Translation as Political Action

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Translation as an Alternative Space for

Political ActionMona Baker

a

aCentre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University ofManchester , Manchester , UK

Published online: 08 May 2012.

To cite this article:Mona Baker (2013) Translation as an Alternative Space for Political Action,

Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest, 12:1, 23-47, DOI:

10.1080/14742837.2012.685624

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Translation as an Alternative Spacefor Political Action

MONA BAKERCentre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

ABSTRACT This article examines the genesis, dynamics and positioning of activist groups oftranslators and interpreters who engage in various forms of collective action. The activism of these

groups is distinctive in that they use their linguistic skills to extend narrative space and empowervoices made invisible by the global power of English and the politics of language. They furtherrecognise that language and translation themselves constitute a space of resistance, a means ofreversing the symbolic order. Their use of hybrid language, their deliberate downgrading of English,the constant shuffling of the order and space allocated to different languages on their websitesallthis is as much part of their political agenda as their linguistic mediation of texts and utterances

produced by others, in their capacity as translators and interpreters. The article examines thepositioning of these groups vis-a-vis what Tarrow (2006, p. 16) terms the new generation of globaljustice activists on the one hand, and professional translators and interpreters on the other, andargues that they occupy a liminal space between the world of activism and the service economy.

KEY WORDS: Translation, interpreting, narrative, collective action, global movements of justice,prefiguration

Introduction

One of the unexamined assumptions that continue to underpin discussions of translation

and interpreting, particularly among lay members of society, is that the individuals who

produce translated texts and utterances are neutral, disinterested, apolitical creatures, mere

conduits who take no sides and have no stake in the outcome of any interaction they

mediate. Numerous real-life examples, on the other hand, continue to attest to the fact that

translators and interpreters are not apolitical, that many hold strong beliefs about the rights

and wrongs of (political) events in which they find themselves involved professionally, as

translators and interpreters.1 Indeed, as this article demonstrates, various groups of

translators and interpreters now actively engage in forms of collective action that set out to

challenge the political status quo. In this respect, they have broken away from a long

tradition of positioning themselves purely as neutral, unengaged professionals who stand

in some liminal space between cultures and political divides.

Such recent forms of collective action aside, I would argue, translation as such does not

mediate cultural encounters that exist outside the act of translation but rather participates

q 2013 Taylor & Francis

Correspondence Address:Mona Baker, Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies, School of Languages,

Linguistics and Cultures, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.

Email: [email protected]

Social Movement Studies, 2013Vol. 12, No. 1, 2347, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2012.685624

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in producing these encounters. It does not reproduce texts but constructs cultural realities,

and it does so by intervening in the processes of narration and renarration that constitute all

encounters, and that essentially construct the world for us. It is not an innocent act of

disinterested mediation but an important means of constructing identities and configuring

the shape of any encounter. Adopting a narrative view of interaction as elaborated in

connection with translation in earlier work (Baker, 2006a, 2006b, 2009, 2010), I take it asgiven that the stories we tell and retell, including those we retell through the medium of

translation, constitute a site where we exercise our agency, and in this sense are ultimately

a tool for changing the world. They enable us to elaborate our individual and collective

identities and negotiate the conditions of history in which we find ourselves, whether as lay

members of society, as professionals in a particular domain or as activists who consciously

exploit their professional skills to effect change at a local or global level.

Translation, Narration and Collective Action

Hernadi (1980/1981, p. 199) attributes our need to narrate to two ultimate motivations:

self-assertive entertainment and self-transcending commitment. It is the latter

motivation that is relevant in the current context. Self-transcending commitment leads us

to narrate to replace indifference by the social or cosmic commitment either to change

the world or to change ourselves (Hernadi, 1980/1981). Narrative is often linked to the

moralising impulse in human beings, which is partly what makes it an attractive

framework for engaging with forms of activism generally, including forms of collective

action in the world of translation and interpreting.

In the sections that follow, I will examine the genesis, positioning and prefigurative

strategies of groups of activist translators and interpreters who are ultimately motivated

not by any intrinsic, shared attributes of the individuals who constitute each groupthese

groups do not engage in identity politicsbut by a sense of identification with a story orset of stories that provide a focal point for their political activity. These stories are rooted

in broader narratives of global justice, rather than narratives of nationalist aspirations, for

instance, or religious belief. In this sense, the groups in question belong to what Tarrow

describes as the new generation of global justice activists (2006, p. 46) who have become

particularly visible since the events in Seattle in 1999. They are also activist outsiders

(Tarrow, 2006, p. 45) who challenge existing institutions rather than attempt to change

them from the inside. Indeed, most reject any form of institutionalisation at all. On the

whole, the narratives to which these groups subscribe and which they attempt to promote

globally through their acts of translation and their engagement with various forms of

prefigurative politics are very much geared to replacing indifference, in Hernadis terms,with a commitment to change the entire set of relations that define the current world order.

One of the largest and most visible of these groups, Babels, explicitly aligns itself with the

World Social Forum and its motto of Another World is Possible, suggesting that its

members see themselves as actively engaged in renarrating the world across linguistic and

cultural boundaries.

What I hope to demonstrate in this article is that these groups operate in very similar

ways to other global movements of collective action, and most fulfil the criteria of

autonomous movements outlined by Flesher Fominaya (2007, pp. 337341). However,

unlike most other global and autonomous movements, they have a strong professional

character in that many (possibly most) members of each group are professional or student

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translators and/or interpreters, each group signals the identity of its members as

translators clearly in its name and the raison detre of each group is tightly connected to

the ability of its members to offer linguistic mediation. Members of all the groups

examined here specifically use their linguistic skills to extend narrative space and narrative

opportunities for resistance, and to empower voices made invisible by the global power of

English and the politics of language. In so doing, and against a long and powerful traditionof emphasising the neutrality of translators in lay, professional andscholarly discourse,

these activists position themselves within a space that is neither fully understood and

appreciated by the activist communities with which they interact, as evident in ongoing

tensions between Babels and the World Social Forum organisers, nor fully accepted by

their professional colleagues, who generally regard such concrete political involvement

with suspicion and concern.

Beyond the issue of giving voice, of extending narrative space, what is particularly

interesting about these groups is that they recognise that language and translation

themselves constitute a space of resistance, a means of reversing the symbolic order

(Melucci, 1996). The mode of operation and practices of groups like Babels and Tlaxcala,

discussed below, are consciously designed to question boundaries and narrate them as

permeable and porous. Their use of hybrid language, their deliberate downgrading of

English, the constant shuffling of the order and space allocated to different languages on

their websiteall this is as much part of their political agenda as their linguistic mediation

of texts and utterances produced by others, in their capacity as translators and interpreters.

It is this practice of prefigurative politics, a core feature of autonomous movements

(Flesher Fominaya, 2007), that distinguishes them most clearly from other groups of

translators who offer linguistic support to humanitarian organisations and a variety of good

causes. In many ways, discursive as well as behavioural, they practise the principles they

support themselves, rather than remaining within the rigid boundaries of their professional

role and entrusting the political work to others, at the same time as advocating theseprinciples and enabling others to articulate them in a range of languages. They further

apply the principles, often in highly innovative ways, in the present, rather than work

towards applying them at some point in the future, when certain tangible and well-defined

political aims have been achieved.

Translation and Interpreting as Forms of Collective Action

Like the new generation of global justice activists (Tarrow, 2006), the groups discussed

here tend to rely heavily on Internet technology, both to communicate among themselvesand coordinate their work, and in some cases to circulate their translations. With limited

resources and diverse, diffuse memberships, these groups manage to mobilise effectively

in the virtual environment afforded by new media and Internet technologies. To varying

degrees, they are international in profile, attracting members from all six continents,

though admittedly they tend to be run and maintained mainly from Europe, perhaps

because translators and interpreters based in Europe have better and less constrained

access to resources, and can afford to devote relatively more of their time to political work

than, say, their counterparts in Cameroon, Iran or China. Tarrow (2006) reports a similar

geographical imbalance in all global movements; even in activism, it seems, there is still a

net advantage for the richer, better-connected citizens of the North, who have greater

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financial and organizational resources and who live close to the sites of major international

institutions (p. 44).2

Two broad types of activist communities of translators and interpreters may be

identified on the basis of the type of material translated and the venues in which the

translations are offered: (1) groups whose activities predominantly revolve around the

selection, translation and dissemination of written material via websites and mailing lists;and (2) groups who work in the community and/or within collective forumsmainly the

World Social Forumand whose activities predominantly consist of interpreting oral

interaction in specific events. In both cases, and unlike many other activist groups that

translate political material with a view to effecting change, such as the community that

established Tahrir Documents in March 2011,3 the groups examined here all identify

themselves as translators and interpreters, and hence position themselves explicitly within

the professional and scholarly world of translation, giving rise to certain tensions that I

explore later in this article. This positioning is strongly signalled in the names of the

groups (Translators for Peace;TranslatorsUnited for Peace (TUP); TranslatorBrigades;

Tlaxcala: The International Network of Translators for Linguistic Diversity; ECOS,

traductores e interpretes por la solidaridad). It is further foregrounded in each groups

narrative of itself, mostly in the About Us section of the relevant website. For example,

Translators for Peace describes itself as a free association oftranslatorsfrom all countries

and of all nationalities and Babels narrates itself as an international network of volunteer

interpreters and translators.4 Cutting across these two broad types, we might also

distinguish between groups with a restricted, anti-war agenda (Translators for Peace and

TUP) and those with a broader agenda for radical political change (Babels, ECOS,

Tlaxcala and Translator Brigades).

Type 1: Focus on Written Translations

The first type of activist community discussed here, which focuses on translating and

disseminating written texts, is exemplified by Traduttori par la Pace/Translators for Peace

(founded in Italy in 1999), TUP (founded in Japan in March 2003), Tlaxcala (founded

virtually in December 2005, with no national base declared) and Translator Brigades

(founded as part of the wave of solidarity with the 15-M5 and Occupy Movements in

September 2011). The first two adopt a restricted, peace agenda, and seem to have been

established in response to specific wars: Kosovo in the case of Translators for Peace and

Iraq in the case of TUP. The Translators for Peace Charter states that:

The Association was established in the historical context of the war launched by thecountries belonging to the Nato [sic] alliance against Serbia, in an effort to respond

to the lack and distortion of information which the promoters [sic] to be the result of

the propagandistic wall present in both the countries of the Western Alliance and

Serbia.6

The homepage declares that the group aims to publish, as far as possible in every

language and by whatever channel, every message against: war in general; and in

particular, against the use of war as a means of resolving international disputes. The group

thus narrates itself essentially as a coalition of anti-war activists. TUP signals a similar

agenda in its name; the website does not yet offer an English interface (Figure 1), but a

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member of the group (Mari Oka, Kyoto University) confirms that the About Us page

narrates the group as committed to making a contribution to create a peaceful world

without wars7 (personal communication, 2 November 2011).

Groups that adopt a peace agenda, like Translators for Peace and TUP, tend to be

restricted to a specific geographical setting (Italy, Japan) and focus on promoting anti-war

narratives within their immediate local space, largely by translating and disseminating texts

that elaborate these anti-war narratives for members of their immediate community.

Translators for Peace translate predominantly between Italian and other languages, mostly

English. English is the only other interface language that features on the site, in contrast with

other groups, such as Babels, Tlaxcala and Translator Brigades, whose websites offerinterfaces and/or translated content in a variety of languages. TUP translates only in

Japanese, and states on its site that these translations are meant to make an impact on

Japanese citizens, media and politics.8 Both groups, Translators for Peace and TUP, are

relatively small in sizearound 25 in the case of TUP (Mari Oka, personal communication,

2 November 2011) and no more than 35 or 40 in the case of Translators for Peace (on the

basis of the lists of members available on the site between 2005 and 2012). In addition to

written translations, TUP occasionally offers volunteer interpreting for anti-war speakers

touring Japan. Of all the groups discussed in this article, these two groups are the least

embedded in the global movement for justice and the farthest from the definition of

autonomous movements discussed in Flesher Fominaya (2007) and elsewhere.Tlaxcala and Translator Brigades do not narrate themselves as anti-war coalitions, and

do not set out to influence a geographically circumscribed audience. Translator Brigades

narrates itself as a network of international activists and translators pursuing global

change and as an idea, the idea that as the different problems we face in every country are

caused by a global crisis of this system, the solutions should come from the dialogue and

union of citizens worldwide9 (emphasis added). Tlaxcala describes itself as an

international network of translators for linguistic diversity10 and signals its radical and

militant agenda clearly (emphasis added). While other groups have charters and

constitutions, Tlaxcala has a manifesto that describes the network and its aims in

revolutionary language:

Figure 1. Translators United for Peace website.


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The translators of Tlaxcala are anti-militarists, anti-imperialists and stand against

neoliberal corporate globalization. They yearn for peace and equality among all

languages and cultures. They believe neither in a clash of civilizations nor in the

current imperial crusade against terrorism.11

It ends with a call to arms: Translators and interpreters of all languages, connectyourselves and unite! Webmasters and bloggers of all colors in the rainbow who share our

concerns, contact us!.

Tlaxcalas manifesto is an extended treatise on the politics of language in general and

English in particular. It elaborates a narrative of an inherently conflictual world where

different imperial powers have subjugated weaker nations and groups and reinforced this

subjugation through their language since time immemorial. Members of Tlaxcala are then

projected as particular types of protagonist: fighters with a specific political role to play

within that narrative:

The translators of Tlaxcala believe in otherness, in the goodness of approaching

others points of view, and for that reason they take the stand of de-imperializing the

English language by publishing in all possible languages (including English) the

voices of writers, thinkers, cartoonists and activists who nowadays write their

original texts in languages that the domineering empires influence do [sic] not allow

to be heard. As well, the translators of Tlaxcala will provide an opportunity for non-

English speakers to be exposed to ideas from English language writers who now are

on the fringe, or who were only published in really small, hard to find places.

The English language in its position as an apparatus of institutional knowledge

functions as a global power structure that presents the worlds languages and cultures

in its image and likeness without bothering to seek the permission of the world itpurports to represent. The translators of Tlaxcala are convinced that the masters of

discourse can be defeated and hope to blur such an apparatus in the faith that the world

can become both multipolar and multilingual, as diverse as life itself.12

Although Tlaxcala restricts itself to written translation disseminated via the internet, it is

better embedded in the culture of transnational activism than the anti-war groups discussed

above, and signals its alignment with the principles of the World Social Forum in various

waysdirectly, in its manifesto, and indirectly through the various choices it makes on an

ongoing basis, in terms of the choice of texts to be translated, for instance, the way it

configures its own structure as a network of individuals and organisations, and the way itprojects the relationship(s) between the languages from and to which it translates. The

same is largely true of the recently founded Translator Brigades, whose mission statement

signals a similar positioning:

We come from different contexts but have a common concern for global inequality

and human suffering. We hold the principles of solidarity, collective authorship, and

direct democracy. We believe our creative use of social networking and

commitment to translating will serve to spread valuable ideas and empower

struggles for justice by creating and reinforcing bonds among social movements

across the globe.13

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Translator Brigades also embeds itself within movements of global justice by focusing

much of its energy on translating global calls for action, as well as content from Adbusters

to create an international readership for this valuable publication.14 Its About page

declares that the group translates into twenty languages, but it is not clear what these

languages are nor whether the direction of translation is restricted, for instance from

English to other languages but not vice versa. It appears to be so in the case of material

translated from Adbusters, which is hosted outside the main site and accessed via a link onthe About page. The direction of translation in this case seems to be strictly from English

into other languages (Figure 2).15

The site itself features only four language sectionsGreek, Portuguese, Spanish and

Turkish, with content in each, but no content in English other than the About page

(Figure 3). As will become clear in later analysis, attention to the relationships between

different languages and the direction(s) of translation is an important element of the

prefigurative politics of many, but not all, of the groups under examination and signals the

level of each groups awareness of the broader political project of contemporary global

movements.

Translator Brigades membership is unclear at this stage: there are no names ofindividuals nor an indication of who is involved in the project anywhere on the site.

Tlaxcala, on the other hand, provides detailed information on the people involved in the

project. In 2009, it had 74 members and offered translations between 13 languages, with no

priority given to any of these as source or target languages. Today, it still offers translations

into and out of 13 languages, but it is difficult to ascertain exactly how many individual

translators consider themselves members of the group. First, whereas in 2009 the list of

translators appeared under a section entitled Who We Are, the current site lists translators

under Library of Translators, itself part of a larger section comprising Library of

Authors, Library of Translators and Library of Editors. The first classification, Who

We Are, clearly signals that anyone listed in the section considers themselves part of the

Figure 2. Translator Brigades translations of Adbusters articles.


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group; more importantly, the label suggests a stable identity that is out of tune with the

contemporary culture of political movements. By contrast, the current classification

suggests a much looser association of contributors to the project. The change in designation

and the looseness and open-endedness of the current structure signal a process of political

maturation that brings the group closer to forms of collective action described by Melucci(1996) and the character of autonomous movements discussed by Flesher Fominaya (2007).

Second, the current Library of Translators, which extends to 40 web sub-pages, does not

offer a total count of the names listed, and lists not only individuals but also other groups and

associations, including the World Social Forum, whose material Tlaxcala occasionally

features on its site (Figure 4), suggesting identification with the political project of

collective forums despite the fact that Tlaxcala does not offer volunteer translation or

interpreting to the World Social Forum or similar communities.

Even the individuals listed are not necessarily all contributors to the site. For example,

Wael Aly (Abouleil) is not described as a contributor but as someone Tlaxcala adopted as

an honorary member, in solidarity with him and all Egyptians who continue the revolution

begun on 25 January 2011, despite all obstacles and continued oppression; there is no

indication that he ever contributed material to the site. Nevertheless, the section does list

numerous individual translators who appear to be regular contributors, at least as many as

were listed in 2009, with detailed biographies in a range of languages. Some, such as

Supriyo Chatterjee, are explicitly described (in the third person) as membersof Tlaxcala:

Now in his fifties, Supriyo Chatterjee divides his time between India and England

and divides his work between working for and with popular organisations in India

and a three-way translation interest involving Spanish, English and Bangla. He is a

member of Tlaxcala.16

Figure 3. Translator Brigades site and language categories.

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This reinforces the message that not all individuals listed are or regard themselves as

members of the group, and that the group itself is not a stable structure with clear

boundaries that separate it from individuals and groups that lie outside it. Flexible as this

structure might be, however, Tlaxcalaunlike Babels, another group discussed below

still does not narrate itself as a fully autonomous, biodegradable network dissolving and

regenerating into new forms of organization and action (Flesher Fominaya, 2007, p. 339).

Whether we consider the individuals and groups that Tlaxcala lists on its site as loose

associates or committed members who subscribe to the groups manifesto, the list that

appears under Library of Translators is extremely varied in composition. It includes

individuals from various parts of the world, different ethnic origins, speaking very

different languages and with highly varied biographies. The diversity of people brought

together by this project was even more evident in 2009, when members appeared under

Who We Are and their biographies were worded in a more personal style, with no third

person reference. Members then described themselves in colourful termsas Brazilian,

Mexican, feminist, activist, Iranian, biochemist, Turkish, internationalist, Italian, French,

American Palestinian, Muslim, sociologist, human, mother, journalist, teacher,

philologistand almost always as translator (Figure 5). This diversity in the ways in

which they individually chose to identify, or not identify, gave the group a particularly

spontaneous and fresh character. It is worth noting that Tlaxcala is the only group that

continues to provide detailed biographies of its members and contributors, including

photographs; these concrete expressions of multi-layered identities give substance to the

World Social Forums stress on unity in diversity in individual, personal (rather than

Figure 4. Extract from Tlaxcalas Library of Translators featuring WSF as an entry.


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movement) terms and is in line with the idea of the autonomous subject as multifaceted

with multiple overlapping identities (Flesher Fominaya, 2007, p. 340).

All groups within this first category focus on producing and circulating written

translations of texts that they themselves select. Like the fansubber networks discussed by

Perez-Gonzalez,17 they act effectively as self-appointed translation commissioners that

choose what is to be subtitled (2007, p. 71)or, in this case, what is to be translated,

posted on the website and circulated through mailing lists and other means. 18 Similarly,

while a group such as Adbusters, with whom Translator Brigades identify explicitly,

engage in disseminating information about the unsavoury business practices of companies

such as Nike in order to uncool the brand (Carty, 2002, p. 141), we might say that the

groups examined here use their linguistic skills to disseminate counter narratives that can

uncool dominant takes on a range of issues, including the siege of Gaza, continued

poverty in Africa and drug trafficking in Latin America. Each translation they produce

functions as an episode in a larger narrative under construction, itself an episode of a larger

narrative still.

In the case of Tlaxcala, the largest and most elaborate of these groups, each set of

narratives, as elaborated in individual translations, is classified under a specific heading:

Africa; Abya Yala; Asia and Oceania; Land of Palestine; Umma; Europe; USA and

Canada. Taken together, the individual translations in each section cumulatively elaborate

Figure 5. Tlaxcalas Who We Are section, 2009.

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a certain narrative or set of related narratives of the relevant region, for example about the

causes of poverty and conflict in Africa. This narrative is elaborated both through the

selection of what to translate and include in each section and through the way the entire

section is framed, always within the larger narrative of an age-old imperial onslaught on

weaker cultures, a narrative that unfolds over extended periods of time, follows a familiar

story line, is projected onto a future that members of the group and other activists areinvited to participate in shaping and features a range of abstract character types as well as

more specific protagonists. For example, Abya Yala, the title of one of the sections, is

glossed as follows:

Living Earth: the indigenous name of Latin America

In the spirit of Martand native peoples, ABYA YALA is a collection of everything

related to Our America, living earth that begins at Ro Bravo and ends at Tierra del

Fuego, including the Caribbean islands, not forgetting the First Nations of Northern

America.

Umma is glossed as:

Common hopes

People, groups and territories marked by Islamic civilization. A community of

beliefs, values, debates and hopes gathered together in a quarter of all humanity.

Like the other groups under discussion, the translators of Tlaxcala engage actively in

renarrating the world from a specific position and locality, using translation as a means of

reconfiguring relations between protagonists and events in an unfolding story of the worldin which they live.

Type 2: Interpreting for Collective Forums and the Community

The second type of activist groups, who largely work within collective forums or in the

community, is exemplified by ECOS and Babels. ECOS (Traductores e Interpretes por la

Solidaridad)19 was set up in Granada in 1998 by lecturers and students of translation and

interpreting at the University of Granada (Balsalobre et al. 2010). The name, ECOS,

reflects a twofold concern: to facilitate communication across language barriers for those

individuals and groups excluded from the institutional or private market; and to echo(Eco) or give visibility to the situations in our contemporary world which are silenced

because they are not a priority for those controlling the dominant media (Balsalobre et al.

2010, p. 9).

Unlike the groups discussed above, ECOS provides volunteer translation and

interpreting to various sectors of civil society. In addition, members of the association

also organise local talks, in Granada, for the public (sometimes featuring international

speakers) to raise awareness about contemporary social and political questions, including

fair trade and the situations in Iraq and the Middle East. Although locally based at its

inception, since the second European Social Forum (ESF) in 2003, ECOS has been

collaborating with another activist group, Babels, in some international venues,


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particularly the Social Forum (Balsalobre et al. 2010, p. 9). Its website includes a full

section entitled ECOSBabels, to foreground this relationship (Figure 6). This pattern of

collaboration represents one area in which activist groups in the world of translation and

interpreting operate like other movements of collective action, not only in terms of their

aims but also their practices.

Babels is by far the best known and the largest of the activist communities under

discussion. It was set up in September 2002 by a group of activists linked to the French

branch of ATTAC, to meet the translation and interpreting needs of the ESF in Florence.

Babels charter explicitly describes the group as a player in the anti-capitalist debate

and signals their commitment to debate and experimentation as modes of political

engagement:

Babels is:

. A network of interpreters and translators

. A player in the anti-capitalist debate

. A workshop for the evolution of languages, expressions and their terminological

differences; proposals for translation of technical terms or ideas, taking into

account their linguistic heritage.

. A way of proposing within the framework of an organisation international events

in which Babels could take part: e.g. choice of languages, organisation of

conferences, seminars or workshops on the theme of languages and linguistic

diversity

. A meeting space for interpreters and organisations who come together fordifferent events; meetings on a technical level between speakers and interpreters

and assistance with expressing things orally20

An earlier version of the website featured an explanation of the choice of the plural form

Babels as a name for the group: this was meant to underline the supranational character

of the association. Unlike ECOS, Translators for Peace and TUP, then, Babelslike

Tlaxcala and Translator Brigadeswas conceived from the beginning as a transnational

network of activists.

Babels debut in Florence in 2002 featured 350 volunteer translators and interpreters

working without a budget and without even basic facilities such as computers and

Figure 6. EcosBabels section of the ECOS site.

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telephones (Hodkinson & Boeri, 2005). The success and dedication of the group, however,

convinced the organisers of the following ESF to give it better facilities and the relatively

large sum of 200,000 to prepare for Paris. The Paris Forum held in 2003 was

linguistically mediated by more than 1000 Babelitos drawn from a volunteer pool four

times that number. By the time the London ESF was held in October 2004, the Babels

database included over 7000 volunteers working in 63 languages (Boeri & Hodkinson,2005). By 2005, the number of volunteers registered with Babels had increased to 9000.

By any standard, this is an impressive coalition of translators and interpreters, or people

with the requisite language skills, actively engaging with and volunteering their time to

facilitate the task of envisioning a different world, one in which anyone can have a voice

and can contribute to the debate, whether or not they speak a colonial language such as

English or French.

Babels, like ECOS and Translator Brigades, has never published a list of its members.

Members who post messages or report on events sign the messages and reports in their

name, often only a first name, but otherwise there is no list of individual names on the site.

This is possibly because of the sheer size and fluidity of the group. It is also in line with the

groups overall political stance and its emebeddedness within the culture of the World

Social Forum: as a matter of principle, Babels foregrounds the collective nature of the

project and downplays the role of any individual within it. I will return to this issue shortly

when I discuss Babels resistance to patterns of representation. Resistance to

representation and hierarchy is characteristic of most of the other groups under

discussion; however, being organic21 to the World Social Forum, Babels reflects

explicitly and extensively on issues such as representation, participation, deliberation,

process, etc. on an ongoing basis (see Boeri (2009) for a detailed analysis of the debates

about these principles among members of Babels).

Positioning and Dynamics of Activist Groups of Translators

To varying degrees, but as particularly evident in the case of Babels, ECOS, Translator

Brigades and Tlaxcala, activist groups of translators are structured, operate and narrate

themselves in very similar ways to other movements of collective action. In terms of their

ultimate goals, they do not aim to seize power or achieve a set of political demands within

a specific period of time, but to effect a gradual change of consciousness that can have

enduring effectsglobally, not locally. As members of ECOS put it, they set out to

achieve a profound transformation of [ . . . ] unjust structures, as opposed to promoting

mere reforms that in fact only lend greater legitimacy to the current order (Balsalobre et al.2010, p. 9). This is very much in line with the general shift in patterns of resistance that

Melucci (1996), among others, has explained in terms of the fact that our contemporary

societies have no centres, and that it is now much more difficult to identify and seize

central instruments of power. Contemporary movements realise that in this context it is as

important to capture imagination as to command actions (Notes from Nowhere, 2003,

p. 65), that information has become a crucial resource, and that collective action must

therefore focus on changing public discourse and consciousness rather than effecting

change by material force. Against this background, translation and interpreting become

much more importantindeed, central to fulfilling the objectives of contemporary

political movements. They become a privileged space of political action in their own right.


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Melucci (1996, p. 308) identifies globality as one of the features of mobilisation in

contemporary movements. Affirming globality, he explains, means raising issues that

do not concern specific social groups only but, more generally, the system as such

(emphasis in original). By and large, the groups discussed here have increasingly moved

away from championing single issues and veered towards globality in these terms. Their

aims and praxis are fundamentally global in reach, even when they make space for specificlocal struggles, as in the case of Tlaxcala. Local struggles are used as models, narrative

elements to be combined into a larger narrative of the entire globe and the system as such,

rather than providing an exclusive focus for group activism. These groups did not all start

with a diverse, global agenda that questions the prevailing world order, but even those who

started out within a particular physical spaceSpain in the case of ECOS, Italy in the case

of Translators for Peace, Japan in the case of TUPhave tended to broaden or globalise

their agendas to varying degrees with time, not only in terms of collaborating with other

groups at an international level, but also in terms of extending their remit beyond the small

range of issues on which they initially focused. As they continue to evolve, they seem to

work more consciously at avoiding potential categorisation as single-issue groups,

reflecting the wider trend toward multi-issue activism documented in Tarrow (2006) and

recognised by della Porta and Mosca (2010, pp. 66, 76) as one of the contributions of local

social forums to the global justice movement. For example, an early version of the ECOS

website showed a strong focus on the issue of Palestine (Figure 7). But the most recent

version of the website downplays individual issues in favour of a broader agenda. This

suggests that activist groups in the world of translation and interpreting are coming much

more in line with global movements of collective action, with a steady drift in the direction

of engaging with a diverse range of issues that exceed the concerns of particular regions

and question the very basis of the political and social order.

In addition to being increasingly global in focus, these groups are also transnational and

trans-professional in terms of their composition. The individuals who make up the groupstranslate and interpretthis is their contribution to the struggle. But they come from very

many backgrounds. Some are qualified translators and interpreters, including students and

lecturers of translation. Some are practising professionals with few or many years

experience as translators and/or interpreters. Some are neither: they may be sociologists,

students of literature, biologists or journalists. We may think of them, on the whole, as

Figure 7. An early version of the ECOS site (2009) giving prominence to the issue of Palestine.

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amateur translators and interpreters, in Edward Saids sense:22 meaning not that they are

unskilled, but that as a group, and in many cases as individuals, they are not affiliated with

the profession or the institutions thatrepresenttranslators and interpreters, such as AIIC,23

the International Association of Conference Interpreters.

Not only do these groups refrain from forging formal relationships with professional

associations, but some, such as Babels and ECOS, are also perceived by professionals whothink of translation purely as a service, rather than as a political act in its own right, as

undermining the status of the professionby taking work away from professionals,

providing poor quality interpretation that reflects badly on the profession (Naumann, 2006;

Boeri, 2008) or potentially undermining client trust by compromising the core principles

of neutrality and impartiality that define translation in the context of the service economy.

Babels, for example, has been accused of disrupting the market.24 By providing free

interpreting at the Social Forum, some have argued, it allows Forum organisers to avoid

hiring professional interpreters and paying for the service, although, the criticism goes, the

organisers are perfectly happy to pay for other services and should therefore also be

prepared to pay for interpreting.Unlike other groups of activists, therefore, the fact that they offer a service normally

provided by professionals represented by associations, and explicitly refer to themselves

as translators both in the name of the group and their narratives of themselves, as

discussed earlier, means that in some respects the groups discussed here are caught

between the world of activism and the politics of professional competition and ethos of the

service economy. The analysis by Boeri (2009) of exchanges among members of Babels

over a period of time to establish how the groups public narrative of itself evolved

shows that elaborating a seemingly stable and streamlined narrative of the group

involved considerable negotiation among many Babelitos. This negotiation often

revealed sensitivity to the positioning of Babels vis-a-vis the profession, despite thedeliberately amateur character of the group, as evident in the following exchange (Boeri,

2009, p. 79):

I am firmly opposed to any intervention by Babels beyond the ESF and the WSF . . .

There is a big risk, after all, of unfair competition with professional interpreters.

When all associations become aware that there is a big pool of volunteer interpreters,

they wont be willing to budget for interpreting, even if they have the funds to do so.

It is too easy to counter this argument on the grounds that professional interpreters

are guided by their own financial interests and that there is something automatically

gratifying in providing free interpreting. It is not the role of a network that is

supposed to be aware of social problems to destroy the market. (Sarah, Babels

Forum, 28 March 2004; translated from French by Julie Boe ri).

ECOS has similarly felt obliged to explain and justify its activities to the community of

professional translators and interpreters who have felt threatened by its activities (Manuel

Jerez et al. n.d.):

In the association ECOS, Translators and Interpreters for Solidarity, we perform

volunteer work of translation and interpreting for NGOs, social forums and other

nonprofit organisations with affinities to the philosophy of our organisation. In no


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case would we wish to accept a continuous role in the performance of a service

which ought to be supplied by professionals under contract.25

Positioning themselves as unaffiliated amateurs, then, does not make these groups

impervious to pressure from professionals who offer similar skills for financial gain. But it

is a choice they continue to make.Like other contemporary movements, the groups under discussion also reject patterns of

representation and all forms of hierarchy, and treat themselves not as static groups with

identifiable structures and targets, but rather as loose networks of like-minded people, and

as experimental projects that are constantly in the making. Translator Brigades rejection

of hierarchy and representation is evident in its statement about decision-making and

demonstrates another aspect of prefiguration that characterises these groups, namely that

they experiment with ways of enacting democracy globally within their own organizing

process (Maeckelbergh, 2011, p. 3):

Decision making

Who decides what the group translates? Each person in the group decides what he or

she wish [sic] to translate. While there is a certain degree of delegation of tasks and

people are encouraged to assume a role as facilitators of the group, there are no

leaders, hierarchy or centralized guidance at all.26

Rejection of hierarchy entails specific modes of functioning; a movement with no

leaders organizes horizontally, through networks (Notes from Nowhere, 2003, p. 64).

Babels mode of operation reflects this. The group explicitly adopts a networking logic

rather than a command-oriented logic (Juris, 2005), as outlined in its About Us page:

How does Babels work?

Babels is a horizontal, non-hierarchical network, with no permanent structures of

any kind, in which we are all volunteers and we each work on the tasks to which we

freely commit. Some of us interpret in a booth. Others volunteer our time to help

organise the various projects which the network initiates or to which it contributes.

Some of us create glossaries to internationalise, expand and shape the language of

the causes which interest us. We all contribute to the political debate and to the

experimentation in linguistic activism and horizontal organisation.27

Of all the groups discussed here, Babels is perhaps the most self-reflexive and the most

alert to its positioning within the constantly changing landscape of contemporarymovements of collective action. Its members have created several spaces on their website,

including the Babels Forum, Wiki, Chat and baBeLOG, where they continually debate

issues such as representation versus participation, event versus process, deliberation

versus struggle and horizontal versus vertical modes of operation. It is a biodegradable

network in the terms of Flesher Fominaya (2007) and a textbook case of contemporary

movements of collective action as described by Melucci (1996, p. 115):

Above all, [ . . . ] one notes the segmented, reticular, and multi-faceted structure of

movements. This is a hidden or, more correctly, latent structure; individual cells

operate on their own entirely independently of the rest of the movement, although

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they maintain links to it through the circulation of information and persons. These

links become explicit only during the transient periods of collective mobilization

over issues which bring the latent network to the surface and then allow it to

submerge again in the fabric of daily life.

All Babels activity is organised around precisely such loosely linked episodes, temporaryprojects set up for very specific events. The Babels Protocols summarise the process as

follows:

Protocol summary:

1. New project is created. See Communication Protocol for details.

2. Babels-Tech creates a new project-oriented list and a new project-oriented

admin. The project should have deadlines (if applicable), so that we know when it

is no longer useful to recruit new volunteers. For example, if a forum ends on

March 31st, the project should end on March 31st, and the list should be taken off

the registration page on that date (this does not mean the list is deleted). Theproject should also be clearly described.

3. The general-purpose admin sends a message to volunteers using the general-

purpose list (Info Babels) to explain that a new project has been created, and

that volunteers should subscribe to the new project if they are interested.

4. The project is organized by the project-oriented admin with the project-oriented

list. This list is used to contact the volunteers who chose to subscribe to the new

list/project. The project-oriented admin can look at the files of the volunteers in

detail.

5. Once the project is over, the list is removed from the registration page, and the

project-related admin is deleted shortly after that. If the project takes a new form,

then a new project should be created, to allow for more/other people to volunteer,

and the protocol has to be applied again.28

This cyclical form of mobilisation, as Melucci explains, may serve to strengthen rather

than diffuse networks of solidarity and, importantly, protects the various cells from the

effect of centrifugal forces threatening the movements integrity (1996, p. 116). A

network that has no leader(s) to represent it and no permanent, stable structure is more

difficult to co-opt than one that is diffuse and relies on transient and fluid forms of

mobilisation. But this fluidity and open-endedness are unsettling and tend to be perceived

as suspicious by a professional community that has continually sought to increase rather

than undermine its own institutionalisation to promote and safeguard its interests.Members of a loose, open-ended network who still refer to themselves as translators and

interpreters cannot be held accountable by their peers, and the impact of their behaviour on

the profession cannot be controlled by institutions like AIIC that invest in the idea that

they represent the profession.

Another source of tension for these groups, this time in their relations with other activist

movements, is the fact that the kind of solidarity they offer consists of some form of

voluntary professional service. Specifically, the goals and functioning of these groups

share certain features with a particular type of collective action that Melucci calls

altruistic action (1996, pp. 166170) and defines as a form of collective, purposive, and

organized social altruism (p. 168). Like contemporary social and political movements, he


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explains, altruistic action is directed against the processes by which dominant cultural

codes are formed [ . . . ] By its sheer existence, such action challenges power, upsets its

logic, and constructs alternative meanings. [It] indicates that the encounter with the

other is not reducible to the instrumental logic (Melucci, 1996, p. 169). The type of

collective action undertaken by the activist groups discussed here shares a number of

features with forms of altruistic action in Meluccis terms.First, the action in which these groups engage is altruistic because it is voluntary: A

voluntary actor joins a form of collective solidarity of her/his own free will, and belongs

to a network of relations by virtue of personal choice (Melucci, 1996, p. 167). In other

words, these groups do not function as unions, and there is no social requirement, implicit

or explicit, that leads individuals to volunteer their services as translators or interpreters.

Second, in terms of objectives, altruistic action is specifically aimed at producing

benefits or advantages for subjects other than the volunteers, and it therefore takes the

form of a service provided or a good distributed to others (Melucci, 1996, p. 167). This is

precisely what activist groups of translators and interpreters do. They provide a service to

others, a service that has benefits for others, not for themselves. And yet, as Melucci

explains, what most distinguishes altruistic from other types of action is that economic

benefits do not constitute the basis of the relationship among those involved, nor between

them and the recipients in the performed action (1996, p. 167). Although the action is

gratuitous, it is not about making or saving money for either the volunteer group or the

community they volunteer for. This is a continued bone of contention in Babels

relationship with the Social Forum, as documented in detail in Boeri (2009). Although the

group provides volunteer interpreting which does save the Forum the cost of employing

paid professionals, Babels argues strongly that they do not volunteer to save the Forum

money but, as their About Us page explains, to give voice to peoples of different

languages and cultures [ . . . ] to fight for the right of all, including those who dont speak a

colonial language, to contribute to the common work [. . .

and] allow everyone to expressthemselves in the language of their choice. In other words, they see their work as direct

political action, as creating a space for multiple voices, rather than as saving the Social

Forum the cost of interpreting. They have repeatedly argued that they do not see Babels

as a low-cost service provider but rather as an active member and co-organiser of the

Forum (Lampropoulou, 2010, p. 29), with a key role to play in elaborating the vision of

the WSF.

Both as amateurs and as volunteers engaged in altruistic action, then, the groups

under discussion occupy an ambivalent space between activism and the service economy.

They are obliged to attend to attempts on the part of professionals to narrate them as a

threat to the profession and the tendency of other activists to treat them as low-cost serviceproviders rather than equal players in the political field.

Prefiguration: Reversing the Symbolic Order

Melucci (1996) discusses the ways in which contemporary movements attempt to reverse

the symbolic order to undermine the very foundations of power in our increasingly

complex societies. In particular, he argues (1996, p. 357):

Contemporary movements strive to reappropriate the capacity to name through the

elaboration of codes and languages designed to define reality, in the twofold sense of

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constituting it symbolically and of regaining it, thereby escaping from the

predominant forms of representation.

Activist groups like Babels and Tlaxcala engage in this process of renaming and

renarrating the world using a variety of resources, especially those provided by new media

and technologies. As Carty and Onyett (2006, p. 230) argue, new forms of technology areredefining political struggle by providing the resources and environment necessary for

cohesive organized resistance. Some of these resources are symbolic, and allow the

groups discussed here to create spaces where translation and interpreting can function as

emancipatory, empowering tools of resistance. These are also spaces where the group can

practise prefigurative politics in a way that is not only instrumental in articulating its

vision, but also vital for maintaining and protecting the group itself as a locus of collective

action. As Melucci explains (1996, pp. 328329):

Contemporary movements maintain a degree of separation from the dominant

cultural codes through the constitution and operation of organizational forms which

prefigure the goals they pursue, and through their activity of visibly signalling the

societal problems addressed by it. [ . . . ] The greater the emphasis on challenge and

the more prominent such prefiguration, the lesser the risk that organizational forms

will be assimilated or co-opted.

In other words, prefiguration is strategic in more than one sense (Maeckelbergh, 2011); it

not only brings about change by enacting the principles being advocated here and now, but

also protects a group like Babels from being co-opted.

New technologies allow groups like Babels and Tlaxcala to engage in prefigurative

politics in ways that are specific to translation: by means of layout, colour, links, drop-

down lists and a variety of other features that can be manipulated to reconfigure therelationship between languages. Both Babels and Tlaxcala, and to a lesser extent

Translator Brigades, use such resources to deliberately undermine the power of English, as

part of their commitment to linguistic diversity. For example, the Babels homepage

features a highly colourful banner at the top, with equivalents to Welcome in a variety of

languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Thai, Spanish, Italian and Turkish, among many

others. English, the lingua franca of the world, is conspicuous by its absence (Figure 8).

A list of abbreviations denoting different interface languages appears a short distance

below the banner:

[Catala j Deutsch j ellhnika j English j Espanol j Francais j Hrvatski j Magyar jItaliano j Latviesu j Nederlands j Polski j Portugues j Romana j ]

Another list of languages appears in the form of a drop-down window accessible from the

baBeLOG section of the site (Figure 9). Most websites would list English first, perhaps

followed by French and Spanish, but in the various permutations of these interface

languages since the founding of Babels in 2002, English has never appeared in prime

position, in any section of the site.

Until 2009, Tlaxcalas website reflected a similar though less radical strategy, aimed at

relative downgrading of the status of English but with prominence still given to other

dominant languages, namely Spanish and French (Figure 10). Its current site, however,


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Figure 8. Babels homepage (accessed 12 August 2011).

Figure 9. List of Babels site languages accessible through baBeLOG section (accessed 12 August2011).

42 M. Baker

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lists English first. It does nevertheless continue to give visibility to a range of other

languages, including Tamazight and Esperanto (Figure 11).

In addition to undermining the global power of English, either by pushing it down thelist of interface languages or contaminating the space with numerous other languages, the

layout of the Babels and Tlaxcala sites effects global linkages, celebrates contamination

and undermines established linguistic hierarchies in other interesting ways.

As can be seen in Figure 8, a brief statement about Babels appears just below the list of

interface languages on the homepage. This statement unpredictably comes up in different

languages at different times. When it occasionally appears in English, it reads: Babels is

an international network of volunteer interpreters and translators whose main objective is

to cover the interpreting needs of the Social Forums. The shuffling of languages on

different days and visits to the site, and of the order in which languages are listed, as well

as the varying levels of visibility given to various languages in different sections are part

of Babels political message. They are part of a broader strategy designed to reverse the

symbolic order by narrating the linguisticand hence culturallandscape as diverse,

fluid, contaminated and non-hierarchical.

Babels also engages in creating polyvocal and inclusive spaces in other areas of its own

practice. The way its members interact among themselveson Wiki, Chat and

baBeLOGenacts the same principles of linguistic contamination and fluidity, as in the

baBeLOG entry shown in Figure 12.

Tlaxcala reverses the symbolic order by disrupting dominant patterns of translation

flow. The dominant pattern, as they argue, is that Non-Anglophones are relegated to mere

Figure 10. Interface languages on earlier version of Tlaxcala website (2009).

Figure 11. Interface languages on current Tlaxcala site (accessed 12 August 2011).


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passive spectators whose opinions do not contribute to the global discussion because their

contributions are generally not translated into English and other languages of wide

diffusion (Talens, 2010, p. 20). Hence, Tlaxcala gives no priority to Englishor French,

or Spanishas source languages, nor are languages like Arabic, Turkish and Persian

treated as predominantly target languages, i.e. passive receivers of political wisdom

emanating from Europe. The translations posted on the site are undertaken from and into

all 13 languages on offer, depending on the selections made by those who decide to

volunteer their time as translators.

This contrasts sharply with the practice of advocacy groups that court mainstream

political institutions. For example, the Middle East Media Research Institute maintains a

sharp divide between source languages such as Arabic, Persian and Turkish, and target

languages such as English, French, Spanish and Hebrew (Baker, 2010). In the context of

MEMRIs declared narrative of itself as a player in the fight against terrorism, 29 this

division constructs a rigid narrative of the world as made up of two types of protagonist:

those who represent a threat to progressive, democratic societies, and who therefore have

to be monitored very closely (through translation), and those who bear the burden of

monitoring these sources of security threat in order to protect the innocent, democratic,

civilised Western world against terrorist activities (Baker, 2010, p. 355). Tlaxcalas

practice, on the other hand, constructs a narrative of a world whose protagonists are

citizens of the world, with an equal right to speak in any language of their choice, and be

heard in any language in which a willing volunteer translator can be found. Thetranslations are not framed as a tool of monitoring suspect communities but as a means of

exchange and a challenge to the dominant world order.

Conclusion

What I have tried to demonstrate in this article is that a growing number of activist groups

of translators and interpreters have been joining the global movement of justice since

1998, and are increasingly creating distinctive, autonomous spaces in which a multitude of

actors can come to experiment with the prospect of envisioning a new world. In addition to

Figure 12. baBeLOG entry, 2006.

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engaging in resistant and altruistic forms of action, and to providing volunteer interpreting

and translation, what Babels, Tlaxcala and other groups discussed here are increasingly

doing is configuring a space in which specific linguistic performances participate, however

subtly, in creating new cultural situations and new balances of power. This space is not

configured in their practice as static but as fluid, dynamic, negotiable, always in the

making. Apart from the deliberate downgrading of English as a colonial language, thefluidity and contamination are meant to undermine and dissolve the hierarchical ordering

and separation of languages, and all that this hierarchical ordering signals in terms of

power and implicit evaluation of the different languages and hence cultures involved.

Precisely because they put their professional and linguistic skills at the service of

political movements, and explicitly identify themselves as translators and interpreters, the

activities of these groups create tensions within professional circles that have long been

dominated by a discourse of neutrality and non-engagement as pre-requisites for

facilitating communication across cultures. At the same time, the altruistic nature of their

contribution frustrates their attempt to play a full political role in some activist venues. As

they expand in number and size and develop their own, novel ways of doing politics,

scholars of translation and social movement studies would do well to take heed of their

activities and endeavour to theorise their positioning and methods of prefiguration in ways

that can contribute productively to both disciplines.

Notes

1. The Granada Declaration, issued at the end of a forum on Social Activism in Translation and Interpreting

held in Granada in April 2007, rejects the common view of the translator as a neutral vehicle between ideas

and cultures. Seehttp://www.translationactivism.com/Manifest.html(accessed 8 August 2011).

2. See also Atton (2003, p. 8), who confirms that the concentration of Indymedia IMCs similarly remains

greatest in the USA [ . . . ] and Europe [ . . . ] Other regions are far less well represented.

3. According to its About page, Tahrir Documents is an ongoing effort to archive and translate activist papersfrom the 2011 Egyptian uprising and its aftermath. Materials are collected from demonstrations in Cairos

Tahrir Square and published in complete English translation alongside scans of the original documents. The

project is not affiliated with any political organization, Egyptian or otherwise. See http://www.tahrirdo

cuments.org/about/(accessed 9 March 2012).

4. See http://web.tiscali.it/traduttoriperlapace/ and http://www.babels.org/spip.php?rubrique2 (accessed 9

March 2012).

5. The protest movement that started in Spain on 15 May 2011. The statement signals the Spanish origin of the

group indirectly, but there is no attempt on the site to locate the initiative within a specific geographical

context.

6. http://web.tiscali.it/traduttoriperlapace/(accessed 9 March 2012).

7. http://www.tup-bulletin.org/modules/main/index.php?content_id1(accessed 9 March 2012).

8. I am grateful to Mari Oka for providing me with an English translation of the relevant sections of the site.9. http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/(accessed 9 March 2012).

10. http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/(accessed 11 August 2011).

11. http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_affen(accessed 11 August 2011).

12. http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_affen(accessed 11 August 2011).

13. http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/(accessed 9 March 2012).

14. http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/(accessed 9 March 2012).

15. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-

sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hlen_US&pli1(accessed 9 March 2012).

16. http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut87&lg_ppen(accessed 9 March 2012).

17. Fansubbers are fan/amateur subtitlers of foreign films and television programmes.

18. So far, none of the groups discussed here has ventured into the area of subtitling, even though much of the

activist material circulating on the internet now comes in the form of video clips.


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http://www.translationactivism.com/Manifest.htmlhttp://www.tahrirdocuments.org/about/http://www.tahrirdocuments.org/about/http://www.babels.org/spip.php?rubrique2http://web.tiscali.it/traduttoriperlapace/http://www.tup-bulletin.org/modules/main/index.php?content_id=1http://www.tup-bulletin.org/modules/main/index.php?content_id=1http://www.tup-bulletin.org/modules/main/index.php?content_id=1http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut=87&lg_pp=enhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zDEzDVs1DomZ3LA5-14CJgrqm-sA6hGQNaWwHIWA2ek/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff=enhttp://www.tlaxcala-int.org/http://translatorbrigades.wordpress.com/about/http://www.tup-bulletin.org/modules/main/index.php?content_id=1http://www.tup-bulletin.org/modules/main/index.php?content_id=1http://web.tiscali.it/traduttoriperlapace/http://www.babels.org/spip.php?rubrique2http://www.tahrirdocuments.org/about/http://www.tahrirdocuments.org/about/http://www.translationactivism.com/Manifest.html


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19. http://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos(accessed 9 March 2012).

20. http://www.babels.org/spip.php?article1(accessed 9 March 2012).

21. Babels organicity to the World Social Forum is itself the subject of continuing debate within the network

(Boeri, 2009).

22. Cf. Attons discussion of the role of amateur journalists in the history of social movement media (2003,

p. 10).

23. AIIC stands for Association Internationale des Interpretes de Conference. Seehttp://www.aiic.net/(accessed11 August 2011).

24. For an extended critical discussion of some of the criticism levelled against Babels in particular, see Boeri

(2008).

25. http://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingles(accessed 11 March 2012).

26. http://translatorbrigades.org/?qabout(accessed 9 March 2012).

27. http://www.babels.org/spip.php?article272(accessed 11 August 2011).

28. http://www.babels.org/spip.php?article30(accessed 12 August 2011).

29. MEMRIs work directly supports fighting the U.S. War on Terror; seehttp://www.memri.org/assistingamer

ica/(accessed 12 August 2011).

References

Atton, C. (2003) Reshaping social movement media for a new millennium, Social Movement Studies, 2(1),

pp. 315.

Baker, M. (2006a)Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account (London/New York: Routledge).

Baker, M. (2006b) Translation and activism: Emerging patterns of narrative community, The Massachusetts

Review, 47(III), pp. 462 484.

Baker, M. (2009) Resisting state terror: Theorizing communities of activist translators and interpreters,

in: E. Bielsa & C. W. Hughes (Eds) Globalization, Political Violence and Translation, pp. 222242

(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

Baker, M. (2010) Narratives of terrorism and security: Accurate translations, suspicious frames, Critical Studies

on Terrorism, 3(3), pp. 347364.Balsalobre, L. S., Manuel Jerez, J., Garca, E. M. & Gutierrez, E. R. (2010) ECOS: 12 years breaking down the

barriers of silence and languages, trans. from Spanish by A. Martin, in: J. Boeri & C. Maier (Eds)

Translation/interpreting and social activism, pp. 718 (Granada: ECOS).

Boeri, J. (2008) A narrative account of the Babels vs. Naumann controversy: Competing perspectives on activism

in conference interpreting, The Translator, 14(1), pp. 2150.

Boeri, J. (2009) Babels, the social forum and the conference interpreting community: Overlapping and competing

narratives on activism and interpreting in the era of globalisation, PhD Thesis, CTIS, University of

Manchester, Manchester.

Boeri, J. & Hodkinson, S. (2005) Babels and the politics of language at the heart of Social Forum. Available at

http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinamic.php?paginababels (accessed 6 April 2012).

Carty, V. (2002) Technology and counter-hegemonic movements: The case of Nike Corporation, Social

Movement Studies, 1(2), pp. 129146.Carty, V. & Onyett, J. (2006) Protest, cyberactivism and new social movements: The reemergence of the peace

movement post 9/11, Social Movement Studies, 5(3), pp. 229249.

della Porta, D. & Mosca, L. (2010) Build locally, link globally: The Social Forum process in Italy, American

Sociological Association, 16(1), pp. 6381.

Flesher Fominaya, C. (2007) Autonomous movements and the institutional left: Two approaches in tension in

Madrids anti-globalization network,South European Society and Politics, 12(3), pp. 335358.

Hernadi, P. (1980/1981) On the how, what and why of narrative, in: W. J. T. Mitchell (Ed.) On Narrative,

pp. 197199 (Chicago, IL/London: University of Chicago Press).

Hodkinson, S. & Boeri, J. (2005) Social Forums after London: The politics of language, Red Pepper. Available at

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Juris, J. (2005) Social Forums and their margins: Networking logics and the cultural politics of autonomous space,

Ephemera, 5(2), pp. 253272.

46 M. Baker

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Lampropoulou, A. (2010) Babels interpreting policy in the Athens European Social Forum: A socio-political

approach to interpreting, in: J. Boeri & C. Maier (Eds) Interpreting and Social Activism, pp. 2837

(Granada: ECOS).

Maeckelbergh, M. (2011) Doing is believing: Prefiguration as strategic practice in the alterglobalization

movement, Social Movement Studies, 10(1), pp. 120.

Manuel Jerez, J., Lopez Cortes, J. & Brander de la Iglesia, M. (n.d.) Social commitment in translation and

interpreting: A view from ECOS, translators and interpreters for solidarity. Available athttp://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingles (accessed 11 March 2012).

Melucci, A. (1996) Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press).

Notes from Nowhere (Eds) (2003)We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism (London:

Verso).

Naumann, P. (2005) Babels and nomad observations on the barbarising of communication at the 2005 World

Social Forum,Communicate! Available at http://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page1800.htm (accessed 27 April

2012).

Perez-Gonzalez, L. (2007) Intervention in new amateur subtitling cultures: A multimodal account, Linguistica

Antverpiensia, 6, pp. 67 80.

Talens, M. (2010) The languages of Tlaxcala: A short history of a long walk, in: J. Boe ri & C. Maier (Eds)

Interpreting and Social Activism, trans. from Spanish by S. Campbell, pp. 1924 (Granada: ECOS).

Tarrow, S. (2006)The New Transnational Activism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Mona Baker is professor of Translation Studies at the Centre for Translation and

Intercultural Studies, University of Manchester, UK. She is author ofIn Other Words: A

Coursebook on Translation(Routledge, 1992; 2nd ed. 2011) and Translation and Conflict:

A Narrative Account (Routledge, 2006), editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of

Translation Studies (1998, 2001; 2nd ed., co-edited with Gabriela Saldanha, 2009);

Critical Concepts: Translation Studies (Routledge, 2009) and Critical Readings in

Translation Studies (Routledge, 2010). She is also founding editor of The Translator

(St. Jerome Publishing, 1995 till Present), editorial director of St. Jerome Publishing,and founding vice-president of IATIS (International Association for Translation

and Intercultural Studies, www.iatis.org).


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http://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingleshttp://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingleshttp://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page1800.htmhttp://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page1800.htmhttp://www.iatis.org/http://www.iatis.org/http://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page1800.htmhttp://aiic.net/ViewPage.cfm/page1800.htmhttp://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingleshttp://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingles

Translation as Political Action

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