Wikileaks devenu Cablegate, insurrection et/ou révolution

Wikileaks devenu Cablegate, insurrection et/ou révolution

Le professeur d’anthropologie Maximilien Forte enseigne des matières telles que l’anthropologie politique, “l’activisme politique et le Web” à l’université Concordia, à Montréal. Il donne à CounterPunch, le 14 Décembre 2010, un texte sur l’événement politique que constitue le troisième volet des fuites massives de Wikileaks, défini aussi comme une crise sous le terme de Cablegate. Le titre de son article est déjà une indication : «Notes From the Insurrection — The Wikileaks Revolution»

Nous en donnons quelques extraits significatifs qui mettent en évidence d’une part la grande difficulté de définir l’événement qu’on pourrait synthétiser par l’expression “Wikileaks devenu Cablegate”, – d’autre part l’importance évidente de cet événement… Cela implique évidemment ce paradoxe de la très grande difficulté de comprendre pourquoi Wikileaks-Cablegate est très important. C’est en cela que nous estimons que Wikileaks-Cablegate est plus qu’un événement politique, qu’il s’agit surtout de la formation d’un “système anti-Système”. Il est manifeste que ce concept demande une exploration bien plus poussée, ce à quoi nous allons nous employer.

»It is a conflict, but the political arena in which it is fought out is constantly changing shape, widening to be certain. It is not a “game,” as anthropologist F.G. Bailey liked to say, with agreed upon rules and established judges, and predetermined goals and prizes. This is a conflict where the rules of the game (diplomacy, state secrecy) and the game itself (empire) are being directly challenged, with the intention that such games never be played with people again. […]

»This is a conflict, Wikileaks is a movement, but what transformation can we expect, and would that transformation be revolutionary? That we have reached a crossroads is clear: never again will the relationship between state power, media, and citizenship be the same. It should be easy enough to agree with Julian Assange who recently stated: “geopolitics will be separated into pre and post cablegate phases;” and Carne Ross, a British diplomat, who wrote: “History may now be dated pre- or post-WikiLeaks.”

»Some things can never be the same again. For the state, the over classification of information, and the everyday reliance on secrecy has just been abruptly transformed: it cannot forego documentation; documentation severed from those charged with the application of policy is worthless; word of mouth cannot serve swollen, centralized bureaucracies, especially not the vast U.S. national security apparatus; and, continued engagement in war, undertaking atrocities then kept secret, provokes those with a conscience to leak information. Either the U.S. ceases to use embassies as spy nests, and brings public pronouncements in line with actual actions, or it risks continued leaking and irreparable damage to its “soft power” resources. The state’s excessive monopolization of information has already been damaged beyond repair.

»The relationship between states and media will also change dramatically. As Wikileaks blew in through an open window, the whole raison d’être of embedding reporters in military units, and of forcing journalists to play extra nice just to get some inside access to what is, after all, a publicly funded military, has just been blown out the front door. Thirty years of increasingly restrictive control over military and diplomatic information, and the cowing of the corporate media, has reached a climax and now we enter the phase of decline. […]

«…There is certainly a clash over the horizons of what is possible and acceptable, and the fight for The People’s Web has entered a new phase. This is now a different place. It feels like we are using a new Web.

»There has been confrontation, conflict, and open defiance. Those who are dissident about speaking in terms of “revolution,” can at least speak of Wikileaks as a rebellion. Both Julian Assange and Wikileaks supporters in general, are being classed as “terrorists” by prominent right wing speakers and politicians. Even the more “moderate” voices call us “criminals.” There are open calls for assassination. We are their insurgents. For many different and even opposed interests, this will get ugly: brace yourselves. […]

»If by revolution some expect the fall of an entire political and economic system, governments overthrown, and the spawning of a new world socialist order—then they are likely to reject the idea that Wikileaks is a revolution. On the other hand, we live in a very uncertain period where lots of outcomes cannot be foreseen, and Wikileaks may prove to be a critical catalyst in realigning our understanding of world politics, which are not defined by an existential fight against some Other, but a fight against us, by states that fear their own citizens. Where Wikileaks is certainly a revolution can be understood in more proximal terms, dealing with the politics and economics of information and communication, relationships of citizens with the state, relationships between states, and heightened expectations for the promise of democracy. That is not little.»

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