Electronic Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice

VIS149

Winter 2009

Room: MANDE 103

Wednesday 3:00p - 5:50p

Professor: Ricardo Dominguez

Email: rrdominguez@ucsd.edu

Office Hours: Wed. 1pm to 2pm (CAL IT2/Atkinson Hall 2nd fl - 2129)

Class Description:

Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) as a theory will be compared with the multiple forms of ECD practice that have emerged since the early 1990's. We will investigate how ECD intersects with earlier definitions of civil disobedience (CD) by Henry David Thoreau to Ghandi. The class will also examine the trajectories of tactical media, digital zapatismo, hacktivism, cyberwar and social netwar that arose at the same time as ECD. Core questions for the class will be: is ECD a useful tactic for contemporary activism and if so how and when; and, to what degree have post 9/11 politics effected the practice of ECD. What new tactics and strategies have emerged with social networking and distributed video models. The readings and examples of ECD practice will only be on-line. Among the E-books on ECD that we will read sections from: The Electronic Disturbance and Electronic Civil Disobedience by Critical Art Ensemble; also, Hackitivism: network_art_activism by Electronic Disturbance Theater; and The Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico by David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla.

Grading Policies

Final Grade Evaluation:

25% Assignments 1 Notebook Diary & One Midterm - 5 page essay (MLA Style).

50% Attendance and Participation

25% Final Exam - Take home essay - 10 page essay (MLA Style).

Attendance:

You will be expected to attend every class. If you have more than 2 unexcused absences, your final grade will drop 1/2 a letter for every additional unexcused absence. Two unexcused lateness will be considered an absence.

NEW LINKS - ON CD, ECD ACTIONS OR ANALYSIS DURING OUR CLASS:

Students with Take Back NYU began an occupation of the Kimmel Center on campus at
approximately 10 pm Wednesday evening (2/19). They are calling for a solidarity rally
outside and for more people to come down and help out. A group of 50+ students took over
the cafeteria in the Kimmel student center and released a set of demands. Their demands
are available here on their web site. They are also calling for a rally at noon tomorrow
outside of the Kimmel building. We will be posting video shortly from outside the occupation, so stay tuned and check back.

CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFO AND VIDEOS
http://www.newschoolinexile.com/index.htm

Huge crowds join French strikes-Thursday, 29 January 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7857435.stm

Support the Last Enero Zapatista Event
Friday, January 30th
6 p.m.
Groundwork Books
0323 UCSD Student Center, La Jolla 92037
Old Student Center between Revelle and Muir
A screening of the film
The Fourth World War (bignoisefilms.com)

Then…

La Otra San Diego* will be here to talk about Zapatismo, struggles
in San Diego and how you can get involved. *La Otra San Diego is a coalition
of local collectives, organizations, and individuals that are adherents to
La Otra Campana (the Other Campaign). We are working from below and to the
left to create a world in which many worlds fit.
http://otrasd.insurreccion.org
http://groundwork.ucsd.edu

Worldwide Economic Protests and Riots

Credit Crunch and Recession sparks protests and riots
Economic related protests and riots are occuring around the world
from Iceland to China. The mainstream media in the U.S. gives relatively
little or no coverage to these events. On January 23, 2009, the Prime
Minister of Iceland, Geir Haarde resigned from office following several
months of protests over the banking collapse and credit squeeze. The
resignation of the Minister of Business Affairs followed two days later.
Economic conditions in Iceland and other parts of the world continue to
deteriorate as the effects of the credit crisis affect the general economy.
The world economy appears to be sliding deeper into recession and possibly something worse.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Worldwide-Economic-Protests-and-Riots

CD in Washington D.C at the Start of the recent War in Gaza

University in Exile Occupation Wins Major Victory
over University Administration in 3rd Day (3 am)

After more than two weeks of concerted actions, students in the occupation were able to win
significant victories in the ongoing struggle to improve the New School. Those concessions
include an agreement not to press charges or impose academic punishments, the implementation
of a Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) committee within the university, more autonomy and
power for Student Senate to communicate with the student body, more representation on the
Board of Trustees for students and faculty, and finally the creation of more student study
space on campus. A full list of the final demands between the student negotiators and the
administration will be posted here shortly! In solidarity. This struggle will continue.
This is one more step. Onward.

MORE INFOhttp://www.newschoolinexile.com/archive.htm

Electronic Civil Disobedience in Solidarity with Greek Anarchists - Dec. 31st, 2008
http://post.thing.net/node/2457

JOIN THE VIRTUAL SIT-IN FOR LOVE! JOIN OUR LOVE-IN!! - NOVEMBER 20th to NOVEMBER 23rd, 2008
http://bang.calit2.net//dr.-dominguezs-blog/join-the-virtual-sit-in-for-love!-join-our-love-in!!-2.html

January 7th - Introduction
Class Over View.

Watch Ghandi

January 14th- Civil Disobedience (CD)

Read:
Henry David Thoreau - 1849

Civil Disobedience

http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil.html

Read:
Mark Shepard - 1990

Civil Disobedience, Nonviolence, and Satyagraha in the Real World

http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/Myths.html

January 21st - NO CLASS - Electronic Disturbance

Critical Art Ensemble - 1994

Electronic Disturbance (Read Chapters 2, 4 and 6)
http://www.critical-art.net/books/ted/index.html

January 28th - Digital Zapatistas

Dr. Harry Cleaver - February, 1994
The Chiapas Uprising and the Future of Class Struggle

http://www.eco.utexas.edu/facstaff/Cleaver/chiapasuprising.html

Jason Wehling - March, 1995
Netwars and Activists: Power on the Internet

http://www.spunk.org/library/comms/sp001518/Netwars.html

Sites to Visit:

Chase Manhattan Memo: Chase Manhattn Bank Urges Zapatista Wipe-Out

EZLN (Zapatistas On-Line)
Zapatistas in Cyberspaces

http://otrasd.insurreccion.org

http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/

http://chiapas.indymedia.org

Febraury 4th - Electronic Civil Disobedience
Critical Art Ensemble - 1995
Electronic Civil Disobedience (Chapter 1 and 2).

http://www.critical-art.net/books/ecd/index.html

February 11th - Digital Zapatistas 2

Dr. Harry Cleaver - 1998
A Contribution to the Discussion of Electronic Civil Disobedience

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/harrycontrib.html

Performance Art in a Digital Age - 1998
http://www.thing.net/~rdom/nyu/ECDperformance.doc

Febraury 18th - Social Netwar

MID TERM DUE 5 Pages.

RAND - 1998
Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico (Chapter 2, 4 and 6)

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR994/

The Strength of Weak Ties Revisted
Site to Visit
Electronic Disturbance Theater

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html

Febraury 25th - Social Netwar 2

Dr. Dorothy E. Denning - 1999
Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism

http://www.iwar.org.uk/cyberterror/resources/denning.htm
Dr. Jill Lane - 2000
Digital Zapatistas

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ucsd/DigitalZapatistas.pdf

March 4th - Hacktivism

Mapping ECD 2001

Steal This Modem
A Transparent and Civil Act of Disobedience
http://post.thing.net/node/304

Hight Court Says Online Demonstration is Not Force
http://post.thing.net/node/1370

March 11th - What Next?

mobileactive.org

You Tube Actions

FINAL PAPER DUE - March 18th

MORE READINGS:

Border Hacks - Rita Raley

Hacktivism and the Future of Political Participation - Alexandra Whitney Samuel

Virtual Non-Violence - Andrew Calabrese

Resistance Studies Network

'Cyber terrorists'

Toronto ‘hactivists’ benefit from grant

More Suggested Books:

William Bogard, The Simulation of Surveillance (1996)