FEMINIST ANTI-WAR RESISTANCE
AS SOCIAL DIGITAL MOVEMENT

INTRODUCTION

Worldwide movement against Russian invasion in Ukraine arose during the first days of the war. A lot of people from different countries having various political views united together by the protest movement in the streets, volunteering, and creating initiatives which helped people from Ukraine. How do the digitally transformative features of new digital media enable social movements to emerge in authoritarian countries? Is there a place in this resistance for digital protest as an effective method of confrontation? The important role of social media as a tool that helps people to unify civic activism with protests can be seen in the example of the Arab Spring during the early 2010s. When the government uses official media as an authoritarian tool of propaganda, social media such as Facebook, Telegram, and Instagram can serve as a hotspot for people seeking alternative platforms to share their opinion. Despite the risks of digital surveillance and censorship, the internet gives access to digital activism for citizens of non-democratic countries who are repressed from expressing their opinion that might not correlate with the policy of a government or public opinion. Lindgren describes networked social movements as ignoring political parties, distrusting the mainstream news media, not recognizing any traditional forms of leadership, and largely rejecting formal organisation (Lindgren 2017, 220). These movements often start from the digital version, a kind of platform for debate, exchange of opinions, and development of the target audience.

On the one hand, it's easier to be involved in activism since there are not so many risks if one is aware of privacy and anonymity on the internet. On the other hand, the internet activists community needs to build relationships between supporters on a high level such that each activist can feel a strong connection with other members, feeling part of the digital community. Researchers describe prevalent forms of digital activism as “posting, debating, and sharing of relevant information online in various social media applications such as social networking sites. Another important form of online activism is mobilizing and coordinating actions, for example, setting up an event or group on Facebook” (Lonkila, Shpakovskaya, Torchinsky, 2020).

In this essay, I describe the first theoretical perspectives on social movements and digital social movements in particular. Further, I review an example of the digital anti-war movement – Feminist Anti-war Resistance – its development and strategies. In the end, I analyse the scope of challenges this community faces.

Digital movement – where does it begin and end?

In this chapter I focus on the dualism of digital movements – they operate both, offline and online. Nowadays, digital and offline forms of activism are interlaced or simultaneous at times, thus, considering them from a dualistic perspective – solely as either offline or online – is a misrepresentation of affairs. Lingren puts digital activism into the “Digital enhanced” category of used digital media (Lindgren 2017, 291). Digitalization and datafication of various categories and concepts of our life is a natural and quite rational process, which causes gradual changes in activism, provided that the global pandemic accelerates these changes. Ozkula highlights the following specifics of digital activism: a lot of activism activity that includes digitalised activity today is integrated / enmeshed / hybrid; <...> digital activism is a very broad concept as it is based on the use of a very broad set of technologies (Ozkula, 2021). The successful strategy of a contemporary movement lies in both fields: well-prepared media campaigns and involvement of people in joint activities. Digital media is based on visual concepts as it makes visible social problems and major common concerns. Hashtags, posts, comments, and information about search queries – that all give us an understanding of what topics activists can work with. On the one hand, this visuality can give an understanding of areas where blind spots might exist. On the other hand, newsbreaks can raise discussions in digital space. In the worst-case scenario for activists, their protests, actions, and performances leave the audience unconcerned. Criticism of opponents is more valued by activists since it frequently initiates the process of public discussions.

If we are trying to categorise members of peacе-movements, then the audience is divided into three groups: proponents of the war, opponents of the war, and indifferent individuals who have not decided yet. People are often hesitating to take sides because they are unsure which side has more supporters. Digital media can convince us that there are far more supporters of peace than supporters of war. Consequently, the main aim of pro-peace activists is not to take on their side pro-war people, but those who hesitate. Even if these people who appear to be against the war are not our acquaintances, we can experience a sense of belonging to this cohort as a result of constantly recurring news about the successes of the anti-war resistance.

Anti-war Easter – digital action of Feminist Anti-War Resistance.
The idea of action is to put anti-war statements on digital Easter postcards which are very popular to send to relatives and friends in messengers during the Easter period in Russia. In the Russian language, there is a wordplay: "Christ is risen!" – "Enough war!".

Strategies of digital activism

Nowadays, FAR is one of the leading protest movements in Russia having a vast support. Why are feminists willing to take the role of the protest coordinators? First of all, numerous fem-activists have experience of participating in women's rights protests. Secondly, the visibility of women in the media field is promoted by cyber activism, which in its turn is a significant feature of fourth-wave feminism. Accordingly, FAR puts effort into highlighting women's anti-war movements from a historical perspective. For example, hashtag #история_женского_движения (history of women’s movement) links to publications depicting reviews and analyses of women’s movement against war, dictatorship, and other forms of injustice. Everything mentioned above makes it clear how much women have already done to resist any kind of violence, including martial one. FAR Telegram channel started as a collection of anti-war statements, reposts with announcements of protest actions and photos from protests, but within months it turned into full-fledged digital media with a content covering vast scope of topics, editorials, and quick responses to current events. The important moment of digital social movements is to make protest visible and create strong bonds between activists – satisfied with maintaining a media source.

Daria Serenko, Coordinator of the movement, highlighted the importance of digital anti-war activism after six months since the beginning of the war. Serenko believes that the global task of activists is to increase the number of supporters: without a wide endorsement, the anti-war movement will not be able to operate for a long time. Finding and engaging new people requires the use of new tools. For example, FAR activists started a public page in “Odnoklassniki” — the Russian social media, where the target audience predominantly consists of pro-government middle-aged people: activists publish budget-friendly cooking recipes aimed at lower-class people trying to save money. Apart from cooking directions, these recipes are explaining how the war is negatively affecting the Russian economy, ergo most of the households in the country. Thus, entering the digital space to promote the campaign allows activists to utilise different approaches depending on the target audience.

Assistance to those affected by the actions of the authorities is also being built into the digital format. Side-project of FAR called Anti-Job crowdfunds money for people who were fired for their anti-war stance and provides online legal advice. Online consultations allow people to seek help anonymously. It is also an opportunity to help vulnerable groups of the population who often cannot pay fines on their own: pensioners, single mothers, large families, and people with disabilities.

Serenko says that the anti-war movement looks effective not when photos of arrested protestors appear in the media, but predominantly when people publish letters of gratitude from people who receive help from the fund organised by Anti-Job project which provides online service of legal counsel and crowdfunds money for people laid off for their anti-war stance. Those recipients are becoming even more politicised since the regime is oppressing them. Moreover, the decentralised nature of the organisations ensures that both neophyte and veteran activists receive the necessary help. Besides financial support FAR implements well-being practices for its activists. There is a project of psychological help, which employs support activists. After contacting through a telegram-bot that helps to find the right specialist to provide free psychological online counselling, activists can get help.

Another appeal of digital activism is the ability to continue with the activist’s duties even when changing location. Many activists who left Russia due to the threat of a criminal case continue their activism in the digital space. Furthermore, digital activism creates an opportunity for remote inclusion: design, writing, and translation, web-mastering, psychological counselling, or foreign languages teaching.

CONCLUSION

History is full of examples of anti-war protests. It has bright symbols – protests against the United States of America involvement in the Vietnam War – but nowadays, it is transforming into looking for new solutions to fight against different forms of violence.

The internet and digital media, which archived the experience of previous generations, can help not only to mobilise people for public discussion and protests but also give a possibility to analyse controversial points, mistakes, and successes, while we are watching the protests in real-time. FAR experience and strategy show us how immediately we can respond to the present challenges and how variable could be a protest.

The movement focuses not only on new types of protests but also on community building and maintaining solidarity and supportive relations between activists. Education in security and human rights fields is also an important aim of the movement. Tools that provide digital security and anonymity come to the fore if we are speaking about protest activities in non-democratic countries.