PoliticsSyria: Revolution: Spontaneously organized protests

BBC News MiddleEast  (Apr22,2k11)

22 April 2011 Last updated at 11:40 ET

Syria's spontaneously 

organised protests

by Kim GhattasBBC News, Beirut

While the Syrian army deployed overnight to the restive city of
Homs, preparations were under way in dozens of towns and
cities across Syria to make this Friday's protests the biggest yet.

Small committees in neighbourhoods and mosques - formed over
the last few weeks - came together discreetly to plan when and
where to protest.

Meanwhile, an informal army of cyber activists swung into action --
sharing information between the towns to keep the momentum going.

On Twitter, the account of @SyRevoSlogans, created on 18 April,
offered a flood of slogans for people to use during demonstrations
across the country -- many suggested by fellow Twitter users.

User @syrianjasmine spread news of "thugs'' being bussed into the
town of Daraya, while @wissamtarif kept track of student protests
and arbitrary detentions in the capital Damascus.

The Facebook page of 'Syrian Revolution 2011', with its 120,000
followers, called on people to take to the streets for Friday protests.
It said they have no excuse not to join now that the barrier of fear
has fallen.

With almost no foreign reporters allowed into Syria, it called on
anyone with pictures or videos to send them to
Syriarage@gmail.com. International media can contact the page
to confirm details or talk to eyewitnesses, it adds.

These are the two layers of the movement - the people on the
ground who organise day-to-day events at a local level; and the
online community which helps give the protests a sense of
cohesion on a national level.

"Those of us online are not actually organising the demonstrations,
but helping people on the ground to stay connected," said one cyber
activist in Damascus, speaking to the BBC on Skype. He asked to
not to be named for safety reasons.

"We help the people in Deraa, for example, to know that they're
not alone in their demonstrations," he added.
....

Several of the dissidents - who requested anonymity - agreed that while

connecting with religious networks was important, their movement was 

secular.   They reject the traditional opposition groups and figures, such 

as the Muslim Brotherhood and Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar al-Assad's 

uncle.

....

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