At this summer's HOPE conference, Joshua Aaron spoke about ICEBlock, his iPhone app that allows users to anonymously report ICE sightings within a 5 mile radius, and to get notifications when others report ICE sightings near them. You can see the full talk, and the lively/infuriating Q&A, here,
All activism is activism theater if it does not serve to direct counter-battery fire
Mobilization is the spark; organization is the fire. If you have the first and not the latter, you’re not moving the needle. Governments love mobilization because they can co-opt it. They can waste people’s energy via constant mobilization without established organizations.
Aren’t they going to dismantle any organization that works to undermine them ?
Maybe even shortcircuit it covertly to serve their own ends ?
I think the mobilization has to point toward something self-organization, an air-tight logic of action that operated randomnly enough that they don’t see it coming and therefore their bureaucracy can’t stop it or recuperate it
Yep, that’s why the super mainstream organizations putting marches together are always suspicious to me. They get their funding from somewhere and the overarching goal is never 100% clear. Often times it’s good people at the center that aren’t aware of the ulterior motive behind the ones bankrolling it.
Even smaller orgs can be easily manipulated. They often don’t do any real research on people before giving them access to internal information that they could easily send to whoever they are working for. It’s something I wish more activist and other organizations would invest their time into.