Alternative forms of organization (specifically the Internet)

[Dystisis]

I am interested in cultural phenomena connected to the Internet, such as this very network you are currently browsing. So I decided that perhaps we could make a thread to discuss the possibility of using the Internet as a tool for communication, and organization, with which to inspire action.

One recent case of the Internet being capable of causing large-scale action is of course the group Anonymous. It spread like fire in the wind, most people who browse the Internet on a regular basis were subject to some form of propaganda made by the groups anonymous contributors. Here is an example:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ

The group inspired people to get on the streets and protest the organization of Scientology. Which they did, all over the world, and the events were broadcast on many news channels worldwide.

So, my question to you is; do you consider it possible that something similar could be done in regards to creating bigger changes worldwide? Perhaps something which could potentially trigger popular revolution and economic change. There are many causes that regular people using the Internet would agree with us on, such as Net neutrality and Filesharing, which are both escalating issues. In many cases the technological progress, and specifically the freedom of regular people to take use of it, is hindered by capitalism.

More specifically perhaps, I am interested in the possibility of using the Internet as an international tool of communication during global revolution, as a form of organization. Perhaps this could eliminate any need of vanguardism, the party platform, etc. and secure a more global uprising free of corruption. What do you think of this?

[jetpen]

We need emotion to become organized. And the internet has been emotionless. We need voice chat and pictures of ourselves and avatars with which we act out social rituals, only then will our social instincts become activated and allow us to form real bonds and a sense of community. Would you be willing to fight alongside me, anomal, internet poster? I doubt it. Similar to the reason we help strangers we see with our own eyes but we can watch the news passively about faraway strangers and not feel like helping them.

Demonstrations of power can be organized online. Flashmobs; the opposite of terrorism, organizing a revolutionary cell that under the cover of darkness builds someone a home, or fixes something that a government has ignored. I think that once an online group actually starts doing things in real life, real important things, that the whole mass consciousness will start to look to what that online group is doing. Demonstrations of power could snap people out of the trance of watching life on CNN, looking to politicians to solve problems; will the UN send food aid or not? What if an online group could charter a ship, send food, ignore the whole political theater? Would that make us "actors on the global stage" instead of just watchers?

[Kami]

We need emotion to become organized. And the internet has been emotionless.
bullshit. Are you saying you've never felt emotion on the internet?

We need voice chat and pictures of ourselves and avatars with which we act out social rituals, only then will our social instincts become activated and allow us to form real bonds and a sense of community.
The pictures is a bad idea; internet anonymity is powerful. the social rituals simply seems pointless, and voice chat is already here (http://www.skype.com)

Would you be willing to fight alongside me, anomal, internet poster? I doubt it. Similar to the reason we help strangers we see with our own eyes but we can watch the news passively about faraway strangers and not feel like helping them.
Which is naturally why so much money was raised when the tsunami hit. Really, that's simply not true.

organizing a revolutionary cell that under the cover of darkness builds someone a home, or fixes something that a government has ignored.
Interesting idea, but unfeasable; I certainly don't have extra money for such a large amount of materials, and I doubt a donation run would work for anything more than a one-off.

What if an online group could charter a ship, send food, ignore the whole political theater? Would that make us "actors on the global stage" instead of just watchers?
That'd probably get you shot.

[Robespierre Richard]

Well hey, I've been very active in Chanology for a few months and with some other people am planning the ideas for a 'Project Takeoff' to spread info about what socialism actually is and other stuff. Please reply if interested.

[Organic Revolution]

No organizing potential on the internet. Absolute shit.

[cenv]

Well, I wonder how many people here learned what they know about communism and were "converted" on the Internet? Probably a lot.

The Internet provides us with a great opportunity to get our ideas out, since we don't have the resources to mass produce propaganda in print form. I think it's pretty clear that if we ever get this damn revolution on the road, capitalism's technological innovations will provide us with the tools to (a) break the bourgeois ideological apparatus, and (b) construct an efficient democratically planned economy. It all goes back to the capitalists selling us the rope to hang them with.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ Um, the print form is grossly overrated these days, anyway. People are turning away from newspapers and TV media and towards the Internet. The organization that I'm helping out is planning to have an online newspaper.

The best thing about the Internet is that the comrades could easily be on the US East Coast. They wouldn't have been able to adopt "Social Proletocracy," "Social-Labour Democracy," and "full workers' ownership and control of the economy as a means to end the exploitation of labour" (the third being the purpose of the organization) without this Internet medium, which has enabled me to communicate this to them.

Moreover, comrades tend to forget the Internet as a means of furthering theoretical development. I couldn't afford Lord-knows-how-many volumes of Marx, Engels, Kautsky, Lenin, etc. The Marxists Internet Archive - although with a heavy Trot bias - has enabled me to develop further on the theoretical front. Google Books is also of great help (Lars Lih, Boris Kagarlitsky, etc.).

[BIG BROTHER]

the internet is valuable because its cheap, quick, easy to use. But if you're trying to organize someone who you have never meet before is not good. Is more efficient for educational purposes.

[gla22]

The internet should be used to inform people about what socialism really is.For educational purposes.