THERE ARE MOMENTS that spawn movements.

The anti-globalization movement coalesced during the 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle. A new antiwar movement began to build in 2002 as President George W. Bush talked about invading Iraq, bursting forth March 20, 2003, when tens of thousands of people spontaneously took to the streets of San Francisco.

The June 25 premiere of the powerful anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11, by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, could turn out to be one of those moments, particularly with a little help from Berkeley-based political action group MoveOn.org.

Using volunteer hosts from among its 2.2 million members, MoveOn organized a series of 2,000 house parties across the country on the evening of June 28, where the roughly 35,000 attendees took part in a conference call with Moore and MoveOn founder Wes Boyd.

The result in San Francisco and other cities was the formation of neighborhood networks, in which diverse groups of individuals could motivate one another to pursue progressive change in creative new ways.

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The house on Fulton Street where we gathered was one of dozens around the Bay Area hosting a party, so almost all of the 20 people who showed up lived just a short walk away.

Through the speaker box, Boyd explained the political purpose of empowering voters before introducing Moore as "a man surely at the top of Karl Rove's enemies list."

Moore was buoyant over the phenomenal early success of his film.

"This is the best I've felt in three and a half years, since January of 2001," Moore said.

People were flocking to see his film, in both blue states and red. It beat the record held by Rocky for the biggest opening weekend for a film showing on less than 1,000 screens, and it bested the per-screen average of superhyped Passion of the Christ, causing Moore to quip, "Personally, I feel Jesus had something to do with that."

He noted how many in the mainstream media continued to attack him and his film, which he said was because "they're embarrassed. They've been outed as people who didn't do their jobs."

Moore then gave the partyers a plan of action:

• Throw a party for people to use their cell phones to take part in a national phone bank targeting swing states with the help of MoveOn. As a MoveOn Web site projected onto one of the Fulton house's walls showed, half of the 35,000 attendees volunteered to phone-bank.

• Register voters outside showings of Fahrenheit 9/11, as many San Franciscans did.

• Take one weekend in October off to go visit a swing state.

• Take Nov. 2 – Election Day – off from work and spend it wooing people to go vote. Moore urged people to do whatever it takes: "Free beer for everyone who comes to vote with me right now" was a line he suggested. "Let's be creative."

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Attendees at the gathering ranged from veteran activists to political newcomers, but all shared a sense of the moment and a need to do something.

"This year, this moment, is the most important time," Brigid O'Neil, who recently moved to San Francisco from Washington, D.C., told those gathered.

All were animated by the belief that Bush and the neoconservatives were a dangerous group that would do anything to maintain their grip on power.

For the most part, the meeting centered on plans of action. Attendees organized a listserv to stay in touch and push events, host Kevin Kohley and roommate Kaia Jacobi gathered everyone back together for a showing of the film Outfoxed (see "Mad TV") a few weeks later, and several members held a yard sale fundraiser for Kerry.

Musician and filmmaker Zach Canfield held a fundraiser July 31 for DrivingVotes.org (see "Road Trip for Change"), with the goal of raising $1,500.

Nicole Halpern went on to form a group called Independent Women for Kerry that seeks to mobilize unmarried women, a key block of swing voters (e-mail nicoleforkerry@yahoo.com for more information).

"I thought it was a great event. You have people who live around the same area but have different jobs and social circles," Halpern said. "That's what's great about an organization like MoveOn.org is it's shown people how to take action."

Steven T. Jones