RAND_MR1382

Coordination of Action
Advocacy groups can use the Internet to coordinate action among members and with
other organizations and individuals. Action plans can be distributed by email or posted
on web sites. Services are cheaper than phone and fax (although these services can also
be delivered through the Internet), and faster than physical delivery (assuming Internet
services are operating properly, which is not always the case). The Internet lets people
all over the world coordinate action without regard to constraints of geography or time.
They can form partnerships and coalitions or operate independently.
One web site was created to help activists worldwide coordinate and locate information
about protests and meetings. According to statements on Protest. Net, the web site
serves “to help progressive activists by providing a central place where the times and
locations of protests and meetings can be posted.” The site’s creator said he hoped it
would “help resolve logistical problems that activists face in organizing events with
limited resources and access to mass media.” 42 The site features news as well as action
alerts and information about events.
The power of the Internet to mobilize activists is illustrated by the arrest of Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. According to Michael Dartnell, a political science
professor at Concordia University, when Turkish forces arrested Ocalan, Kurds around
the world responded with demonstrations within a matter of hours. He attributed the
swift action in part to the Internet and web. “They responded more quickly than
governments did to his arrest,” he said. Dartnell contends the Internet and advanced
communication tools are changing the way people around the world play politics.
Antigovernment groups are establishing alliances and coalitions that might not have
existed before the technology was introduced. 43
The force of the Internet is further illustrated by the day of protest against business that
took place on June 18, 1999. The protests, which were set up to coincide with a meeting
of the G8 in Cologne, Germany, was coordinated by a group called J18 from a web site
inviting people to plan individual actions focusing on disrupting “financial centres,
banking districts and multinational corporate power bases.” Suggested activity included
marches, rallies, and hacking. In London, up to 2,000 anticapitalists coursed through the
city shouting slogans and spray-painting buildings. 44 According to the Sunday Times,
teams of hackers from Indonesia, Israel, Germany, and Canada attacked the computers
of at least 20 companies, including the Stock Exchange and Barclays. More than 10,000
attacks were launched over a five-hour period. 45
During the Kosovo conflict, the Kosova Task Force used the Internet to distribute action
plans to Muslims and supporters of Kosovo. A March 1999 Action Alert, for example,
asked people to organize rallies in solidarity with Kosovo at local federal buildings and
city halls on April 3 at 11 a.m.; organize public funeral prayers; make and encourage
others to make daily calls or send email to the White House asking for Kosovo