Pushing Power to the Edges Or to a New Elite?

Evolve Foundation recently came out with a paper on online activism called Pushing Power to the Edges with only barely mentioning Race, Class, or Gender.

Online activism might manage to mobilize millions of middle class white people, led by upper-middle class men who push the Mobilize Button. But is that pushing power to the edges?

I'm reminded of the Zapatistas who are common example of how the Internet can be used by a grassroots group that otherwise wouldn't have much power to acquire international fame and support. But wait a minute! Pratically every communique I read (and I read many of them out load on a college radio show) was written by Subcomandante Marcos. Because he had more privilege that other people in the movement he became a media idol. We ended up reading poetic stories about rainbows, bridges, sea shells, Don Quixote, Alice in Wonderland, and parrots instead of about the conditions of people in the villages who were the most oppressed.

Is pushing power to the edges going to help the hundreds of millions (billions?) of people in the world who don't have electricity, running water, literacy, or phones?

When the bourgeoisie grew more powerful it led to a series of revolutions (French, US) that dethroned the monarchy so that they could have the power. This spirit lives on as our "democratic" governments are controlled by corporations. The promise of democracy was a lie, as social inequality determines the results.

So long as men rule, and women do the household chores (major impediment on leisure time and thus availability for online activism), by providing "easy" access to activism through the internet, we're giving men more power in politics. Men dominate email lists, political blogs, and are writing the online activism applications that do little to nothing to change this fact.

I'm not a total skeptic. I think there will be major gains as people actually do figure out how to push some of the power to the edges. It's just that we cannot ignore Race, Class and Gender if we're making claims about democracy or power.