- Culture
- 10 Jun 04
Caught in the Net: the anti-war movement is making its presence felt on the web...
War? What’s it good for? Well, some excellent free MP3 downloads for starters. Decidedly unimpressed with what’s being done in their country’s name, the Beastie Boys and Ani DiFranco have both come up with Bush-baiting songs that can be iPodded by clicking onto the links at here
One of the stand-outs from the Beasties’ soon-to-be-released To The 5 Boroughs album, ‘In A World Gone Mad’ includes such choice couplets as: “You build more bombs as you get more bold/As your mid-life crisis war unfolds/All you wanna do is take control/Now put that Axis of Evil bullshit on hold.”
Echoing those laudable sentiments, DiFranco’s spoken-word ‘Self-Evident’ suggests that: “It’s time to get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand/Of someone else’s desert, put it back in its pants.”
On the other side of the nuclear dumping ground known as the Atlantic, www.peace-not-war.org carries messages of support from Asian Dub Foundation, Billy Bragg, Alabama 3 and John Pilger who notes that, “There is no difference between murder committed in familiar circumstances and murder committed by our government and its allies in Iraq and in Palestine.”
With dissenting voices like Pilger’s rarely heard on the major networks, more and more Americans are turning to resources like www.antiwar.com for an alternative view of what Dubya’s getting up to abroad. Among other tales of bumbling incompetence/ premeditated nastiness is the news that he’s elected to build the new US embassy in Macedonia on a sacred Muslim burial site.
There’s more food for thought at www.english.aljazeera.net, which unlike the ABCs and CNNs of this world isn’t squeamish about showing pictures of Iraqi children who’ve been killed by Allied forces.
If you fancy mounting your own one-man/woman campaign against the Iraq war, www.members.lycos.co.uk/freeposters has a comprehensive range of designs which can be downloaded, photocopied and superglued on to the imperialist bastard surface of your choice.
Finally, the next time you’re Googling type in ‘Weapons Of Mass Destruction’, hit the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ button and prepare to have your undergarments dry-cleaned. Happy
protesting!