The Wall Street Journal is the last place where I would expect to find this
article. But here it is. The web sites below offer many tools for the
hell raiser within all of us.
kelly
August 5, 1999 [INLINE]
Net Interest
Web Becomes a Cybertool
For Wired Political Activists
By EDWARD HARRIS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
To the '60s radical, "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was a mantra. In
these Web-happy days it could be, "Boot up, log on, download."
Swept in with the human tide flooding the Internet are anarchists,
zealots and every brand and shape of issue advocate. They range from
the concerned citizen who posts a Web site about a tax bill to a
Luddites' site denouncing modern technology to the site devoted to the
woman who has perched for two years in a tree to protect it from
loggers.
Net Interest
But compared with the Freedom Rides in the South, the Washington Mall
protests and riots in the streets in years past, some wonder whether
the Internet can really be an effective means of advocacy and protest.
The answer is already clear to the bankers and traders in the City,
London's financial district, who found themselves under siege on June
18. A shadowy organization called J18 used its Web site to coordinate
protests around the world coinciding with the Group of Eight
conference of world leaders in Cologne. The largest demonstration was
in London, where up to 2,000 anticapitalists coursed through the City
shouting slogans and spray-painting buildings. The police were caught
flatfooted. J18 had quietly and methodically planned the action
without taking out ads in publications or using traditional ways of
disseminating information that would have tipped off the public.
Evan Henshaw-Plath, the 22-year-old founder of the Web site Protest
Net, feels this is one of the unsung benefits of activists using the
Web. His site posts information about hundreds of protests, meetings
and conferences, most of which are left-leaning in their politics.
"There are two benefits of the Internet that I see," says Mr.
Henshaw-Plath. "One is that it enables users to discuss coordinated
action and more easily mobilize others. The second is that there are
no printing costs, which allows more people to express their views."
Where to Go
J18
www.j18.org
Protest Net
www.protest.net
E-The People
www.e-thepeople.com
Electronic Activist
www.berkshire.net/~ifas/ activist/index1.html
Znet
www.zmag.org
Conservative Caucus
www.conservativeusa.org
Net Action
www.netaction.org
Kent May 4 Center
www.may4.org
Many use the Internet to advocate specific issues: There are hundreds
of petitions and e-mail campaigns afoot on the Web. They range from
saving the gray whale's habitat to an effort to reimpeach President
Clinton on grounds of treason. One site, E-The People, has hundreds of
petitions to choose from and 170,000 e-mail addresses of government
officials. Others, such as the Electronic Activist site, offer
information on ways to contact officials at the national, state and
local levels, as well as a "how to" on activism.
The online world manifests many of the same animosities that exist
between proponents of opposing viewpoints in the real world. Mr.
Henshaw-Plath's site, Protest Net, posted information about a number
of protests against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's
air-strike campaign in Yugoslavia. Another activist who thought the
strikes worthwhile assiduously sought out every planned antiwar
demonstration advertised on the site and posted announcements for
counterdemonstrations that hadn't actually been arranged.
There are few objective Web sites that give both ends of the political
spectrum equal time. A quick Web search using a term for an issue or
political inclination will yield many choices. Lefties might find Znet
a useful place to start, while conservatives might like the
Conservative Caucus site. The latter outlet lists times and contact
information for many call-in talk shows and e-mail addresses for
editorial sections of newspapers, magazines and national television
programs.
These days, nearly every government representative seems to have an
e-mail address, making it easier for irate citizens to blast
officials. But it also means that the recipients may take such
submissions less seriously because they can be sent with so little
effort. For example, a recent e-mail sent to Sen. Charles E. Schumer
(D., N.Y.) under the subject heading "Mad as heck" garnered an
automatic response telling the sender to submit an old-fashioned
letter in order to receive a personalized reply. A spokeswoman for
Sen. Schumer said the office receives 1,500 letters a week and over
300 e-mails a day, many of which are sent to hundreds of other
recipients. "We have limited staff and the infrastructure in place to
handle written correspondence," not e-mail, she says. "Letters receive
first priority."
Audrie Krause, the executive director of Net Action, has created a
site to help Internet activists have greater impact. She offers a
veritable liturgy of ideas that can help the Web activist, from using
muscular prose in e-mail to avoiding sending rafts of messages to
hundreds of recipients. This practice, known as "spamming," is one
that many people find odious. Says Ms. Krause, "For some organizations
[the Internet] has added a tool or two ... but a good reputation is
still central."
While many agree that the Web can help activists coordinate
like-minded people and schedule real-world protests, others have
confined their protests solely to the Internet. One, Peter Baaij, of
the Netherlands, has unleashed a computer script onto the Web that
attaches itself to certain sites. A box pops up containing an
anti-Microsoft missive if your computer uses the Microsoft Explorer
Internet browser. The box instructs you to download a competing
browser and offers directions on how to do so. The box is easily
erased, and Mr. Baaij's campaign is completely virtual; he has no
intentions of taking it into the greater world. "I never liked being
part of demonstrations against this or that. I couldn't stand the mass
appeal," Mr. Baaij says. But as a Web designer, he is capable of
conducting his campaign online.
Ultimately, the advancement in communications created by the Internet
may prove the would-be revolutionary's greatest weapon. Alan Canfora,
director of the Kent May 4 Center, was shot at Kent State University
during the Vietnam protests on May 4, 1970, and has remained an
activist since. He wishes that the Web had existed during Vietnam
because war protesters were hampered by a lack of fresh news, relying
on establishment newspapers and weekly news magazines. Having devoted
his life to social activism, he says, "The Internet is a modern
example of free speech. We have a golden age of information: Let the
ideas contend in the Internet. Let them clash!"
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