For the last few weeks, Suleman Din has been
working on a story about how recent anti-war street art is closely related to
the philosophy of Gandhian civil disobedience.

Here’s Suleman’s
piece which is running this week in India
Abroad:

Culture Jamming: New York Sends Out Its Antiwar
Message

By Suleman Din

The political message was
waiting to be read, scribbled with a black felt pen onto the poster
advertisement for the upcoming comedy, Anger Management.

Adam Sandler
and Jack Nicholson are facing each other, yelling, but there are no words. So
someone walking down the long, underground hall that connects the Port Authority
building to the New York subway system decided to add dialogue.

“I
don’t want war on Iraq!” now yells Nicholson. “Me neither!” boisterously replies
Sandler.

If you pay attention, you can find similar examples
everywhere in Manhattan-a poster on a lamppost, a spray-painted stencil on a
wall, stickers on a sign-little messages of defiance in places where you’d least
expect them.

They are all part of a form of activism called ‘culture
jamming,’ which is some describe as vandalism and prankish acts of defacing
mainstream media advertisements and public space.

But its defenders
say such message-postings, especially in this time of war, are in fact
ideologically linked to Gandhian traditions of nonviolence and civil
disobedience.

It’s about counteracting the messages of the
hyperactive, advertisement-laden media culture we live in, said Kalle Lasn,
editor and founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, which is at the forefront of
the culture jamming movement. (www.culturejammers.org)

Corporations
and their overwhelming branding of culture are what influence public opinion,
Lasn said. ‘Jamming’ takes their message platform and makes it your own, and
deflates the control of corporations over society.

“Gandhi did this
as well,” Lasn explains. “Gandhi lived in this foreign, dysfunctional British
culture, and found an effective way to ‘jam’ it.”

The Gandhian idea
of one person and an idea can start change is embodied in such culture jamming,
Lasn said. “Gandhi said, ‘Okay, don’t use British salt, boycott British cloth
and make your own.’ Millions followed; that’s how revolutions start.”

/>It’s a lesson well-learned, that’s why with 24-hour cable and Internet able to
have news up almost instantaneously, the control of images and messages are
truly important, said Bill Dobbs, media coordinator for anti-war group "http://www.unitedforpeace.org">United for Peace and Justice.

/>Dobbs saw attempts to block a massive peace protest that was going to pass the
United Nations on February 15 from that route simply as another image
manipulation game.

And so the idea of taking an advertisement or sign
and making it an anti-war statement isn’t surprising at all, Dobbs said, but in
fact very telling.

“It’s another example of the public outcry against
this war,” Dobbs said. “When people go through that trouble, it really says
something.”

Dobbs said it was another way in which Gandhi’s message
of civil disobedience and non-violent protest was being reinterpreted in
America. “There are a whole range of tactics, from protests, to letter writing,
making phone calls, prayer vigils and sit downs,” he said.

The tactic
of graffiti is actually a good fit for the city, Dobbs said. “If you live in New
York City, you’ll know that the subways have always been canvasses for New
Yorker’s creativity,” he said, laughing.

But in all seriousness,
Dobbs said such messages are sometimes the only way for alternative voices to be
heard. “Who gets to express their points of view is an issue,” he said. “If you
don’t have the money to advertise in The New York Times, or buy a billboard in
the subway, where can you express yourself?”

Concerns like these are
raised when people get arrested for their activism, as in the case of artist
Emilie Clark and writer Lytle Shaw, members of the "http://www.nationalphilistine.com/baghdad/index2.html">‘Baghdad Snapshot Action
Crew,’.

The pair were arrested and then released in February for
posting flyers around the city featuring people from Baghdad. The flyers of
pictures of ordinary Iraqi citizens were to mimic the way pictures of those
missing in the 9-11 terrorist attacks were posted in the days after the tragedy,
as a remembrance of their lives.

Shaw said she was disturbed by how
police tried to justify their actions against the two. “They tried to appeal to
us sentimentally,” Shaw said, “as though the repression they were enacting was
really in our best interest.”

These sorts of risks never are of
concern to the ‘street artist’ engaged in spreading such messages, said Marc
Schiller, a member of the Wooster Collective, which celebrates such culture
jamming. “That’s just an example of street art being so powerful that it
obviously threatened the establishment,” Schiller said.

“You don’t
worry about things that might stop you,” Schiller continued. “Like Gandhi the
street artist trusts that his (or her) voice, if ‘right,’ will find the right
audience. They are not overly concerned with how many people see it or whether
or not it will in itself change the word.

“The motivation is to
express their feelings to others without outside influence. Like Gandhi they
believe that there is power in the individual voice. They trust that power.”
/>
Such stickers, stencils and graffiti are the future of such activism as
the media becomes more beholden to corporate interests, Schiller said: “There
are no barriers now. You can make a sticker, then make copies and have it up in
30 minutes on the Internet, and others can download it, giving you instantaneous
worldwide distribution.”

Lasn said the culture jamming movement is
indeed worldwide, as actions like the war on Iraq turn people off from the
message of corporate American brands. “America will pay a price for being so
arrogant,” Lasn said. “Gandhi was against the British Empire, and we are now
against the American Empire.”

A lifelong student of Gandhi, Lasn said
he didn’t know if the Mahatma would be scribbling a message on a wall if he were
alive today.

“I think he would think of something even better to do;
he would find some way to inspire billions,” Lasn said. “We need a new Gandhi,
someone to mobilize that lousy feeling inside us and give the planet a new
voice.”