<nettime> Hacktivism, Hybridity, and Global Resistance

[Stefan Wray <sjw210@is8.nyu.edu>]

Hacktivism, Hybridity, and Global Resistance in 1999 and Beyond
by Stefan Wray
Electronic Disturbance Theater
New York, NY
October 2, 1998

Hacktivism -> hacking + activism

Hybridity  -> virtual + real

Within the past few days, we have been contacted by someone from the Cult
of the Dead Cow (CDC) and someone from Reclaim The Streets (RTS). CDC
informs us that by the end of this month they will post a new web site
devoted to hacktivism and are interested in further collaboration. RTS
informs us that in June 1999 they are calling global street actions
specifically targeting the financial sector to coincide with the next G8
meeting in Germany. They too are interested in further collaboration.

It appears as if the meme of hacktivism, of which Electronic Civil
Disobedience is just one component, is beginning to spread. Both
journalists from Wired and the New York Times have been talking to us about
this subject just this week. It also seems that the people dedicated to
global disturbance on the street want to move onto the Net's terrain.

Combine all this with proposals for International Bank Withdrawal Day in
1999 and an International Hacktivism Gathering in New York at the end of
1999 and we begin to see a picture emerging that points toward heightened
global resistance to the global neoliberal economy next year.

The Tactical Media conference in Amsterdam next March will focus in part on
new campaigns. This gathering can be an important vector, point of
convergence, for bringing together the hacktivism thread, the ECD thread,
the Reclaim the Streets thread, the International Bank Withdrawal day
thread, and all other threads associated with Y2K, millenia paranoia, and
global economic collapse.

We can see this as possibility:

January 1, 1999. Celebration Y2K - 1.00; Fifth Anniversary of Zapatistas

June 1999. Reclaim the Streets; Reclaim the Net
           Global Actions Against G8 Meeting in Germoney 

October 1999. International Bank Withdrawal Day. Take The Money And Run!
              Summon the Ghosts of Black October

January 1, 2000. Y2K International Hacktivism Gathering and Action.
                 Global Hack Against the Global Economy

This ends with the signature phrase from someone in Reclaim the Streets:

<THE RESISTANCE WILL BE AS TRANSNATIONAL AS CAPITAL
<
<"the collapse of the global marketplace would be a traumatic event with
<unimaginable consequences. Yet I find it easier to imagine than the
<continuation of the present regime." George Soros
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