Why are we writing this article?
Every time we see traffic coming from a discussion forum pointing out that the Kleercut campaign site is using the popular Drupal open-source content-management system, it becomes more convincing that there is a philosophical or political alignment between the progressive community and the free-software movement.
When we look further and find the Wikipedia entry on Kimberly-Clark and Kleenex, an article on CorpWatch and another in the ever-popular Grist magazine — all sites supported by free and open-source software — it became a sign that we needed to speak up and add our story to the growing collection of literature on grassroots, open-source-powered campaigns.
What is the Kleercut Campaign?
It’s simple: Kimberly-Clark, the world’s largest manufacturer of tissue products, famous for its Kleenex brand, destroys ancient forests around the world. It does this to create consumer products that are used once and then thrown away or flushed down the toilet. Kimberly-Clark has been linked to the clear-cutting of ancient forests in Canada and the United States, including forests that are home to threatened wildlife like the woodland caribou and wolverine. The Kleercut campaign is an international corporate campaign to pressure Kimberly-Clark to clean up its act.
1,000 new activists a month
The Kleercut campaign launched in mid-November 2004 and has steadily grown into one of the more successful online forest campaigns in recent Canadian history. Month-over-month, more activists have visited the site, taken action, spread the word to others and joined the Forest Defenders e-mail list, which has grown at rate of about 1000 new sign-ups each month.
