Amplifying Resistance: Pirate Radio as Protest Tactic

Abstract

Gripped tightly in the hands of activists, a banner reading “Free Radio Tent City” was marched into Montréal’s Lafontaine Park on July 3, 2003, announcing the Radio Taktic pirate station to the world. Or, if not to the world, at least to a park full of activists in the process of pitching tents and preparing to squat a part of the 40-hectare park in Montréal’s inner city. Radio Taktic activists sought to bring together voices denouncing the city’s housing policies and the plight of the homeless. Unlike the subtext of the protest slogan, “The whole world is watching,” the action of taking over the airwaves during the tent city was not intended to launch the action into the sphere of corporate media for the whole world to see. Instead Radio Taktic, at 104.9 on the FM dial, played an important role in the protest — supporting it strategically and amplifying the voices of those typically silenced in our society. Radio Taktic’s equipment was used in three broadcasts during political protests that summer. For Montréal, a city with many media activists, the creation of Radio Taktic was embedded in a community committed to using media tools to support the struggle. For these activists, access to the media is a central element of social justice work. Unlicensed radio is intrinsically a contestation over private property and the power concentrated in media institutions; it is about the creation of autonomous zones in which alternative forms of culture can be created and diffused.