The movement's emphasis on local empowerment, the sustainable use of resources and human rights would resonate immediately with South African parliamentarians or Brazilian peasants, less so among state socialists or traditional anarchists. Nowhere is the new movement more effective than in generating its own media. Journals like Schnews, Squall and Corporate Watch, and video newsreels such as Conscious Cinema and Undercurrents are among its most valuable campaign tools, satirising the Government and multinational corporations, generating enthusiasm for new campaigns, and relaying the news other parts of the media don't reach. Their influence has extended beyond their immediate audience, not least because the video activists have supplied much of the broadcast footage that news journalists have been too slow to catch. No other political movement makes such good use of the Internet.
Most national campaigns have their own Web sites.
It is always hard to judge the success of a campaign, not least because the people targeted by protesters are unlikely to cite their efficacy as a reason for policy changes. But occasional slippages suggest some progress. Preparing for the 1995 Budget, civil servants in the Treasury pointed to environmental protests as a reason for cutting the roads programme. Two county councils have signed up to The Land is Ours manifesto. The Institute of Virology in Oxford changed its experimental procedures after being blockaded by activists concerned about the release of genetically engineered viruses.