<amarc-1> telecoms & strategy

[Sean O Siochru <sean@nexus.ie> (by way of Bram Dov Abramson <bram@tao.ca>)]

Hi all, 

My name is Sean O Siochru and I am a member of NEXUS Research, a workers
coop based in Dublin, Ireland and engaging in research and development
activities (www.iol.ie/nexus).  I am involved in community media (Chair of
Community Media Network in Ireland), and work with many others in various
international efforts to bring about progressive media change (Platform,
Congress, PCC, etc.)  By day, I do consulting in telecommunications,
especially universal service and internet use, for international and UN
organisations. 

I have suffered for my late entry into this discussion by, rashly, trying
to speed-review all contributions.  I feel like a small boat thrown about
in a storm of ideas.  It is difficult to find a starting point for comment,
other than on the process of the virtual conference itself - if nothing
else, I think this is the first time probably the majority of us have
shared an arena together, even if it does sometimes seem we are talking
earnestly past each other.  Still, the cumulative effect, if not of strict
logical debate, is one of excitement in participation and a sense of common
cause and I am glad to be part of it.

The diversity of concerns voiced is striking - they seem to pour out from
all directions.  One could be forgiven for thinking that, despite shared
general fears on media and communication, we cannot 'get on the same page'
(as Michael Eisenmenger puts it so well) in terms of strategy and
collective action. 

But there is obviously a lot of common thinking just beneath the surface
variety. 

There is growing concern to ensure that whatever we do together, it begins
with struggles of real people in communities organising together; and that
it ends there too in terms of really benefiting all people.   Sustainable,
progressive, change in media and communication must mean that people gain
greater control over production, content, transmission, and all aspects of
our media   It is obvious that such change cannot be brought about by an
elite operating on behalf of the majority, no matter how well meaning and
no matter the institutional power base on which they stand.  If
democratisation of media is what is needed, then only people themselves, by
taking collective power into their hands, can achieve it for themselves.
Nobody can exercise democracy on behalf of others. 

Thus, implicitly at least, we nearly all agree that what is needed is a
'social movement' of some kind.  How can we form this? 

Initially, as activists or at least concerned 'passivists', we look to our
own constituencies, whatever groups we are involved with or sympathise
with.  We need mechanisms, tools, slogans, arguments, ideas, leaflets... to
reach out to our neighbours in struggle - those involved in gender, the
environment, indigenous peoples, labour, and other arena where people are
fighting for their rights. (Rafael's comment on translating a right to
communicate into a human right is relevant here.)

But, especially in the case of media and communication, we need to go
further and, to put it in crude terms, to stir the masses into recognising
the key role that media and communication have is shaping our present, and
even more, in limiting our range of possible futures.  

Yes, the locus of power is shifting onto the global level and away from
national arenas, and from governmental and (at least marginally) democratic
intergovernmental organisations of the UN, towards private sector and elite
bodies such as the WTO and OECD.  However, their headquarters are not
necessarily the main arenas in which our movement can exercise power.
Certainly, I agree we should be out there at the gates of the WTO and
elsewhere demanding change - but these are only ploys to gain wider
attention among people in the public sphere, and as a rallying and
organising point for activists.  

The real action, the real persuasion, the real power, must still come at
local and national levels.  Indeed, the less democratic the structures
themselves become (for instance the shift in telecommunications from the
ITU to the WTO), the less effective conventional means of lobbying national
delegates can be, and the more we must work on influencing the overall
environment in which governments and world organisations operate.  i.e. the
more we must put the issue of media and communication on the public agenda,
hotly debated, so that people all over begin to gain a deep and critical
understanding.    

Of course, a first step in doing this is to recognise the 'masses' are not
'the masses', but individuals and groups in different parts of the world
and from different backgrounds, all with their own distinct but overlapping
concerns.  Thus, any movement must not alone cope with a diversity of
positions in relation to the media and communications (especially regional
circumstances and cultures, of which this virtual conference has produced
abundant evidence ), it must in fact build on that diversity, using it as a
weapon in the struggle. 

________________

Having just read over my note so far, let me apologise for slipping into
sloganeering.  Sometimes, the gap is so large between day-to-day opposition
(and frustration) and effective collective action that we slip into the
abyss of cliches instead of truly bridging it.  

Indeed, much of the value of our discussion so far is that concrete
suggestions are beginning to emerge on practical ways of cooperating, and
this is great. Count me in as foot soldier on any of them, and let me add
another:

For some time now, I and others in the Platform have been working with
(against!) the ITU, trying to get them to open their doors to NGOs.  We
have recently met with some limited success, by having a Focus Group
approved at the ITU - Development Sector Quadrennial Conference in Malta,
and they have also now agreed to research the issue.  I can supply details
to anyone interested, but essentially (as Rapporteur to this Focus Group)
I am seeking CONCRETE EXAMPLES of how local NGOs (including community
radio) can/have benefited from telecommunications; and also how
NON-INVOLVEMENT IN THE ITU MAY CONSTRAIN LOCAL RADIO AND OTHER NGOS (e.g.
around spectrum allocation, standards, etc.).  For me personally, the
efforts to prise open the doors of the ITU have at the same time revealed
how far we, as local to national NGO, have to go in even understanding the
strategic issue - a key problem with me is that if the ITU flings open its
doors, what will we go rushing in demanding?    

For me, this reaffirms that we still need to build some kind of network,
including a knowledge sharing/brokering activities (in the current jargon);
some broader entity that can bind us together into an effective movement. 

As some of you know, I have been asked to coordinate efforts around a World
Congress on Media and Communication (another suggested title is:  Civil
Society Summit on Media and Communication - or a Popular Coalition on Media
and Communication).  I deliberately did not introduce this at the start of
my comment, since, really, mentioning a specific event such as this can
often close down discussion as it seems to exclude so many other options.
But let me state it clearly:  The Congress idea itself is just a banner, a
call.  It is intended simply as a point around which we can explore the
best way to proceed together, based on the very simple, and I think
generally shared,  ideas outlined above:

-  Only a 'social movement' (I still must keep inverted commas) can effect
real change; 

-  We must work together and build a gradually widening constituency, and
eventually entering the general public imagination with well thought out,
but understandable ideas;

-  We need to deal with, even encourage,  the diversity of circumstances
and thought with this movement, based on the diversity of people realities
in relation to the media;

-  Concrete events and targets must emerge around which we can rally.
There is strength in numbers, but these numbers must sometime, somewhere
coalesce into something bigger, before we become powerful.


Sean 
 

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Sean O Siochru		tel:  +353 1 473 0599 office
NEXUS Research	tel: +353 1 2720 739  home office 
14 Eaton Brae 		fax:  +353 1 473 0597 office
Shankill			fax: +353 1 2720 034 home office
Co. Dublin		e-mail: sean@nexus.ie
Ireland			Web site: http://www.iol.ie/nexus


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