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Abstract
This article examines the genesis, dynamics and positioning of activist groups of translators 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 empower voices made invisible by the global power of English and the politics of language. They further recognise that language and translation themselves constitute a space of resistance, a means of reversing 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 websites—all 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. The article examines the positioning of these groups vis-à-vis what Tarrow (2006, p. 16) terms ‘the new generation of global justice activists’ on the one hand, and professional translators and interpreters on the other, and argues that they occupy a ‘liminal’ space between the world of activism and the service economy.
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’. See http://www.translationactivism.com/Manifest.html (accessed 8 August 2011).
2. See also Atton (Citation2003, 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 papers from the 2011 Egyptian uprising and its aftermath. Materials are collected from demonstrations in Cairo's 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.tahrirdocuments.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_id = 1 (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_aff = en (accessed 11 August 2011).
12. http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/manifeste.asp?lg_aff = en (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?hl = en_US&pli = 1 (accessed 9 March 2012).
16. http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/biographie.asp?ref_aut = 87&lg_pp = en (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.
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 (Boéri, Citation2009).
22. Cf. Atton's discussion of the role of ‘amateur journalists’ in the history of social movement media (2003, p. 10).
23. AIIC stands for Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence. See http://www.aiic.net/ (accessed 11 August 2011).
24. For an extended critical discussion of some of the criticism levelled against Babels in particular, see Boéri (Citation2008).
25. http://cicode-gcubo.ugr.es/ecos/artecos/articuloingles (accessed 11 March 2012).
26. http://translatorbrigades.org/?q = about (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. ‘MEMRI's work directly supports fighting the U.S. War on Terror’; see http://www.memri.org/assistingamerica/ (accessed 12 August 2011).