When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Links
After neglecting this list for a very long time, I am not surprised to see how much the sites originally linked have changed. Still, I've updated the notes for all existing links, and added a few more. As the internet is a widely distributed network, it's never going to be indexed fully. Linkrot (broken links as pages move and shut down) is inevitable, so please have pity! If you know of any sites that you think ought to be linked from this page, please send me a note (This email address uses numerical character entity codes instead of characters as an anti-spam measure. Click here to read how it works.).
9-11 Peace - Newsletter arguing for non-violent resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan. You can subscribe to their newsletter.
Amazon Watch - Good old-fashioned Net activism, calling attention to the actions of big transnationals in the Amazon Basin.
Amnesty International - One of the original activist groups, AI reports and campaigns on abuses of freedom around the world.
Frank Beacham - This guy is the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young of the Internet, combining sixties idealism, rebel politics and a big bushy beard in what is unexpectedly one of the freshest "protest" sites on the Net. Beacham is savvy enough not to lose sight of his targets by focussing too closely on being clever.
CorpWatch - This site is not nearly as fun as, say, Adbusters, but it is a very informative corporate watchdog, looking closely at corporate activity in regards to public policy, governments, and international organizations.
Electronic Frontier Foundation - This is a fussy web site that takes itself very seriously. The Foundation considers government to be the absolute enemy of the Internet (conveniently forgetting who created and bankrolled the Internet in the first place), and treats every bill that touches on the Internet, however obliquely, as the most heinous crime against freedom of expression. The EFF makes the ACLU look like a gang of punks.
Human Rights Watch - Watchdog organization reporting on human rights abuses around the world.
Lobby Watch - An eye-opening site run by Texans for Public Justice, Lobby Watch reports on influence peddling, funny campaign contributions, and political bribery.
Marque's Linques - Marque is a Toronto area activist associated with the Coalition Against War and Racism (CAWR), and his site is an excellent clearinghouse for articles, links and information.
Multinational Monitor - Watchdog group for multinational activity, particularly in the third world
PayWatch - the AFL-CIO maintains this database of executive compensation in the US.
School Of the Americas Watch - Watchdog group looking at the infamous School Of the Americas, the CIA-run training camp for US-backed terrorists.
Abrupt - Clever, clever culture jamming site.
Adbusters - Still ground zero for the avant-garde culture jamming set, even if it has grown uncomfortably slick and image-conscious.
Billboard Liberation - Another culture jamming group, engaging billboards in discourse.
Culture Jammer's Encyclopedia - Required reading for hip activists.
Deconstructionist Institute for Surreal Toppology (DIST) - The folks that brought you the Edible Ballot Society ("Don't vote, it only encourages them") and the infamous theatrical catapult that launched stuffed animals at police during the Quebec FTAA summit, DIST help remind us that the world could be more fun as well as more fair.
Inconspicuous Consumption - "What is inconspicuous consumption? It's about deconstructing the details of consumer culture -- details that are either so weird or obscure that we'd never see them, or so ubiquitous that we've essentially stopped seeing them." Love this zine!
Microsith - Good, clean, Microsoft-poking fun.
Subvertise.org - Great archive of jammed billboards and subvertisements.
The Onion - Even though this site is sick with banners and pop-up ads, the satire is still razor-sharp.
The Yes Men - Original prankseters, the Yes Men impersonate world trade authorities in order to infiltrate conferences and shock audiences with the logical conclusions of trade ideology. Alas, the Yes Men have learned that experts will accept just about anything as long as it bears the WTO stamp of approval. See also: GATT.org, ®™ARK
The Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods - Frankly, I don't think this group goes far enough (deep down I wonder if this isn't an industry fall-back position), but their site is a treasure of articles that describe the biotech industry's machinations.
Center for Science in the Public Interest - Dedicated to improving public health through information about food and nutrition.
David Suzuki Foundation - The DSF is an environmental advocacy group, and this site features environmental news, essays and articles from David Suzuki, and a discussion board.
Environmental Working Group - Non-profit group that conducts independent research and compiles government databases to monitor pollution and chemical contamination.
Green Roof Monitor - Everything you need to know about urban agriculture, a trend that may, one day, sustainably provide much of the food we city folks eat.
Grist Magazine - Great environmental mag
San Diego Earth Times - Smart environmental magazine, focussing on transportation, development and sprawl from an ecological basis.
Percy Schmeiser Site - Site dedicated to the struggle of a Saskatchewan farmer against legal bullying from biotech giant Monsanto.
Pesticide Action Network - Searchable database of pesticide information
Right-To-Know Network - Provides searchable public access to databases tracking chemicals and hazardous wastes.
Adcritic - This started out as a site dedicated to replaying commercial advertisements purely for their own entertainment value. This was postmodernism at its best, but it unwittingly revealed the skewed resource flows of media by directing our attention to how well-made and entertaining these commercials really are - especially when compared to the lousy sitcoms they were produced to underwrite. Amazingly. The site has since been bought up by Advertising Age, in order that advertising professionals can "now benefit from the combination of round-the-clock industry news and a vast TV commercial archive." Fascinating. (See also: Advertising Age)
Advertising Age - Everyone who has concerns about advertising and its effect on culture should read this industry magazine. Ad Age is dedicated to the principle that advertising influences consumers, which is ironic because apologists for unrestrained advertising tend to defend ads on the grounds that advertising does not influence consumers.
AIM - Accuracy In Media: right-wing media criticism, scouring the mainstream papers for evidence of left-wing bias. (See also: FAIR)
Center for Media Education - An in-depth chronicle of how the Internet was financed by the people, then given to the people, and then taken from the people and given (also at public expense) to telecommunications firms who are only too happy to sell it back to the people.
Commercial Alert - group dedicated to limiting the spread and influence of commercial messages on society
Commercial Free - Dedicated to removing commercialism from schools.
Committee of Concerned Journalists - Organization of journalists who seek to clarify the purpose and principles of the profession. They believe that journalists must be committed to the truth, loyal to citizens, and maintain independence from the subjects they report.
FAIR - Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting: left-wing media criticism, scouring the mainstream papers for evidence of right-wing bias. (See also: AIM)
Robert McChesney - Archive of essays on telecommunications, corporate power and democracy by the American professor of communications.
Netfuture: Technology and Human Responsibility - An excellent on-line magazine that "seeks especially to address those deep levels at which we half-consciously shape technology and are shaped by it. What is half-conscious can, after all, be made fully conscious, and we can take responsibility for it."
Open Secrets - Excellent guide to corporate influence on American politics.
AlterNet - Good alternative news source.
Asheville Global Report - Great newsmagazine out of North Carolina that covers all kinds of news not seen on CNN.
CounterPunch - Excellent independent news site by journalists Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair.
Common Dreams - Activist news site, featuring reports, essays, and editorials you won't be reading in the Washington Post.
Disinformation - Tread carefully through this site, which caries everything from global conspiracy theories to alien abduction stories. It has just enough credible contents to be worth reading.
Eat The State! - Refreshing muckraking newsmagazine, openly biased against corporate power and unashamed to flaunt it.
Free Speech TV - This site features audio and streaming video feeds of lectures, interviews, reports, and video coverage of people and events related to freedom of speech.
Guerilla News - Excellent alternative investigative journalism
IndyMedia - A revolutionary alternative media clearinghouse; has local chapters in several cities around the world, including Hamilton, Ontario.
MediaFilter - Alternative news source based on the principle that people need free access to news and communications media.
Mother Jones - The social justice news magazine online.
George Monbiot - Archive of articles and essays from the acclaimed British journalist.
No Logo - Based on Naomi Klein's excellent study of global branding and anticorporate resistance, this site features news, essays, notices and discussions on globalization and activism.
Rabble - Feisty left-wing Canadian news service run by Judy Rebick.
Tom Paine - American journal based on approaching policy problems with reason and common sense. Inspired by Tom Paine, one of the earliest and mose eloquent champions of democracy and freedom in America.
The Werribee Alternative Editorial - Independent magazine based out of Werribee, Australia, this is a grab bag of op-eds, arts and articles.
ZNet - Z magazine's massive online archive and discussion board.
Alliance for Childhood - An organization that wants to let children be children by keeping the long arm of big media at bay. Leave the computers to the cruch-heads; fun is supposed to be fun. It seems that these people subscribe to the school of thought that technology is "the knack of so arranging the world that we do not experience it," as Max Frisch so aptly put it.
Alliance for Democracy - Populist, progressive US-based group dedicated to reforming campaign financing, changing legal rights of corporations, and introducing publicly funded health care.
Bust Patents - Interesting site dedicated to overhauling the American patent system to restore balance and accuracy, and promote the openness of ideas.
Center for a New American Dream - Dedicated to reducing consumption and restoring civic virtue through education about how foolish and counterproductive most modern consumption has turned out to be.
Citizen, Customer or Puppet - University of Saskatchewan Commerce professor Ayton Forrest has published his rousing attack on corporatism online.
New Perspectives Quarterly - This journal features detailed essays by and interviews with some of the world's most influential people on current events, which provides keen insights into the philosophical underpinnings of the world order. Perhaps the best we can say of the journal is that some of the contributers, like Robert McNamara, are elder statesmen trying to assuage their guilt.
Preservenet - Interesting site which tries to look beyond 'progressive' and 'conservative' political thought to address what it describes as the damage to both the natural and social environments that is wreaked by unrestrained modernization. An insightful journal.
Propaganda Analysis Home Page - This site is as elegant and straightforward as one can expect from the internet. And how fitting is it that it's from the University of Washington?
Redefining Progress - This site argues in favour of replacing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a Genuine Progress Indicator, to get a more meaningful measure of what economic events mean for humans.
Shared Capitalism - Argues that ownership of resources needs to be more fairly distributed and inclusive, and for all you number fetishists, it's got more stats than you can shake a stick at.
The Bivings report - PR Industry magazine - check out this article, in which the author argues that companies ought to anonymously infiltrate email discussion groups in order to gather information and influence discussion
Clear Project - An excellent resource dedicated to confronting anti-environmentalism and industry spin.
Community Rights Counsel - Watchdog group that investigates anti-environmental judicial lobbying by interested parties.
Consumer Freedom - Thinly veiled astroturf group run by hospitality industry PR Flack Rick Berman, campaigning so children can have the right to choose junk food and sugary pop in school vending machines. See also: Parental Freedom
Integrity in Science - the Center for Science in the Public Interest maintains this database of links between corporations and scientists, academics and non-profit groups.
Frugal Fun - Fascinating marketing industry report that explains how corporations can manage their images online
Now Hear This - Report by the Fenton Corporation on how organizations can manipulate the public - sorry, make that 'conduct advocacy communication campaigns.'
O'Dwyer's PR Daily - Informative PR industry news source
Parental Freedom - Essentially a parodic mirror of Consumer Freedom, this site exposes the huge corporate dollars behind Rick Berman's ostensibly non-profit Guest Choice organization.
PR Watch - Watchdog for the PR industry, PR Watch investigates how public debate is shaped by industry flacks
Stop Eco-Violence - Industry spinmeisters working hard to make America safe for industry by discrediting the environmental movement
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Copyright © 2000, 2002 by Ryan McGreal