From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator)
Subject: "Card-Carrying Member.."  >>ACLU -- INFO<<
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 06:10:24 GMT

"Card-Carrying Member.."  >>ACLU -- INFO<<


                           ===============
                           A d d r e s s :
                           ===============

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
132 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10109-0592

                    =============================
                    E m a i l   c o n t a c t s :
                    =============================

acludc@igc.org

  Tamara Silver, 122 Maryland Ave., NE 
  Washington DC USA 20002 
  (202)544-1681 
  (American Civil Liberties Union) 

aclunc@igc.org 

  Mary Stickles, 1663 Mission Street, Suite 460 
  San Francisco CA USA 94103 
  (American Civil Liberties Union) 
  Keys: civil, liberties, human, rights 
  Personal: death penalty 

*****

I'm not sure how often they use their account. If you don't get a
response in a week or so, try calling their office (see above) and
asking them to get more online.

In either case, in addition to asking for more information about ACLU
and/or becoming a member, suggest that they make some of their
Alerts that they send to their members (and their articles in their
newsletters), available online -- contact: UseNet's
misc.activism.progressive (MAP) at:

Harel Barzilai (harelb@math.cornell.edu)
and Rich Winkel (mathrich@mizzou1.bitnet)

We are not only non-profit, we are all-volunteer. We can also help
with (some) tehcnical assistance.



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     S e n t   N o v   1 9 9 1   ( b y   p a p e r - m a i l ) :
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Dear ACLU,
\bigskip
Enclosed is my contribution/membership.

I am wondering what your involvement is in the world of electronic
activism. I have an account on {\it PeaceNet} and the online directory
shows several people with ACLU ``keywords'' (including even an
``IGC/ACLU Legal Project'' which I am wondering about) but no account
clearly marked as ``ACLU'' to contact you by, nor an ACLU conference.

Aside from my personal interest in reading ACLU material online, I
co-moderate {\it UseNet}'s newsgroup (electronic bulletin board)
``misc.activism.progressive,'' with a readership of 12,000, as well as
a smaller mailing list, and am involved with others across the country
in electronic activism. We are an association of individuals (grad
students, professors, programmers, as well as non-technical people)
who care about progressive causes; not an official organization,
despite our sizable and growing audience. We work with other online
activists but especially with {\it PeaceNet} and {\it EcoNet}, which
are run by the Institute for Global Communications ({\bf IGC}), a
project of the nonprofit Tides Foundation.

{\it UseNet} is the largest ``Net'' on the world, accessible through
{\it InterNet}/{\it BitNet} accounts from all the major universities,
and many corporations. It has some 1.9 million readers and there are
some 9 million accounts worldwide with access to the {\it UseNet}
according to the latest automated counting programs.

I can send you more information upon request. While I've noted {\it
PeaceNet} / {\it EcoNet} are nonprofit, let me stress that ours is a
completely informal --- and very symbiotic --- relationship with them,
so I cannot represent {\bf IGC}. If you have access to email, please
contact me at harelb\@mssun7.msi.cornell.edu ({\it InterNet})--- or
harelb\@igc.org ({\it PeaceNet}). If not (and even if you do, for the
other reasons I mention below), I would recommend a {\it PeaceNet}
account, as hundreds of organizations --- including AI, Greenpeace \&
Sierra Club ({\it EcoNet}), Common Cause, People for the American Way,
AFSC, Oxfam, PSR, and many others --- already online now have.

In particular {\it Common Cause} has an online conference
comcause.info from which information, action alerts, and so on can be
distributed; there are many other examples I could give, not the least
of which are the many {\it Amnesty International} conferences.

Were the ACLU to establish this sort of presence on PeaceNet both {\it
PeaceNet's} (and {\it EcoNet's} readers; our readership (we cannot,
and do not, charge for \newline misc.activism.progressive, of course),
and the ACLU could benefit, with a better informed public, better and
faster responses to legislative actions, etc. While the rapidly
growing number of people with access to these electronic forums is
still limited, there are many advantages to this medium, including
essentially instantaneous and virtually free communication with
activists, as well are ``internal'' benefits for your organization
(most of AI's multitude of conferences are ``internal'' and used for
their own administration).

\bigskip

Best regards,

\bigskip

Harel Barzilai

P.S.: One can send faxes directly by electronic mail from {\it
PeaceNet}, but I don't have your fax number!

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