MySpace, the popular social networking site, has 70 million users. The People’s Weekly World has joined a range of progressive organizations and individuals who are using the site to advance a pro-people agenda.
Yes, the PWW has a MySpace page.
Rupert Murdoch owns MySpace. Certainly no friend of people’s politics, Murdoch’s vast media empire, with the Orwellian sounding name of News Corp., includes Fox News, the New York Post and now the Wall Street Journal. All of these “news” sources are known for their extreme right-wing slant.
But the PWW is happy to be part of the grassroots progressive MySpace movement springing up under Murdoch’s nose.
In Britain, Murdoch’s News Corp. was credited with helping right-wing Margaret Thatcher and John Major win elections. Here in the United States, Murdoch’s empire supported George W. Bush both times he ran. Nevertheless, on MySpace, all the Democratic presidential candidates have pages. Some are officially run by the national campaigns; others are put together by supporters.
MySpace users create an online profile where they can let their creativity and imaginations go wild if they want to, posting information about themselves as well as blogs, photos, videos and music. Each user can become “friends” with an unlimited number of other users. Each can send out bulletins, which are available for all their friends to see.
Candidate Dennis Kucinich is doing particularly well in MySpace, with about 30,000 friends. Hillary Clinton has more than 36,000 friends. Barack Obama and John Edwards each have about 23,000.
With the ability to spread messages immediately to thousands of people, incorporating flashy multimedia ingredients, MySpace and sites like YouTube and Facebook have become major factors in the upcoming elections.
Peace groups have seized on this powerful tool as well. United for Peace and Justice, the national antiwar coalition, with about 4,500 MySpace friends, has set up a MySpace group dedicated to helping build the Oct. 26 demonstrations demanding a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
It seems that everyone is on MySpace: Punk Voter, Military Families Speak Out, a myriad of local unions, School of the Americas Watch, NAACP, Jobs with Justice and a host of other national and local groups and their supporters.
The People’s Weekly World MySpace site, only up a few months, currently has about 400 friends, with more being added daily. They include progressive organizations and activists and just plain people interested in what the PWW has to say and using it to help make a change for the better.
To visit the PWW in MySpace click here .
dmargolis @pww.org
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