hello,
i am writing here to share a new idea about direct action and civil disobedience,
i am sorry if my English is not very good…
some people are realizing that the street manifestations and sit ins are not very useful to stop war – mostly because the mass media doesn’t give it properly coverage.
(and sometimes a newspaper article or radio interview is more strong - to change public opinion mind - than thousands of people in the street).
what happens is that we live in a globalised world that has its images and messages almost all mediated by the media industry. and we are still using strategies (that were very strong sometime ago) but now, if we make street demonstrations and media doesn’t show it, the effects are very small (important too but very small).
it’s difficult to change this because economical and political interests normally control mass media. which makes it very difficult to have a large and strong space for activists voice and images.
this is serious, because even if we publish our own web sites and use free radios and magazines, probably the people who will access these independent media are the people who already shares this opinion.
and it is crucial to get “non-alternative” normal people to hear our voices and see “other words” rather them official conservative mass media pro-war opinion.
so, finally…
the idea to be proposed is an intent to have the best use of the creative and courageous will to realize direct actions and civil disobedience,
and was inspired in the brazilian land-less peoples movement (MST)
these people, who doesn’t have land to grow their own food, and believing that land is a public resource, they plan and execute big-farm occupies. with this, they fight for their rights and also get a good public attention and exposition on local, national and international media (and this way, putting the land distribution on discussion).
and… if we can see and realize the airwaves also as public resource…
and the fact that this resource is being monopolized by some few companies (which doesn’t give it a good use, because they don’t allow really free speech space or large participation and discussion),
so, the proposal is that people organize to peacefully occupy the commercial tv studios (and also radios).
it could be planned many ways to get in, move to the live studios, make sit ins inside it, present a letter of manifesto, demanding the civil society more space and even control of the media vehicles, and demanding specific dates and times to make free-from-censorship-and-control programs and interviews.
or even demanding that some alternative documentary and interview previously recorded are played on live.
…
this was just an initial idea, which I think deserves more thoughts and discussions to be improved.
but I really believe it could have some good results,
“waking up” many many people all around.
very best wishes,
marcos menezes
marcos@rbc.org.br
The corporate media are complicit, perhaps conspiratorial, in the gradual re-militarization of the US since the 1980s. They have done infinite damage, and now control a monstrous brainwashing machine that shows no mercy.
I would not be surprised if CNN, which has been known to give internships to US Army PSYOPS trainees, does not actually receive materials for TRADOC (Army Training & Doctrine Command) to shape its spin doctoring. I do know that the US Army War College has published many papers on how to win what they call "CNN wars." One of them starts off, "Words are the new bullets, satellites the new artillery."
It is apparent that the military considers CNN both as an important back-channel propaganda and diplomatic resource, and probably also as a means of controlling public opinion at home.
And we don't even need to talk about FOX, which actually pull higher ratings.
Anyone who wants to attempt (against all odds) to raise public consciousness on the sliminess of these two outfits has my blessing in their work of the Lord.
Fortunately, we've already occupied and liberated one important news source in Los Angeles. It's KPFK 90.7. It has been returned to the people after four lawsuits brought by listeners and members of various boards. It's raw, there's a lot of dead air and amateurish stuff, and its activist listeners fight each other to a fault, but it's ours. Its GM is a Black revolutionary journalist from South Africa, and its transmitter is a brand new unit on a 5000 foot mountain with ten times the power anyone else would ever be allowed now. In fact, it's the biggest signal west of the Mississippi.
Check us out. We rock.
-- .- .-. -.-. --- -. ..
Analytically, the anti-war protests get more than the proper amount of coverage, proportionate to the amount of people that care for that point of view. Polls are showing about 70% of Americans support Iraq action, so there should be only a small amount (20% or so with 10% undecided) of coverage of the protests.
Just becuase 500 people show up to demonstrate at a rally, or 1000, or 10,000, doesn't mean that the 100,000 that stayed home because they support the war want to watch you demonstrate.
>>And we don't even need to talk about FOX, which
>>actually pull higher ratings.
Hmmm....
Seems they made a boo boo, giving you this coverage then:
http://anon.user.anonymizer.com/http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/37474_comment.php#37617
Do not listen to any other media source - they are all puppets of the capitalists.
The Collective knows best.