|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
Internet Stokes Anti-War Movement |
Current rating: 0 |
by splintr
(No verified email address) |
21 Jan 2003
|
|
|
http://wired.com/news/print/0,1294,57310,00.html
"Internet Stokes Anti-War Movement"
By Leander Kahney
This weekend's anti-war protests were the first mass demonstrations in memory to occur before a conflict, a testimony to the organizing power of the Internet, observers say.
While the Vietnam-era anti-war movement took years to gather momentum, hundreds of thousands of protestors turned out in dozens of U.S. cities on Saturday to protest a possible war in Iraq.
The two biggest gatherings took place in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Estimates of the turnout are contentious -- authorities cited 100,000 for both cities, while organizers say crowds topped 850,000 -- but it's probably safe to say the marches were the biggest since the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s.
The rallies attracted a broad spectrum of protestors, from campus firebrands to elderly Republicans. Many religious groups were involved ("Who Would Jesus Bomb?" read one banner), as well as trade unions, a wide range of political groups and a lot of ordinary citizens.
The disparity of protestors is a sign the anti-war movement has gone mainstream, observers said, and it's thanks not to the media, but to hundreds of anti-war websites and mailing lists.
"Never before in human history has an anti-war movement grown so fast and spread so quickly," wrote historian and columnist Ruth Rosen in the San Francisco Chronicle. "It is even more remarkable because the war has yet to begin. Publicized throughout cyberspace, the anti-war movement has left behind its sectarian roots and entered mainstream culture."
... |
See also:
http://wired.com/news/print/0,1294,57310,00.html
|
