Our research team is traveling the West Coast of the U.S., interviewing many amazing horizontal participant-leader women of occupy! Beginning December 12, PI Megan Boler landed in Los Angeles and has since met and interviewed six inspiring and diverse women in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, and soon more in Oakland and San Francisco. Team members Emil Marmol and Christina Nitsou will also be doing interviews with Occupy women in southern California this month.
Our interviews focus on women’s experiences as central participants in this movement of horizontal leadership, and how and when issues of gender and race are discussed as central to the goals and/or process of the movement. We are particularly interested in women’s roles in admin of social media and communications for Occupy, and whether there is evidence of new forms of feminism or women’s liberation movements. Interview questions include: What were your hopes and motivations when you participating in the Occupy Movement? Are there particular philosophies, books, theories, documentaries of guidance/guidelines that Occupy participants frequently reference? Have you witnessed cross-generational fertilization going on between veteran activist and younger new activists?
Check in soon for our preliminary finding from these 12 interviews with #occupywomen!
Averie from the Boler Research Team 2012-13 here, with an update on a fascinating social movement taking Canada by storm today. This is especially relevant given our current research into the role of women and feminist organizing in the Occupy movement.
**It’s important to note that many feel the media has been slow to catch up on this movement, as it really began taking place with First Nations protests over the last few months, or even the last year.**
From what I can glean from Twitter and other news sources, protests also took place today in:
Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Edmonton, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, the Yukon, and the NorthWest Territories.
There was also a flash mob in Sault Ste Marie, and solidarity action taking place in the US and the UK.
The movement:Â
Idle No More is a fairly recent, primarily Canadian movement, which snowballed from the activism of one group of First Nations women in Saskatchewan earlier this month.
According to the idlenomore.com:
“The focus is on grassroots voices, treaty and sovereignty, it began in the early part of October when discussing Bill C 45. All 4 women knew that this was a time to act, as this bill and other proposed legislation would affect not only Indigenous people but also the lands, water and the rest of Canada.
With the focus on the most urgent bill knowing it would initiate attention to all other legislation, the 4 ladies held rallies and teach-ins to generate discussion and provide information.”
According to the Globe and Mail today (Friday):
“Highways have been closed, Christmas music has been drowned out by native drummers at shopping malls, and the hunger strikes by an Ontario chief and others who support her have become a rallying cry for native people from one coast to the other.”
Chief Teresa Spence is now in the 12th day of a hunger strike she started to force Prime Minister Stephen Harper to meet with her. Though Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan has offered to meet with Spence, she is holding out for a meeting with Canada’s leader.
Women in the Idle No More movement:Â
While the movement is still taking shape, the buzz around Idle No More has included a lot of feminist messages. Below is a curation of some such content I’ve found while trolling the net this afternoon.
The galvanizing poster from idlenomore.com, featuring women:
These pictures of “women warriors” protesting went viral on Twitter this afternoon the second is from Ottawa, not sure where the first is from:
This video compiling First Nations leaders speaking to #IdleNoMore crowds features a few women with strong messages about respect for Indigenous women and grandmothers. Listen near the middle for the quote
“It takes warrior women with strong minds and strong hards to bring our people togetherâ€
The Globe & Mail quoted National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Shawn Atleo saying that a crucial part of this movement was demanding action around the cases of “hundreds or potentially thousands” of missing and murdered First Nations girls and women in Canada.
Here were some women-centred tweets circulating on Twitter about the protests today:
It was recent email from Avaaz.org that inspired today’s post.
For those you unfamiliar with Avaaz, they are an internet advocacy organization. Tackling issues from climate change to human rights, Avaaz targets some of the world’s biggest problems with a creative and democratic approach to advocacy. Following the speculation that factory farming may have been linked with the H1N1 virus, Avaaz brought a herd of 225 cardboard pigs to the World Health Organization to represent the 225, 000 signatures on a petition encouraging this research (Avaaz, 2011). They have created a three-mile long human chain of handshakes from the Dalai Lama to the front doors of the Chinese embassy requesting talks between the two parties (Bentley, 2011). During the 2008 Canadian elections, they contributed to preventing a conservative majority with the “You Have a Choice†campaign using a music video, uniting Canadian artists.
It was following their email sent out this week, that I was particularly struck by the magnitude of their impact. As per the Avaaz member update email titled “Look at this crazy, beautiful thing we’ve created together” (2012) see the following:
17.2 million of us are getting this email today, and that number is skyrocketing — almost doubling in the last several months!
We’ve come together from all 194 nations, 1.7 million of us in Brazil, 1.6M in France, 773,000 in India.
We’ve taken more than 100 million actions, online and offline, and told over 250 million friends about important campaigns
Our voices have brought awareness to critical issues, with coverage in at least 15,000 news reports this year alone
400,000 of us have donated, giving almost $7 million through Avaaz to other humanitarian and democracy organisations
20,000 of us have already started, and started winning, campaigns using our new community petition tool
To truly visualize the scale of participation, take a look at their MAPÂ showing all countries involved and member concentration.
The numbers are interesting too. Canada, current at 34.4 million has half a million members compared to the US, with a population of 311 million, with close to one million members; approximately 2% of Canadians support Avaaz versus less than half a percentage point of Americans. Well done Canada! What’s even more interesting is looking at other countries. Brazil, for example, has more members than Canada and the US combined at 1.7 million. With a population of close to 200 million however, this places engagement at approximately 1 percent of the population.
Avaaz is changing the world with a click and growing stronger. So how do they do it? Through member suggestion to member polls, Avaaz selects their initiatives on their user base. Regarding funding, according to Avaaz.org (2012)
“Our member funded model keeps us independent and accountable.â€
(Avaaz, 2012)
Avaaz is wholly member-funded which grants them the freedom to stay true to the deeper underlying morals of humanitarianism and pursue their own objectives instead of those of others. When it comes to action, Avaaz takes action mainly through “signing petitions, funding media campaigns and direct actions, emailing, calling and lobbying governments, and organizing “offline” protests and events†(Avaaz, 2012).
As we approach the new year, and change is at the forefront of our minds, it is time to reflect on organizations that make change possible. Like the many occupations we support around the world, Avaaz is yet another organization that is doing great things and deserves promotion. If you’re looking for yet another avenue to feed your appetite to create change, or perhaps you’re a member already, Avaaz serves as an excellent outlet for doing so. Sometimes… change, can start with a signature.
To learn more about Avaaz, the issues they’re currently addressing, or to get involved – visit their website:Â http://www.avaaz.org/
T’is the season for gift giving, yet the folks engaged in Occupy Christmas strive to promote a different message.
As the Occupy movement continues to grow, it has taken many shapes and forms since the original Occupy Wallstreet protests. From Occupy  Walmart to Occupy Sandy to OccupySMS, Occupy Christmas is another movement under the occupy umbrella that aims to create awareness of the level of consumerism associated with the holiday season and encourage alternate methods of celebration.
In tandem with the Adbusters “Buy Nothing Day / Xmas”, Occupy Christmas launched on Black Friday, November 2011, post protests. Their message is to  boycott holiday gift shopping and, according to Kalle Lasn (Adbusters Co-founder) in an interview with the CBC, encourage people to take a harder look at what the holidays represent. They are not anti-gift, they just suggest a shift in mindset… a more  socially conscious approach to the season. See a good description of their mission here
Unfortunately, according to the Occupy Christmas Facebook page they have racked up little support to date. In a survey by the CBC asking “Do you plan to Occupy Christmas this holiday season” last year, of close to 2700 people who voted only 7.4% of voters said they would participate, with 91.6% stating they would not, and 1% stating they were undecided. Today, according to the Occupy Christmas Facebook page, they have 3500 supports – a number still relatively small compared to the other forms of occupy.
With less than two weeks of “shopping days” remaining, instead of hitting the malls and wracking up your credit card bill, why not take a few lessons from the Occupy Christmas movement! The community offers a plethora of excellent suggestions on how to give and how to celebrate the season. Here are a few suggestions:
It’s Averie of the 2012-13 research team here, with an update on some really cool stuff we’ve been finding as we scour the internet for content relevant to our research.
As Dr. Boler heads out to sunny California over the holidays, we’ve been searching for some contacts and info on Occupy on the West Coast.
Here are a few websites we found particularly interesting!
This blog is now being dedicated to the work of Dr. Megan Boler’s 2012-2013 research team. You can find out more about us here.
Speaking broadly, we’re studying in social media, social movements, and where online and offline networking intersect. Our current three-year SSHRC funded research project investigates uses of social media in social movements, the recent resurgence of feminist organizing, and the networked, horizontal leadership of the (still alive and well) Occupy movement.
Most recently, team member Averie MacDonald closely followed social media news about planned #OccupyWalmart protests and strikes early last week as #BlackFriday rolled around.
Scroll through this Storify to see what she found out!
Forthcoming:
Matt Ratto and Megan Boler, eds, DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media, Â MIT Press (fall 2013)
Megan Boler and Selena Nemorin, “Truthiness and War: New Media Landscapes of 21st Century Propaganda,” Oxford University Handbook on Propaganda, eds. R Casstronovo and J. Auerbach (Oxford University Press, 2012)
Ian Reilly and Megan Boler, “The Rally to Restore Sanity, Pre-politicization, and the Future of Politics”, under review, Communication, Culture and Critique
Megan Boler,”Women Make Vlogs,” (submitting to First Monday)
January started with media frenzy in the wake of Occupy ‘media spectacle.’Â The public interest in social media practices and digital activism is exciting. After a decade of researching “digital dissent” and the power of “micro-blogging” practices it is amazing to see my passion about digital activism so alive.
In January, media focus was of course still on “Arab Spring” and Occupy Movement using social media so centrally:
some of the upcoming public talks i will be giving:
January 31, 2012 Bridging the Gender Gap in the News: Public Talk & Panel Discussion Panelists: Shari Graydon, Informed Opinions; Megan Boler, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; Kathy English, Public Editor, Toronto Star; Esme Fuller-Thompson, Professor, Sandra Rotman Chair in Social Work
February 9, Teacher’s College, Columbia, New York, invited talk
Keynote, “Fostering Civic Engagement: Revisiting the Role of the University and Aesthetics as a Language of Possibility,â€Â May 20-21,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, hosted by Saint Joseph’s University and Barnes Foundation.
it’s been a busy month around the globe…here are, first, the professional updates from Toronto and NYC on dr. boler’s recent live TV news appearances (from NASDAQ hdqtrs in Times Square and the ABC studios in NYC, where I was for MobilityShifts conference)–fortunately enough, the conference corresponded with a lively week in October in Liberty Plaza with #OWS–more in that in posts to come. Meanwhile, in Toronto, the new research team for my 3-year funded SSHRC project “Sociable Media in the Hands of Young Citizens” was attending GA meetings and the occupy toronto events.
Here’s some of the media appearances, and below, an intro to those who will also be updating our research on Youth Engaging Social Media & Social Movements (funded by SSHRC for 2010-2013).
…and the research teamwill commence posting here the notes we’ve been sending via various communications as our new team assembled this Fall 2011 and events unfolded over the last month. Welcome Brad Evoy, Rhon Teruelle, and Jamila Park!
It was recent email from 
As the Occupy movement continues to grow, it has taken many shapes and forms since the original Occupy Wallstreet protests. From