United
States.
76 From comments by DC anarchist organizer Chuck Munson – a.k.a. “Chuck0” – about the spokescouncil
decision to emulate the success of Seattle's IMC for the “a20” demos (Radio4All.net syndicated
program named “041700chuck0.mp3”).
[ Williams 82 ] [ this is a draft. do not cite. ]