August 5, 1999

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.

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."

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!"