Anonymous, a group of hackers, activists and technologists, came to the fore in 2008 when they attacked the church of Scientology. Since then their coordinated collective action has come up against global corporations and supported the Arab revolutionaries, but how much do we know about who they are and what motivates them?
Six years ago Gabriella Coleman, an anthropologist, set out to study the rise of this global phenomenon just as some of its members were turning to political protest and dangerous disruption.
Coleman will be joining us in conversation with Ben Hammersley, presenter of the new BBC World News series Cybercrime with Ben Hammersley, to share her story of becoming an Anonymous confidante, interpreter, and erstwhile mouthpiece. She will be talking about the motivations of the group, the meaning of digital activism and the many facets of culture in the Internet age.
Gabriella Coleman holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she researches, writes about, and teaches on computer hackers and digital activism. She is the author of Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking and most recently Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous.
]]>By Nicole Hunt
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero is scheduled to request the dissolution of Parliament on Monday to make way for early elections on 20 November. Spain was not due to hold elections until March next year, but Zapatero has come under heavy criticism amid debt and budget problems, with persistent rumours that Spain will be the next country to ask for an EU bailout.
In St John’s, Antigua, Kaniel Martin and Avie Howell are set to be sentenced after being found guiltyon 27 July of the murders of Welsh honeymooners Ben and Catherine Mullany exactly two years earlier.
Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko’s abuse of power trial resumes on Tuesday after a 15-day hiatus. Tymoshenko is accused of misspending some $280m while she was Prime Minister in 2009, charges which her supporters say are politically motivated.
Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as his country faces increasing pressure from the IMF, the European Central Bank, domestic trade unions and other European leaders. Papandreou’s government has to come to an agreement with its lending troika to secure the next €8bn tranche of its loan before 10 October, when it’s estimated the country will run out of money to pay its bills.
In Conakry on Wednesday, Guineans mark the two-year anniversary of the 28 September, 2009 stadium massacre in which at least 157 people were killed when security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of people demonstrating against the junta government. The anniversary is the first since President Alpha Condé was elected in November last year, taking power from the leaders of the 2008 coup d’état.
In Manama, 21 Bahraini activists and members of the opposition who were convicted in June of plotting to overthrow the government and collaborating with a terrorist organisation are scheduled to find out whether their appeal against life sentences has been successful.
The verdict is the first of two high-profile decisions the court is expected to make this week; on Thursday, 47 medical staff accused of attempting to topple the monarchy and inciting hatred against the regime learn whether they have been found guilty.
Saudi Arabia holds its second-ever municipal elections on Thursday, which were delayed from 22 September. The polls were finally scheduled earlier this year as an olive branch from the government as fears mounted that the Arab Spring could spread to the country.
Following a Constitutional Court decision earlier this month ruling that Germany’s commitment to the EU bailout fund is legal, the German Parliament votes on a bill approving new powers for the European Financial Stability Facility which will increase its lending capacity and authorise it to buy government bonds.
On Friday, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania delivers the long-awaited judgement in its ‘Government II’ trial, in which four former cabinet ministers are accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trial began in September 2003, and the defendants were acquitted of several charges in October 2005.
It’s a relatively quiet weekend: China celebrates Chinese National Day on Saturday, and the seven Italian scientists charged with manslaughter for failing to warn L’Aquila residents about the April 2009 earthquake return to court.
The next session of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change talks open in Panama City on Sunday.
Closer to home, the Conservative Party autumn conference opens in Manchester, with unions and anti-cuts activists planning a march to protest government policies.
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There has not yet been a full revolution in Egypt, but it will be the sense of optimism and possibility of change that brought the country to its current state that will enable the people to overcome the challenges ahead.
There is a need for massive economic change, the army remains "on top and in the driving seat" but British-Egyptian actor, producer and activist Khalid Abdalla said at the Frontline Club on Tuesday that it was his "duty" to remain optimistic because that is what had changed since people took to the streets on 25 January and toppled President Hosni Mubarak 18 days later.
"Right now, in terms of a revolution, in terms of a revolutionary spirit, the ability to go down into the streets in huge numbers to force sweeping change, to believe that that is possible right now, we are in a hiaitus," said Abdalla.
"There is a confusion right now amongst activists and people who were working to make change as to whether we begin to focus on elections, or do we still focus on many of the important human rights issues, like military trials and freedom of speech."
Brian Whitaker, The Guardian‘s Middle East editor from 2000-2007, who is currently an editor on the paper’s Comment Is Free section, said that when he was researching for his book What’s Really Wrong with the Middle East there was a sense that there was nothing that could be done:
"The real revolutionary change that’s happened is that that has simply gone away. There’s now an attitude that there are things that can be done if enough people get on with it."
Dr Maha Azzam, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House agreed that optimism and energy were "fundamental" in order to carry through change and bring about revolution.
But the situation remains a "mixed picture" because of those elements of society that want security and stability, said Dr Azzam, who said it was important that the activists continue to set the agenda in the face of attempts to quell the opposition:
"The street is in the more powerful position because it can still twist the arm of the military, by which I mean the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, because they are in a vulnerable position. They’re of a dying generation, both in terms of age, but also in terms of its mentality and politics. Each time it’s felt it’s cornered it made concessions. It’s not an easy task to put on the activists, but the street is theirs, the right to protest is a democratic right and so long as they continue down that path, they can embrace thier objectives and push for them."
Rosemary Hollis, professor of Middle East policy studies and director of the Olive Tree Programme at City University, said that it was now "completely beyond the power" of Westerners to control the narrative:
"It already was, and now the Arabs have risen up and said even less so because the revolutions were against the dictators that [the West] kept at its convenience."
But no one in the region is buying the idea that more liveral capitalism the way the Europeans do it is the answer, unless the Europeans recognise that they have had certain advantages structurally, globally that are going to have to be given up now.
… the structural changes that will have to be made will go down very poorly with with the liberal capitalist governments in Europe because they will want to say the poor will have to take the pain in order to restructure the economy and of course the rich have to get richer because you have to encourage them to invest."
Khalid Abdalla agreed that there was a strong relationship between what happened in the Middle East and the crisis of capitalism world over and that what was happening in the Middle East was a "restructuring of discourses" that was forcing the West to reappraise itself, not just its relationships with the region but in many policy areas.
Currently activists are under attack and being accused of being foreign spies or funded by foreign regimes said Abadalla, adding that there were problems with well meaning people coming from the West wanting to help or donate funds.
]]>First of all there is the major issue that coming to Egypt can be unhelpful because right now it is being used politically, but also secondly, I don’t think the West on the whole and its NGOs and policy makers have yet woken up to what the revolutions in the Arab world are telling them to realise about themselves and I think that’s something that will take lots of time.