Strasbourg, 09/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Was the tone set by Tawakkol Karman during the first debates at the opening ceremony of the Forum for Democracy unedited and spontaneous? The young woman from Yemen, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, did not use set words to stress the importance of human rights and it seems that the other speakers who all travelled to the Council of Europe had also decided not to serve up conventional speeches (see EUROPE 10705).
On Monday 8 October, during a workshop on social networks and democracy, two young Egyptian bloggers, Aalam Wassef and Asmaa Mahfouz, demolished the myth of the Facebook revolution by announcing that only 1.26% of the Egyptian population - which is furthermore less literate than the population in Tunisia - was connected to the internet. “What is widespread is courage”, said Aalam Wassef, while Asmaa Mahfouz spoke of the “critical mass” reached thanks to social networks. A “critical mass” that was one of the keys to the demonstrations in Tahrir Square - in particular because it enabled national and international media to anticipate the breadth of the events and cover them adequately.
Then there are the pernicious effects. The use made by the regime of this mobilisation so as to locate the opposition, the regime's decision to cut off the internet for a few days, and also an intrinsic toxicity on social networks since the defamation campaigns launched through them still today have negative effects for some people.
The debate was also the occasion to listen to Polish and Slovakian witnesses speak of “their” revolutions last century - in the times when the good old photocopy called people to action… Today some of the former Solidarnosc members cooperate with dynamic young Tunisian activists to share their experience about local democracy - and this happens largely via Facebook. Another example which came up during the debate was the much less well known one from Mexico, where the group “Yo soy 132” (“I am 132”) is active. Denise Dresser, who teaches politics at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, was invited to speak. “Many of my students belong to this group”, she said with pride. This movement is linked to the 2012 presidential campaign. One of the representatives from the party in power who had come to the university on an official visit had been jeered by students - who were then surprised later that evening to see in an official report on television that the man had been warmly welcomed. In reaction to this media manipulation, 131 students made a video that was distributed by Youtube, in which they corrected the official line by introducing themselves, one after the other, brandishing their student card. The “Yo soy 132” group was created and enjoyed exponential growth to the point of arousing mass demonstrations against corruption and the allegiance of the media to the party in power. “However they could not prevent the re-election of President Enrique Pena Nieto”, Dresser said, and she went on that she fears the radicalisation of the movement and a loss of direction in relation to its founding ideas that were linked to state-control of the media. She also notes that they have problems making decisions as there is no hierarchy and there are numerous general assemblies to take the simplest decisions. There is a risk of paralysis linked to a democratic structure taken to extremes but, whatever may be, “Yo soy 132” has begun to teach Mexicans that they have rights and to leave their apathy behind. These new social networks are important because they represent new models of participation to win the public arena and in so doing they are catalysts for change. “They need to structure themselves and to find reference tools. I hope they will succeed”, Dresser concluded.
Writers' call to peace. On the sidelines of the forum which was held inside the Council of Europe, the first World Forum for Democracy started an outside event in the city. Far from being a long tranquil river, it is multiplying demonstrations in key places in Strasbourg and allows “simple citizens” to meet official speakers without the indispensable badge to enter the temple of democracy and human rights. On Sunday 7 October, two writers - Boualem Sansal and David Grossman, one an Arab, the other Israeli - launched “a call to peace” at the Strasbourg city hall. This was the founding act of the world movement that the two men want to create with just the arms of “literature, debate and vigilance”. In the text that Sansal read in French and Grossman in English, Syria, Iran, the Arab Spring, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mali and terrorism were mentioned. Michel le Bris, the director of the “Etonnants Voyageurs” festival at Saint Malo, who was also in Strasbourg, gave a rallying call to this enterprise of the World Alliance including eight world literary festivals. (VL/transl.fl)