Book review: Anti-War Activism. New Media and Protest in the Information Age
Written by three British-based scholars - a political scientist, human geographer and sociologist - Anti-War Activism is the first book-length academic analysis of the post 9/11 anti-war movement in the
Focussing on six organisations - Stop the War Coalition, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Faslane 365, Muslim networks, the Quakers and Justice Not Vengeance - the study is based on 60 interviews with activists, including Peace News editor Milan Rai and columnist Maya Evans.
It includes a thorough exploration of a variety of issues, including the evolving media landscape, alliances and fractures within the movement, the use of new media and how activists deal with information overload. Particularly interesting is the authors' examination of the heightened Muslim participation in anti-war activism, which they see both as a positive development and a missed opportunity, pointing out that the interaction and debate between Muslim networks and the rest of the movement has actually been very limited. In addition the book has a useful list of abbreviations, extensive bibliography and a large directory of active anti-war and peace groups.
The problem is that while the book may induce nods of recognition among activists, these same people will learn little, having already encountered and overcome - by trial and error no doubt - most of the issues described. Frustratingly the authors also have a tendency to make blindingly obvious statements as if they were profound utterances of great importance. Just who hadn‘t thought that "the ways in which a group represents campaign messages can be vital to its success" or that "there is a continuum of anti-war activism ranging from the person full-time devoted to the cause to the onlooker who is moved to do little more than sign a petition"?
On top of all this the book is written in extremely dry, controlled academic language, which at best makes reading it something of a chore and at worst produces a study that is effectively inaccessible to all but the most persistent.
Considering its enormous size and influence on the political and social landscape, sadly there has been relatively little written about the anti-war protest that has sprung up against the wars in
Unfortunately, Anti-War Activism is not this book (and to be fair doesn't pretend to be), and is unlikely to inspire anyone to become more involved in anti-war groups. For research purposes only.
Anti-War Activism. New Media and Protest in the Information Age by Kevin Gillian, Jenny Pickerill and Frank Webster is published by Palgrave Macmillan. ian_js@hotmail.com
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Thanks for the review
By Cotton, Miriam at Jun 05, 2009 01:28 AM
Sounds like a useful book, nontheless. Here's a review of another book which tells one of the interesting stories you refer to - albeit this one is based in Ireland where much the same debate about the fracturing of the anti-war movement has also been an issue.
http://www.zmag.org/zbooks/review/133
What's interesting about the story of the Pitstop Ploughshare anti-war action in the context of the book reviewed above is that it was a relative 'success' without in any way relying on or exploiting the potential of new media, other than reporting unfolding events on Indymedia Ireland. Those reports are credited by the author of the book, Harry Browne, as having been an extremely valuable resource for that purpose but their relevance to the action itself is limited. All of which possibly goes to show that an old-fashioned NVDA is still the best and most effective means of protest. As Chomsky says 'never underestimate the difference that even one person can make'.
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