Grassroots Vs. Astroturf

But a text scan of media around the world revealed no controversy surrounding any bloke named Ross Irvine. Not until he arrived in Australia, where the West Australian dubbed him "Rambo Ross" and ABC Melbourne's Jon Faine called him "the anti-activist-activist". Still, I booked into Irvine's Melbourne workshop. Held in a plush seminar room at a city business school, it cost A$595 for four hours, payable to the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA). In this workshop, I'd learn how to create bogus community groups, false statistics, and links with "far-right-wing nutso activists". I'd learn to conflate "activist" with "terrorist" and "security threat". Controversial or not, Irvine had pulling power. Filing in to see him was a Who's Who of powerful industry and government flacks. David Gazard was there. He's adviser to the Federal Treasurer. Special Minister of State, Eric Abetz's adviser was there, too. And PRs from Rio Tinto, Shell, Dow Chemical, Avcare, the Victorian Farmers' Federation, Department of Primary Industries, Bayer, GrainCorp, Dairy Australia, Nufarm (distributes Monsanto herbicides) and Orica (industrial explosives). There was Clayton Ford, a cheerful chap in a fluorescent tie from Diageo, parent of big-brand liquors. Why was he there? "There are teetotalers," Ford explained. "And objections to marketing alcohol to teenagers." There was Tattersall's (gambling objection issues), the Port of Melbourne Corporation (channel-deepening issues) and people from PACIA (Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association). There were Socom staff, PRs for the insurance and building industries and local councils. And there was a young City of Darebin (local council) PR named Shannon Walker. "Development objections," he explained. "Tram stop advertising. That kind of thing." Finally, there was Don D'Cruz from the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), wearing a gold tie-clasp and a stout suit, and smelling of cigarettes. Funded by many companies there, as well as federal government grants, his organisation lobbies against activities of non-profit bodies including the ABC and charitable NGOs (non-government organisations). We'd all gathered to hear a man who claims that proportional representation is "a bizarre thing" and that "corporate responsibility is a weakness. Corporate responsibility is letting someone else set the agenda." We'd learn that sustainability is "an extremist position", that science's "precautionary principal" is "extreme", and that maintaining biodiversity "turns back the evolutionary clock millions of years and eliminates humans from the face of the Earth! That's extreme!" Animal protection bodies, we'd learn, really want to "sever all contact between humans and animals!" Dealing in absolutes (health advocates are in fact `immoral!' Conservationists are really `anticapitalist!'), when it comes to convictions, Irvine's a relativist. Challenged earlier that day on ABC Radio, he admitted, "There's a little bit of hyperbole in some of this. There's also a bit of fun." You'd hope so for $595. By the time we'd registered and eaten our roasted eggplant pies, it was clear most of us knew each other. There were twenty-nine of us here, and too many Daves. As well as those from the Coalition camp, there was David Hawkins from the PRIA, a bouncy man who introduced Ross Irvine. Irvine's trip, he told the group, was funded by the IPA (the industry lobby group) and PACIA (the plastics and chemicals body). Irvine's background, we learned, was as a PR adviser for the biotech (GM) crop industry. "Public Relations is war," Irvine announced, in his curly-r accent. He was wearing an elegant suit coat, a white shirt, and colourful tie. Trim, 50s, clean-shaven, with steel-rimmed spectacles and a pleasant, broad face, he flashed a boyish smile. "Don't be afraid to attack," he warned. "If you learn nothing else today, this is the message: `Fight networks with networks'." Activist networks, he said, include supporters of NGOs like Community Aid Abroad, the Conservation Foundation, consumer groups, organic farmers, health advocates, Greenpeace, church groups and `civil society groups'. These groups demand transparency, accountability, democracy and disclosure from business. "If NGOs demand transparency," he asked, lapsing into a whisper, "should NGOs be transparent too?" People were nodding. "Yet NGOs are largely unknown entities. And it's fair for business to demand transparency from NGOs." He repeated this many times, adding, "It's only fair. It's only balanced." But then we learned that detailed NGO records are available for industry PRs to gather intelligence. "There's a lot of information they have to file," he said, projecting their strategies - available online - overhead. "Here are their salaries, here are their tax receipts, marketing, lobbying, that sort of thing . . . their board of governance." And then he shot us a conspiratorial sideways glance. "You might find," he said, "that this person on this NGO board - might be on the board of another organisation!" To help us combat NGOs, Irvine referred us to the teachings of the Rand Corporation, a US national security think-tank. This was when `activist' became confused with "terrorist", "criminal", "guerilla" and "security threat". Don't be fooled, he warned, when activists claim they're about third world hunger or the environment or public health. "If you're in business and you support biodiversity," he said, "beware of what you're really supporting . . . look beyond their immediate intentions. Their goal is a much larger concept that business, media and politicians must address!" Some of us questioned Irvine's generalisations. Why see activists as the `enemy' (a word used many times today)? Can't industry engage with moderate activists? Some people agreed, others shook their heads. No, warned Irvine. Once you cave to one demand, they'll come up with "a whole bunch" of others. Which will eventually threaten capitalism itself. "You will really screw yourself in the end." (Much, much more at:) http://www.overlandexpress.org/183_wilson.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 11, 2006]

Note: http://www.tai.org.au/N... http://www.bernsteincri... http://www.overlandexpr...