SAN JOSE, Calif. — Opponents of a U.S.-led war against Iraq bombarded Senate offices and the White House on Wednesday by fax, phone and e-mail in what organizers billed as the first “virtual march” on Washington.
Time constraints, child care, commuting conflicts and work schedules make attending demonstrations difficult for many people. But the “virtual march,” coordinated by the Win Without War coalition, was accessible to anyone with a phone or a modem.
“I started at 7 a.m. and I finally got through to (Sen. Dianne) Feinstein’s office at 10 a.m.,” said Linda Carmichael, 57, who lives in Willow Glen, Calif. “I haven’t gone to any of the anti-war marches, mostly out of laziness. This seemed to be a wonderful way to have my voice heard without having to do a lot of work. But it ended up taking more time then I thought. I had to keep hitting redial.”
Fax-blasting members of Congress and making phone calls about a particular issue is nothing new, and indeed scores of citizens have contacted their representatives in recent months on everything from tax cuts to prescription drug coverage. But Wednesday’s anti-war effort highlights how technology continues to influence the way protests are orchestrated.
“In the Gulf War, people did not use e-mail that much, and cell phones were rare,” said Howard Rheingold, author of “Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.” “Now there’s the possibility of war at a time when the Internet is part of popular culture, and people are increasingly sophisticated about e-mail and cell phones. Text messaging is big in a lot of places outside of the U.S. A year from now, that will be different.”
Rheingold predicts sending text messages by cell phone, which is popular in many countries outside the United States, will spread here and become yet another tool for organizing protests.
Virtual protest organizer Win Without War is a coalition of 32 liberal organizations that includes the National Council of Churches, the Sierra Club, the NAACP and MoveOn.org. The coalition supports rigorous United Nations weapons inspections but believes that a pre-emptive military invasion of Iraq will increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks and damage the economy.
It’s impossible to determine how many people took part in Wednesday’s virtual march, and the White House declined to comment when asked about call volume to the White House switchboard. Organizers estimate that more than one million phone calls were made, in part because 400,000 people pre-registered their intent to participate on Win Without War’s Web site.