On Friday night, while celebrating the end of the Living on the Edge Conference, and the start of the Edgefest Unconference, I was chatting to other Edgeryders about Greece. After some discussion, we were joined by two people from Greece, and after more discussion we decided that on Sunday 17th June - the last day of Edgefest and the day of the 2nd Greek Election of 2012 (#ekloges12) - we would encourage Edgeryders to express their solidarity with people living in greece by sending photo messages over the internet. At lunchtime on Sunday we did this; see the website for the resulting photos: http://greecesolidarity.posterous.com/. I have pasted the press release we wrote in the comments below, and it is also available on the website.
In this report I want to talk a little about the reasons for this action, and collate some thoughts and resources on the related issues.
So, why did we take this action? Why did we want to do express solidarity with people living in Greece?
Firsly, I was concerned that we organise some action by Edgeryders that would ensure the community made the journey not only from online social network to offline IRL (real life) social network, but into the streets! Many of us have discussed building new networks and practical projects together following the conferences, but despite the impressive testimony of Mike Wozniak in taking opposition to ACTA to the streets in Poland, there was little discussion of how Edgeryders might take public political action together. We wanted to start with something everyone could feel comfortable with, so we decided to take individual photos (with an option for anonymity) of people holding signs expressing solidarity.
Secondly, several of us were growing increasingly concerned with the demonization of people living in Greece - both by the mainstream media and politicians across europe who were using the prejudices of “lazy” and “tax-dodging” greeks, rather than the failures and corruption of financial markets, bank(er)s, international institutions and governments, to explain the crisis, and by right-wing parties in Greece with regard to some of the people living there (ie, Fascist party Golden Dawn and others blaming problems on immigrants, again, rather than governments, banks and international institutions).
Thirdly, we contrasted this demonisation with the positive experience of the conference. As Edgeryders, and at Living on The Edge, people from a variety of different countries of europe, and indeed further afield, had come together; treating each other with respect and dignity, and ignored the ‘borders’ that appear to divide us.
Fourthly, we heard a lot about the potential worsening of the crisis in Greece, and how we as Edgeryders might help to improve resilience there (particularly of health services). Yet we felt that those of us living in other countries also faced worsening crises, and the need for greater resilience. We felt that we can face these crises best by working together - as one placard said: “We are all in the same boat”, the present of Greece may well turn out to be our future.
Fifth, there were also people at the conference from Iceland, a country that took a different response to financial crisis. We wanted to raise critical questions about the causes of financial and economic crisis, democratic control, and austerity policies.
Finally, we accidentally discovered a beautiful statue of the Greek goddess Athena near the unconference (Place d’Athene in Strasbourg). We thought this was a sign that we should take action together, and would be a great place to gather. It also linked nicely to our discussions about the things we owe Greece (though we had an interesting debate about this) - and the way other countries still possess treasures that rightly belong in Greece.
I now provide some responses to the questions of the ‘Living Together’ campaign brief:
“What can those of us in other countries do to challenge stereotypes about and discrimination against people living in other nations?”
We can assert that we feel differently - that we do not accept the stereotypes, that we know they are created to divide us, that we want to LIVE TOGETHER, that we ignore artificial ‘borders’ when we make friends and establish communities working together for common goals.
“How do you define yourself and perceive others in online environments? What helps, what doesn’t help in building resilient networks?”
Supposedly I am ‘European’, ‘British’, ‘English’, ‘Jewish’… but these identifies are not very important to me. I’m also a “cyclists”, a “vegan”, an “economist”, but again, I do always enjoy being identified primarily by these labels. I am a human being, that is imporant.
On the internet, who needs to know what country you are from? When online, we can ignore the divisive implications of these identities, and collaborate together on the basis of our shared common humanity.
Yet in real life, it does matter which country you live in: your economic, social and political situation, your rights to free expression…
An important thing we discussed at both Edgeryders conferences was the value of community in increasing the resilience of places: the commitment to mutual aid, and social solidarity can be crucial in ensuring people work together to help each other out of crisis, rather than fighting each other for scraps when things go wrong.
“How do you build your social network?”
When online, we share our thoughts on the basis of shared humanity (everyone is notionally ‘equal’ as long as they have access) and shared interests (the best example perhaps being the twitter hashtag), but I feel communities are still usually more powerful when they have at least met once in real life (IRL), when human emotions of trust and empathy can develop through face-to-face contact, and nuances of body language, tone of voice and so on are easier to spot. When online, taking action together can feel limited to ‘clicktivism’, which frequently appears a passive and ineffecive way to campaign. IRL, we can not only talk together, but act publicly together. History tells us that it is often (usually?) necessary to take to the streets to achieve our shared goals.
“What about the dangers, i.e. related to commercial, corporate-owned, centralised social networks, how do you manage these?”
The danger here is of nationalism, xenophobia, racism. How do we manage this? Again, I do not know the answer - please respond with comments.
Though we undertook our original intended action, I hope this is not the end of Edgeryder Solidarity, with either the people living in Greece, and perhaps people elsewhere as well. I would like this space on the Edgeryders platform to be one for comment and propoals on the following:
Which forms of action do people (especially people living in Greece) think would be helpful to challenge negative stereotypes?
What can we share that will help the people living in Greece cope?
What do we think are the causes of the problems in Greece? How do we think they could best be solved?
What can we do to learn about, and where appropriate support, the demands made by social and political movements in Greece?
Finally, here are some resources - things I have seen that have made me want to discuss this with other people:
Video - “Crisis: Don’t believe the lies!” (embedded below)
Photo-reports - “Massive Anti-Fascist Protests Across Greece”: Massive Anti Fascist protests across Greece – In the global war between rich and poor,, and “Athens Immigrant workers protest, March 17th”: Athens immigrant workers protest. Saturday March 17th – In the global war between rich and poor,
Journal article - “Who Owes Whom? Citizens’ Audit as a Response to the Sovereign Debt Crisis” by Molly Scott Cato: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2071675 (free download)
Feature-length documentary film - “Catastroika”: www.catastroika.com/ “Privatisation goes public”
Feature-length documentary film - “Debtocracy”: Cracked • Cracked (“For the first time in Greece, a documentary produced by the audience. “Debtocracy” seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions, sidelined by the government and the dominant media.”)
Book - “Debt, the first 5000 years” by David Graeber. Wikipedia entry: Debt: The First 5000 Years - Wikipedia
Just for starters!
