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Why #PussyRiot Is the Future of Civil Disobedience (and Not Just in Putin's Russia)

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A Russian court today sentenced the three young women who make the up the feminist punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison for "hooliganism on grounds of religious hatred" in retaliation for  their brief and spirited public disobedience in song targeted at the regime of President Vladimir Putin. The harsh sentencing of musician activists Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich for their protest song of less than a minute in Christ the Savior cathedral in Moscow in February drew worldwide outrage against Putin's strong-arm tactics, only building the prominence and social capital of a band that Amnesty International has labelled "prisoners of conscience."

Pussy Riot's musical prayer asking the Virgin Mary to cast Putin out was certainly designed to shock - but even if you disagree with the particular tactic in a house of worship, the bizarrely disproportionate and overtly cruel response from the government is the real shocker. Why? Because it clearly displays the government's naked fear of a networked world where video of the band's whimsical protest sped around the world in advance of Russia's elections. As an Amnesty spokesman said, the case showed that the "Russian authorities will stop at no end to suppress dissent and stifle civil society.”

But as we've seen time and again over the last two years, social media doesn't favor a despot. Rather than tamp down the band's protest, Putin has essentially plugged the young punk rockers into a giant wall of stacked Marshall amps, and from there to a worldwide broadcast to desktops and devices on every continent.  Our smaller, intensely networked world is tailor-made for feminist activism - or at least the flavor that doesn't rely on top-down slogans, big branding efforts, and tons of infrastructure.

There is a direct line, in my view, from the civil disobedience of Saudi Arabia's women in their brave and clever campaign to defy that country's ban on driving to the sharp, musical dagger that a female punk band pointed at the heart of Russia's hardline oligarch and his new-found state religion partners in power. And it connects to the women organizers in Tahrir Square (who fought the double battle against a corrupt and violent regime, and sexism in the ranks of protestors), the work of Ivory Coast peace activist Aya Virginie Toure and her compatriots as they opposed (sometimes with deadly consequences) the regime of President Laurent Gbagbo with non-violent protest, the disciplined work of the organizers in Mexico's vibrant anti-corruption Yo Soy 132 student movement, the efforts of the grassroots women's movement in Guatemala, and the organizing of supporters of Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Frankly, there's direct lineage to feminist organizers in the United States as well, including the ad hoc - but potent - coalitions that sprouted in reaction to the sexist rantings of radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the controversy over the actions of the Susan G. Komen Foundation in its relationship with Planned Parenthood.

What strikes me is that these networks grow quickly, transfer news and information widely, and gather people (through social media, and in person) who might not have found each other in a non-networked world. It's simplistic to argue there's a particular facet to female social organizing that makes it either more  effective or more current; but I don't think it's a mistake to observe that movements organized or distributed  widely by citizens with a strong feminist viewpoint are among the fastest-growing and most potent on the digital social commons. To quote Buffalo Springfield: there's something happening here.

As fascinating and terrible as the Pussy Riot story is - and let's not forget that two of the band members are young mothers who would be separated from their children by the Putin government - the speed in which their case became an international cause, and the wide distribution of their message are indicative of the future of civil disobedience. Like the Occupy movement, it involved a small group that magnified its attention through other nodes: Amnesty International, feminist bloggers, the foreign policy press, and a vast mob of supporters on Twitter and Facebook.

This is increasingly common. The ability to for those outside of power to take action has simply become easier, and as Nation columnist Allison Kilkenny notes: "Pussy Riot sees themselves as an outlet for marginalized citizens disillusioned with Putin’s twelve years of dominance in the political arena. In this way, the collective resembles Occupy Wall Street and the “Mexican Spring” movement Yo Soy 132, both groups that represent citizens unsatisfied with the ruling hegemony, and looking to radically change the way government and monopolistic corporations operate."

And music clearly played a role as well, uniting artists from Madonna to Sting in support of the band. “This is the crime against artists, and against humanity and freedom,” Frank London of Klezmatics told Forbes contributor Katya Soldak before a Brooklyn concert to rally support for Pussy Riot in June. And as the feminist writer Amanda Marcotte noted, the forces that are attempting to silence dissent are hardly limited to Russia - indeed, they're universal wherever power is at stake:

It's tempting to sneer at Russian culture and their obvious disrespect for free speech and freedom of religion after this verdict. After all, in the United States, you're free to express loathing for any faith you wish in any language you wish (outside of threats) without fear of government reprisal, and churches don't enjoy special protections against pranks or other protest events aimed in their direction. But that's in no small part because we're lucky to have an ironclad provision in our Constitution that protects not just speech, but also disallows the government to give favored status to religion.

And while the crackdown on a small, little-known band may help Putin domestically (Russian polls apparently favor it), he's being ridiculed internationally - not helped at all by the images of the three young musicians in handcuffs in the court holding cell. Besides, he's handed them the biggest megaphone in the world. As the Guardian remarked, "The punk feminist band becomes a global brand before it even releases its first album and you a pariah so sullen that not even botox conceals your scowls."