Posted on 13-3-2003
Mobilizing
Online Against War
By Cynthia L. Webb, Washington Post, Tuesday 11 March
2003
The Pentagon is proudly displaying its technological superiority
as it ramps up for a possible war with Iraq, but antiwar groups
too are engaged in a high-tech mobilization to protest a U.S.
military intervention.
Hundreds of Web sites -- many cross-linked to sympathetic groups
in a grassroots effort to drum up support -- are urging Americans
and people worldwide to take action. Site visitors are urged
to download antiwar posters, sign online petitions and send
chain e-mail letters to friends and lawmakers. The Internet
is allowing antiwar groups to communicate nationwide and across
the globe in ways hardly possible during any other conflict
in American history.
Last month, Moveon.org (http://www.moveon.org/)
and the Win Without War coalition (http://www.winwithoutwarus.org/)
organized a "Virtual March" on Washington, asking
Americans to call their members of Congress and inundate Capitol
Hill with e-mail and faxes. The groups claimed more than 85,000
people participated in the online protest.
On March 15, groups opposed to a war with Iraq are planning
protests in several U.S. cities, including Washington, San Francisco
and Los Angeles. Over the next several days, washingtonpost.com
will survey the antiwar movement's use of the Internet to spread
its message, looking at how national, religious, student and
other groups are conducting their organizing campaigns. On Friday
this feature will look at online campaigns employed by groups
supporting President Bush's policy on Iraq.
Yesterday, Moveon.org and other antiwar organizations were posting
a letter on their Web sites for readers to sign and submit online
to protest President Bush's push for a second U.N. Security
Council resolution to authorize force against Iraq. Moveon.org
said it planned to submit the letters to members of the security
council.
While e-mail has been used to flood lawmaker's inboxes, online
faxes have become another powerful tool of the antiwar movement.
Washington-based True Majority -- an education and advocacy
nonprofit group -- offers a link on its home page (http://www.truemajority.org/)
that users can click "to send free faxes to Congress and
the president telling them we can win without war and they should
let the inspections work."
Antiwar groups are also using the Web to raise money,
hawking T-shirts and other goods online, such as the New York-based
antiwar group Not In our Name (http://www.notinourname.net/).
Not In Our Name also issues talking points on its Web site to
help war supporters chime in on the debate about war in Iraq
-- a common tool in the online antiwar world to aimed at getting
activists everywhere to speak with one voice.
Activist tactics developed by the AIDS movement's loudest voice,
Act Up (http://www.actup.org/),
are being disseminated by antiwar groups. The London-based Active
Resistance to the Roots of War (http://www.j-n-v.org/)
links from its Web site to the ACT-UP guidelines on how to carry
out protests. Arrow also is circulating an online petition for
antiwar support on its Web site, telling readers: "You
can choose whether to pledge to directly participate in nonviolent
action or whether to pledge to play a support role which does
not risk arrest."
Message boards and e-mail discussion groups are home to
ongoing dialogue about Iraq. Yahoo! hosts a number of discussion
groups, including a small group of Arizona residents who are
opposed to war, and a 450-member discussion group by a group
called the National Network to End the War Against Iraq (http://www.endthewar.org/).
This site blends tried-and-true tactics with online ones, advocating
traditional snail mail letter-writing campaigns while also providing
downloads of fliers. The site links to yet another group protesting
the potential war, International ANSWER, "Act Now to Stop
War and End Racism" (http://www.internationalanswer.org/).
The group is part of a coalition that is preparing to join the
March 15 protests to speak out against a war with Iraq.
Some organizations -- including the Education for Peace in Iraq
Center -- are linking to an online peace pledge (http://www.peacepledge.org/)
for readers to register their opposition to a war in Iraq. Some
70,000 signatures have been gathered so far, according to the
site.
Meanwhile, the group Cities For Peace uses its Web site (http://www.citiesforpeace.org/)
to encourage people to write to their local lawmakers to protest
action in Iraq. The site even provides links to a sample opinion
piece and other activism tools.
Patriots For Peace has a button on its home page that lets readers
send out links back to the site (http://www.patriotsforpeace.org/),
and it offers geographically tailored antiwar posters for download.
The site, like many others, also features downloadable posters
and has a Paypal account set up for people to make donations.
One loud voice against war has its roots in radio. Amy Goodman,
host of the Pacifica Radio network's "Democracy Now!"
show (http://www.democracynow.org/)
is broadcasting daily shows on the radio and on the Internet,
offering a "daily polestar for those who crave the antiwar
perspective that mainstream networks and newspapers often consign
to the margins," The Washington Post reported Monday. "War
coverage should be more than a parade of retired generals and
retired government flacks posing as reporters," Goodman
told The Post. "Why not invite on some voices that are
not Pentagon-approved?"
|