Black Ribbon Campaign

The Black Ribbon Campaign is an anarchist spin-off of the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign. It advocates freedom of speech, especially on the Internet, in spite of state-granted legal free speech rights. People were encouraged to place one of the following images on their website:

The text from the original Black Ribbon Campaign is reproduced below:

Black Ribbon Campaign

The purpose of it is to illustrate that what people value most about the Internet comes from its anarchistic character: the free exchange of information and ideas among people around the world, without the intervention of a governing body.

Capitalists and other authoritarians would like to end this: they want nothing more than attempt to carve up the Internet into an array of corporate/government fiefdoms, to make it just another commodity.

Check out this excellent site for some other variants of the black ribbon.

The Black Banner is a symbol of solidarity among online anarchists. Which brings me to another point...

CENSORSHIP ALERT

Cyber rights activists,

Bennett Haselton, the 18-year-old founder of Peacefire, a teen cyber-rights organizing project, is being threatened with a lawsuit by Solid Oak Software, which markets CYBERsitter blocking software.

Bennett discovered that CYBERsitter's software blocked a number of political sites, including IGC, NOW, and others, and was in the process of drafting a letter to Solid Oak's CEO when the company found out about his efforts and blocked the Peacefire Web site.

There is an article about Bennett's efforts and Solid Oak's response on the HotWired Web site

An article about the blocking software entitled CYBERsitter: Where Do We Not Want You To Go Today? is at this Peacefire site.

I'm sure Bennett would welcome support -- and he may also need pro bono legal advice, since he's being threatened with a lawsuit. The average age of Peacefire's membership is 15, and these young activists deserve our support and encouragement in their political activism.

[From Bennett: just FYI, CYBERsitter didn't block the Greenpeace site at Greenpeace.org, it blocked out the IGC server and there were some Greenpeace materials that were stored there. i never started telling people Greenpeace was blocked, but someone got it mixed up along the way. anyway CYBERsitter has cut me off from their FTP server so i can no longer download the latest version of the filter file and can't check what sites are being blocked anymore. This is breach of contract since i am a fully paid and registered user of CYBERsitter, but what the hell i've got bigger problems from them right now...]

THE QUIET COUP

The Great Internet Swindle has already taken place, since the National Science Foundation announced that they were no longer carrying the backbone of the Internet, which has been transferred to private, corporate networks owned by companies like MCI, Sprint, IBM, and others.

Thus, the information superhighway has become a toll road, folks, owned and operated by a handful of corporations. Ultimately, since ownership means control, we can expect the nature of the 'Net to change over the coming years...doubtless we'll be provided with endless home shopping opportunities, at the expense of meaningful content.

Does this mean that anarchists endorse the NSF, and, therefore, government? It seems paradoxical, but it really isn't. Anarchists do not support government, nor do we support Big Business -- both are autocratic, authoritarian institutions.

However, while the Internet was kept active at the NSF site, the American people at least had the potential to have a voice in how the 'Net was used, since the NSF is part of the US Government, which at least on paper is run by us (although we know this is not practiced). But the potential is there, and the accountability, therefore, is also there. If we didn't like the way the government was handling the 'Net, we could make a public issue out of it and have an impact on it.

This is not the case with private companies -- they are accountable only to their shareholders, and typically, only to those with the largest shares, who have a controlling interest in said companies. It's inconvenient for a public outcry to be raised against private firms, but that's all it is, ultimately. They are not democratic institutions, and as such, are not accountable to the people at large. If that capitalistic elite wants to turn the Internet into a titanic shopping mall, we will have no say in this, no opportunity to approve or disapprove of this move.

What was once ostensibly public property has been turned to de facto private property, a commodity to be used as the owners of this commodity see fit -- most likely to reduce the 'Net into a tame advertising medium like television or radio.

Thus, it is anarchistic to oppose this changing of hands regarding the Internet backbone, because it is a move from an allegedly democratic system to a bona fide fascistic system -- the capitalist corporation. So, it was a move from a bad situation to a worse situation, rather than a move from good to bad.

THE ENCLOSURE OF THE INTERNET

A fitting analogy of what happened to the Internet in April 1996 is that of the Louisiana Purchase in US history, with the US government in the role of the French, the assorted companies in the role of the US, and with the current netizens cast, unfortunately, in the role of the Native Americans.

The big difference is that Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the young US government (which wasn't France's to begin with, but why bother with trifles where property is concerned?), whereas the enclosure of the Internet was garnered free of charge! I'm sure the laissez-faire capitalists approve of a handout like this! It's the Deal of the Century!

Other analogies that come to mind are the lavish handouts of public land by the US government to the "laissez-faire" unfair.html railroad industry</a>, in the order of multiple millions of dollars worth of land given free, and countless acres.

Still another apt analogy is the enclosure of public lands that occurred in Europe before the "inevitable" rise of capitalism, where previously communal land was enclosed and seized by local propertarians, thus depriving people of their sustenance and allowing for the creation of a landed aristocracy.

We see the government (NSF) handing over the Internet backbone, at NO COST, to a handful of powerful corporate, capitalist interests. What that means is every one of us on the Internet is now ON PRIVATE PROPERTY!

Of course, our landlords haven't really settled in yet; what they are doing now is working to tame the wilderness of the Internet -- doubtless to turn it into one titanic shopping mall, the capitalist's view of progress!

But we're seeing the first inklings of what's to come -- filterware (e.g., censorware) programs, Communications Decency Acts, ratings systems for content on the Web, and of course endless invocations of the scarcity of bandwidth, doubtless making it necessary to boot off us little guys so Ford, Exxon, or Coke can have their Web access broadened!

Private power in the US is completely unaccountable -- now that the Internet is in the hands of the capitalists, they can do what they want with it, and the US government will protect their holdings, just as it has allowed them in the past with the other mass media -- the papers, radio, television. They will use this medium to control what you see, hear, and think. When you look at the other media, when you see what has been done to them, in the interests of social control and private wealth, you can expect much the same process to occur in the Internet, as the years go by. Then the Net will be as safe (and lame) as the rest of the mass media, safely tucked in the pockets of the ruling class, like the rest of society.

Of course, this is not an inevitable process. But it will continue to occur if you sit back and let it occur.

ANARCHIST BLACK

Incidentally, the color black has historically been attributed to anarchists, just as the color red is associated with Communists around the world.

The Black Flag has been associated with anarchism longer than the Circle A. Learn more about the black flag and its historical link to anarchism.

Anarchists also made use of red in conjunction with black in their banners in the late 1800s as a way of demonstrating their opposition to capitalism (represented by the red) and their opposition to government (represented by the black). The Spanish CNT's banners combined these colors in this manner.

Note that anarchists don't have a formal flag, nor do we place much stock in symbols -- these are authoritarian devices meant to move the heart, not the mind. Where anarchists are concerned, we always place emphasis on the content on ideas, rather than taking refuge in symbols and abstractions.