Left using internet and Michael Moore in battle for hearts and minds

July 23, 2004

Over the coming weeks, the Socialist Alliance will be distributing 200,000 "postcards to John Howard" demanding that the Australian government withdraw its troops from Iraq.

The cards will be distributed from campaigning stalls outside Mike Moore film screenings - the Socialist Alliance and the Greens have hosted previews attended by thousands, last weekend - and through door-to-door and street canvassing.

The "Bring The Troops Home Now!" postcards echo the message going out to millions of people around the world through Michael Moore's record-smashing documentary film, Fahrenheit 9/11. As the postcard puts it:

"Howard, like Bush, is waging a war on the poor, stealing Iraq's oil to feed business profits."

The Left in Australia, as in the United Sates of America, is striking a popular chord because as each day passes, it is becoming clearer for all the world to see that the United States invasion of Iraq, supported by the Australian government, did not "liberate" the Iraqi people. And the farce of the whitewash inquiry into the WMD lies that were used to justify the invasion is provoking more public disgust at John Howard, Tony Blair and George Bush.

The next Australian federal election - like the last Spanish election, which saw the conservative and pro-war Aznar government ousted - is shaping up as a referendum on the war in Iraq.

The Socialist Alliance postcards promote an online poll to bring Australian troops back home from Iraq. The online poll is on the fast developing Socialist Alliance website

The Socialist Alliance website manager Jorge Jorquera says:

"We are using the internet to articulate and organise community resistance.

"Groups of activists are linked not just by the website but work together through several different e-lists. Members and volunteers are coming in every day through the Socialist Alliance website."

The website links up to other progressive sites and hosts a new feedback "blogsite" ("blog" is short for weblog, a public diary published in the internet) called "Who's with Michael Moore?".

Mr Dave Riley who set up the "Who's with Michael Moore?" blogsite just two days ago says:

"The link to my Michael Moore blogsite has only been up less than a day but I am getting many comments from a wide range of people giving their two bobs worth on the topic. We linked it with the Socialist Alliance web site yesterday and the traffic keeps coming."

Mr Jorquera says:

"Modern day electoral campaigning has increasingly distanced itself from any sort of community interaction and as a result alienated more and more people. Young people in particular seem to be most alienated and we are aiming at winning them over."

"According to the web monitoring company Hitwise, 32.6% of visitors to Australian political websites are between the ages of 25 and 34. Younger voters don't buy newspapers and they tend not to watch current affair programs on television. Instead they are going to the internet for political information. They are going to websites like www.michaelmoore.com and www.greenleft.org.au for their politics."

Mr Jorge Jorquera can be contacted at 0425237285.

Mr Dave Riley can be contacted at 07 32664281.