Antiwar Campaign Spreads Online

It's faster than a phone call, cheaper than a mass mailing, as immediate as television -- and can orchestrate protests from just about anywhere. It's also a news source for antiwar efforts that, some activists say, are given scant coverage in the mainstream media.

"The Internet has been an amazing new tool for organizers. It allows you to get in touch with people all over the country, and all over the world, in a way that just wasn't possible before," said Andrea Buffa, national co-coordinator for the antiwar efforts of United for Peace and Justice, a broad coalition of 200 groups -- ranging from the National Council of Churches to the Central Nebraska Peace Workers -- opposed to the war.

"During the Gulf War in 1991, many people did not have e-mail or Internet access," she said. According to Buffa, the organization's Web site, www.unitedforpeace.org, gets 1.5 million hits a day.

"People will be very angry. They will come out," said Mariana Botey, 33, an Echo Park artist who plans to head to the historic La Placita church near Olvera Street -- one of the "Emergency Convergence Points" for antiwar demonstrations in Southern California -- with her husband, Ryan Wardell, and their 5-month-old son, Jacinto.

"In a sense, the only true opposition to this is the movement in the streets," Botey said.

What to do at the outset of war is one of the most incendiary current Internet themes, and a flood of new e-mail instructions went out after President Bush's speech Monday night.

One plan, signed by such sponsors as the Coalition for World Peace and International ANSWER Coalition, called on protesters in Los Angeles and Orange counties to head to specific protest centers after work the day of the attack.

"If you wish to consider civil disobedience, please come with a decision to join in the peaceful actions of the large group," the communique advised. "Have an ID and money or a way for having support when you are arrested."

Immediate Reaction

On Wednesday night, as word of war spread, some protesters immediately headed to one of the designated protest centers, the Federal Building in Westwood.