Grassroots organizing has evolved with the times too. Political dissidents of all stripes have adopted the Internet as a prime organizing tool. And what a superb tool it is. It combines all the best attributes of the phone tree with those of the underground press . Modern protests are still organized primarily by ordinary people meeting face to face in living rooms.
Telephone still play a role, as does voice mail.
But today e-mail, Web sites, chat rooms, IRC, and especially listservs have given modern organizers powers of communications of which we could only dream back in the '60s. Despite the endless parade of obituaries by corporate media, the spirit of the '60s is far from dead. Judging from events since the Battle of Seattle, we can only conclude that it is stronger than ever and growing fast. Blame this in part on the quantum growth in ordinary people's ability to communicate. For the first time in history our ability to coordinate mutual efforts has begun to rival that of the state.