Tweet first, then fight

Technology alone will not set us free – but it’s a start. While internet boosters and social media experts frequently overstate the impact of the internet or misunderstand its nature as a social rather than purely technological force, there is much to be said for the political potential of this global network which brings us all together.

Writing recently in forth Jason Walsh complained that the public outburst of support on the internet for Iranians protesting against their government earlier this year achieved nothing meaningful. (1) In itself that is mostly true, but it misses the point that that using Twitter and other social media to express “genuine solidarity with the people of Iran” is at least possible –  even if we agree it hasn’t happened yet.

To avoid disappearing up our own tweets, we need to appreciate what can and can’t be done with social media. It’s certainly not the most important tool when fighting a vicious clerical dictatorship for control of the streets. More traditional tools like gas masks, weapons, smart tactics that help you not to get crushed by riot police and a fighting spirit are far more important. But if we’re not there on the streets, we can use the power of social media to agitate in our own countries, to link up with supporters of democratic revolution. Walsh correctly points out that people in the West did not do this during the Iranian protests. But no-one gave a lead.

I spent a lot of time on Twitter debating the Iranian protests as they happened, challenging corrosive cynicism from people who sneered that turning one’s picture green was useless. Sure, it didn’t do much, but at least it sent a message to people in Iran that thousands upon thousands of people in the West knew what they were doing and wished them well.

Some argued, in the style of the conspiratorial ‘9-11 Truth movement’, that the protesters were nothing but American puppets or that the protests were meaningless because Mousavi was no friend of freedom. Arguing against this kind of cynical non-debate is important – the first just deactivates any idea of radical struggle and the second ignores that it’s not the likes of Mousavi who are important but the mass of people pushing him forward. While that argument has no direct effect on events in Iran, losing them would weaken whatever chance there was of Westerners showing solidarity.

I accept that these debates were not enough. I and others should have taken more of a lead. The most I did was publicise a rally held in my home city of Brisbane, Australia, organised by the local Iranian community. (2) More could – and should – have been done. But if I had done more – if I’d agitated for more people to hit the streets, for more rallies, for more contact between privileged white people like myself and people who’ve come to my country from the Iranian dictatorship – then I would have needed to use Twitter, Facebook and all the rest of it to spread the word about what I was doing.

And let’s remember that the most gut-wrenching image of the Iranian protests – the death of Neda Soltani – was spread via YouTube. (3)

Despite it failings there was one very heartening sign among people using Twitter: an enormous amount of Westerners instinctively supported the protesters. Of course, good feelings and undirected sympathy aren’t enough, but without that support agitators have nothing to work with. Twitterers who supported the Iranians protesting against their regime may not have done enough to support them but that is not the fault of social media. Instead,  it’s the fault of poor understanding and preparation and lack of willingless to take action. These social, human factors can be changed and the next time democratic unrest breaks out in an informer-ridden despotism we can be ready to do more, to properly give a lead to people who want to show solidarity in a more meaningful way than changing the colour of their avatars. ?

(1) Politics for twats, Jason Walsh, October 20, 2009

(2) Iranian protest in Brisbane, Youtube, July 25, 2009

(3) Basij shoots to death a young woman, Youtube, July 20, 2009

David Jackmanson is an activist and blogger from Brisbane, Australia, who’s excited by the modern world and thinks more left-wingers should be, too. His Twitter username is @djackmanson.