anie TombariNet resultsWHEN J O H N L E N N O N AND YOKO ONO INVITED THEmedia to their Amsterdam hotel in May 1969, journaliststhought they'd find the honeymooners consummating theirmarriage over pot and rock 'n' roll. Instead, the couple hadhunkered down and bunked up for seven days of what cameto be known as the "Bed-In for Peace."

I don't want to "bed-in" with anyone for a cause, and Idon't want to attend peace rallies with thousands of peopleeither. I want to be in bed with my laptop and high speedwireless connection to give peace a chance.

From one point of view, the internet iseverything Lennon was against - it's a con-sumer's virtual Mecca veiled in promises thatwe can look younger, smell better and getthe hourglass figure of our Betty Boop Ava-tar. But, at the same time, the internet isn'towned by Time Warner (yet).

"In a way, the internet carries to its logicalconclusion a trend identified since the 19605," writes SidneyTarrow in his 2005 book The New Transnational Activism, "asdecentralized networks of activists began to take the place ofthe cumbersome, expensive-to-maintain bureaucratic orga-nizations of the past."

In the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, the highly ef-fective Zapatista National Liberation Army shifted some ofits focus from armed struggle to an internet-reliant cam-paign to raise international awareness about the oppressivetreatment of indigenous peoples. The ever-sawy Zapatistaleader Subcomandante Marcos has, in a sense, traded inhis automatic weapon for YouTube. In addition to theirgrassroots activity in Chiapas, the Zapatistas successfullylinked to the anti-globalization movement, a feat facilitat-ed through strong social networks created on the internet.That kind of networking is a big deal: transnational socialmovements don't just happen without mobilization across

I WANT TO BE IN BEDWITH MY LAPTOPAND HIGH SPEED

WIRELESS CONNEC-TION TO GIVE PEACE

A CHANCE.

national borders, and the internet is often the main bridge.In some ways, globalization's cyber-sidekick, the internet,is helping the anti-globalization movement, and providinga peaceful means for the battle. We can't sing "Give Peace aChance" and hold hands in cyberspace, but we can't shootone another either.

So instead of bullets sailing through the air, like-mindedgrassroots groups form international networks over the web- whether the hosting website has a banner ad for Mercedes

Benz or not. The internet lets us grab the bul-ly's arm, and take a few jabs at him with hisown limb every now and again. But which ofus gets to take those shots?

Too often it is someone who looks like me- white, middle class and from the GlobalNorth, hands toasty warm from the heat ofmy laptop, writing letters to government of-ficials in my pyjamas at noon, while those in

the Global South still live within the gaps of technology. Thisis where the internet fails; it may actually decrease equalitywhile trying to achieve it.

But to yank out the ethernet cord would be to ignorethose activists who rely on the internet - because of freespeech prohibition, resource limitations or fear - to get theirmessage out. The internet is not the atom bomb. We don'tneed total disarmament.

In December 1969, the Lennons posted a billboard inNew York's Times Square that read, "War is over! If youwant it - Happy Christmas from John and Yoko." Put that inan online banner ad. Let's just see how many hits it gets.

Stephani Tombari is a writer from Burlington, Ontario. She iscurrently a graduate student looking at the internet as a tool formobilization around the global food crisis.

F A L L 2008 [49]