Future battles will be tough. The enemy is highly financed and organized. The government funds their propaganda by taxing the people we are attempting to free. Statist organizations are at an advantage because they don't let the truth get in the way of their expansionist agenda and have little regard for property rights.
We have our own advantages because, unlike the slow bureaucracy, we can move with speed and agility to clog popular culture with pro-freedom / anti-statism statistics, symbols, slogans and images. Crashers answer to no one except their own conscience.
Bureaucrash is dedicated to the idea of creative activism that makes others question their assumptions on political and social issues. The tools for fighting the information war can take almost any form.
The Ministry of Operations's job is to assist you in fighting this information war and to ensure that you are well armed. Whether you are involved as a solo activist or a member of a cell group we are here to help you.
ELSEWHERE:
Just Say No…to The Yes Men at CEI's Open Market Blog
Bureaucrash featuring la BAF crash les Yes Men at La Baf
Al Gore’s “Live Earth” international jamboree was a truly global endeavor with a truly global carbon footprint. The organizers emphasized emissions would be offset through a Mozambique tree-planting project. I wonder how many trees this would take, though. To transport the horde of star musicians, powerful Lear and Gulfstream jets flew approximately 223,623 miles - about nine times the Earth’s circumference. And a one-hour flight in a Gulfstream jet burns as much fuel as driving your family car for a year. The concert at Wembley stadium in London alone produced 59 tons of trash. The parking-lot of New Jersey’s Giants Stadium resembled a venue for college tailgate, full of youngsters who cheered for the environment with beer bottles and hot dogs.
It took a 4-hour bus-ride, a train and another shuttle bus for the Bureaucrash team to get from D.C. to New York and hear Ludacris yell, “I wanna lick you from your head to your toes,” in between prattling by Leonardo Di Caprio and Rachel Weisz about how the time to act is now. There might have been the occasional flower-dressed hippie in the audience, but the majority seemed to care about the performers much more than about the environmental propaganda. Gore’s solemn calls resonated poorly with a guy close to my seat, who was nonchalantly throwing around peanut shells and never brought the packaging to the recycle bins. In addition to global warming, Melissa Etheridge haphazardly commented on politics (“I remember when we had a president who was a criminal”) and expressed disappointment as to why flying cars had not spread by the year 2000. Who would not take her seriously? Forget about science. Disregard the fact that researchers have not come up with a consensus on whether glboal warming is a serious problem and to what extent it is driven by anthropogenic activities. Musicians know best: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea prophesied that “The climate change situation is the No. 1 problem facing humanity,” and Chester Bennington of the rock-rap band Linkin Park has argued that following Gore’s agenda is costless. A high school kid would have had the same credibility to address the topic. It is one thing to have celebrities directing attention to the factual evidence about the situation in Africa (the Live 8 in 2005), and it is entirely different to use them as mouthpieces to promote Al Gore’s scare-them-green agenda.
Sheryl Crowe, whose music was a backgrounder for a 4×4 Outback SUV commercial, and Madonna, whose annual carbon foot print is estimated to be 100 times that of the average Briton, demanded awareness of global warming. This is not surprising - if green is the new black, it is in the self-interest of musicians to demand selflessness from the audience, hoping to get some positive publicity out of the latest fad. To think otherwise would be naïve. Rather than dig deeply into the supposed impact of “Live Earth”, the global media devoted equal if not more coverage to enumerating the singers and attending celebrities, commenting on who said the f-word when, and revealing that Madonna’s charity fund owns shares in Alcoa and the Ford Motor Company. Surprise, surprise. Political activist Bob Geldof, who was the mastermind behind Live 8, labeled the event accurately: “It was just an enormous pop concert for the umpteenth time.”
Free-Market advocates from Americans for Prosperity and the Moving Picture Institute joined forces with Bureaucrash to protest the DC movie premier. The VIP list that walked the red carpet was a who's who od statism. Dennis Kucinich, Maxine Waters and of course, Michael Moore were there to support transferring more money and freedom from you to Washington DC. There was even a special guest: Fidel Castro! Too bad he wasn't allowed inside the theater. Instead he lauded the virtues of mandatory universal health care: waiting lists, lack of proper treatments and filthy hospitals.
Our merry band of activists were there telling passerbys that "SOCIALISM KILLS" and that "GUARANTEED HEALTHCARE [is a] GUARANTEED FAILURE." Michael Moore asked a reporter what we were protesting and was told "that you're a socialist." Indeed.
ELSEWHERE: Free Market Cure & Americans for Prosperity
Approximately 35 crashers showed up on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington D.C. to protest the recent Kelo decision denied people a right to their own property. Crashers sang parody songs, dressed up like the Supreme Reapers (a cross between the grim reaper and Supreme Court Justices), Someone made a house for the purpose of street theater and the night before activists had a sign making party. The network worked just as it should but unfortunately our protest was stopped half way through when the Capitol was evacuated due to a wayward airplane.
The view from the Free Kareem rally today in Washington, DC. More photos here. The DC event was just one of many held around the world.
I formed part of Team Bureaucrash on Friday while Crasher Mercalic took some great video footage of the anti-Mugabe rally in front of the Zimbabwean Embassy on New Hampshire Avenue. As it turns out, it wasn’t just us here in DC who are fed up with the statist thug. Edinburgh University is being pressured to revoke an honorary doctorate they bestowed on Mugabe 23 years ago, as is the University of Massachusetts, which gave him an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1986.
On February 15th Crashers and other free-speech advocates from around the world rallied in support of Abdelkareem Soliman Amer, a 22 year old blogger, who is in prison because Egyptian authorities didn't like what he had to say. Specifically, he is charged with "Defaming the President of Egypt" and "Highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt and spreading them to the public." He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. The "Free Kareem Rally" was held at the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau on Thursday, February 15th at Noon. We handed out fliers and held signs while talking to people walking by.
----- More Free Kareem Resources ----- DC Coalition for Blog Freedom FreeKareem.org Kareem's Blog The Previous DC Event and news coverage by the Daily Star Egypt Worldwide Free Kareem Amer Rallies on Facebook
FLASHBACK: Free Kareem Event at the Egyptian Cultural Center
I just received a copy of Choice in the mail today. Choice is a newspaper that a group of Arizona State University students with a "free-market perspective" have created and let me say bravo! Every campus needs Choice.
They recently sponsored a smoke in and here is a photo:
Mary Katherine Ham, of Townhall / Ham Nation fame dropped by HQ last week to borrow the video we took at a counterprotest of the movie Mine Your Own Business. A bunch of rich Americans left the comfort of their think-tanks to hit the streets so they could protest poor people trying to get mining jobs in Romania. The movie was a truly wonderful narrative on the harm the "well-intentioned" have when they mettle in the affairs of others.
People are now seeing through the lies and this movie, Mine Your Own Business, is leading the way. Our last-minute counterprotesters not only equaled their eight protesters but the filmmakers also joined us in exposing their lies. In addition to MKH, thanks to FreedomWorks for rallying their troops and for the crashers that came out to defend the right to make your own decisions about your own future.
On Friday, a bevy of DC crashers hit the 13th World Conference on Tobacco, hosted here in our nation’s capital. The crash? Just hanging out around the front of the convention center smoking cigarettes and cigars, wearing Smoking is Healthier than Fascism t-shirts, and generally blowing smoke in everyone’s general direction. Sounds low-key, right? Not once you add about eleventy-thousand health fascists at lunchtime, confronted by a cloud of smoke as they try to exit the building after sitting through a two hour plenary session called "Motivating and Helping People to Quit: Individual and Population Approaches."
There they sat, eyes fixated on the presenter of the session, joy filling their hearts as they learned tips and tricks for convincing people that squeezing every possible second out of your life is vastly more moral and in all ways superior than actually enjoying your life—and then wham! They’ve been crashed. Honestly, based on my many interactions with tobacco-control activists, I was actually surprised that things didn’t come to fisticuffs. Indeed, I actually had a lovely picture taken with one Michael “Tac” Tacelosky who was one of the ordinary, average citizens (read: professional activists) behind the smoking ban movement in DC.
Unfortunately, Tac is very sensitive to smoke, so I had to hold my cigarette way out of the picture; much like trying to have your picture taken with, say, a rabid monkey, you want to try to avoid spooking tobacco activists in order to get a good shot. After all, if they believe their own propaganda, looking a cigarette causes lung cancer, and for a tobacco activist in the wild like this, that can mean you’ll get your eyes mauled out if you get too close.
Anyway, it was a great crash even though we all probably smoked too many ciagarettes—you know, those things’ll kill ya.
Last Thursday, a posse of DC crashers joined in on a march and rally held by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, in which protest organizers led the crowd to the downtown offices of the Motion Picture Association of America to demand that smoking be removed from movies, or, barring that, that films that contain smoking be given a mandatory R-rating. Children, after all, are very susceptible to what they see in movies, and since parents clearly shouldn’t have to shoulder the enormous burdens of parenthood on their own, it stands to reason that the MPAA should step in and help them out.
Crashers, posing as representatives from the Coalition for Regulating Artistic Products (C.R.A.P.), decided to take the opportunity of a march on the MPAA’s office to make some demands about many of the other nasty side effects of movie-going.
Not content with simply limiting smoking in movies, C.R.A.P. also highlighted the adverse effects of sad movies, which can fuel depression, and industry’s habit of filling films with beautiful celebrities, whose glamorously slender frames cause eating disorders in young girls. The sad truth is, watching Mean Girls—and watching the exploits of la Lohan in general—really does make a lot of girls mean, and the fits of uncontrollable crying inspired by repeated viewings of The Notebook alone, curled up on the couch with your cat and a pint of Haagen Dazs on a Saturday night really does cause thoughts of suicide in many a gal. For more on the demands of CRAP, be sure to check out our press release (PDF).
The highlight of the crash? When tobacco-control activist and all around finger-wagging expert Stanton Glantz got separated from the march because he was grandstanding for some reporters, we saw our chance and took it: in addition to coming as close as my manners will allow me to get to blowing smoke directly into his face, we also gave him faulty directions on the march route—he’s probably somewhere in West Virginia by now.
Special thanks to brave crasher mariachi, who went it alone as the sole "straight man" Bureaucrasher, handing out some awesome flyers with a glimpse of what movies without smoking might look like.
On Wednesday July 12th three D.C. crashers threw on their “Capitalism” tees and set up the Sweet Liberty Challenge outside of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protest the U.S. sugar program, which keeps the price of sugar in the U.S. artificially high.
What, you may ask, is the sweet liberty challenge? Think of it like the Pepsi Challenge. Only with two types of Coke. One Coke from the United States made with high-fructose corn syrup and one from Mexico/Guatamala made with sucrose.
We had people taste each type of coke and let us know which they preferred.
Then we explained to them that sugar Coke is no longer made in the United States because of the U.S sugar program (Click here for more information on this issue).
How did people respond? Most people thought we were from the Coca-Cola company at first. If you haven’t seen the "Enjoy Capitalism" tees yet they're in the same format as the Coca-Cola logo. Some people just kept walking as though we didn’t exist. Others were just in it for the free soda. Still others took the challenge a step farther and told us which Coke was made with real sugar and which was the intruder. Those that tried succeeded.
Two responses to the crash stand out. A kid took the test and pointed out to us humble crashers that one of the Cokes was the same kind he got from the vending machine – but he liked the other one better. Also, a woman heard our story, looked at the us, looked at the Deparement of Agriculure, raised her fist and shouted “bastards”. Definitely a highlight.
The grand finale of the crash was a Coke bong competition. We recruited two kids to bong the different types of Coke. The winner received an "Enjoy Capitalism" tee.
The winner was drinking the sugar Coke. I must confess, however, that the results were somewhat skewed given the experience levels of the volunteers.
An awesome end to an awesome crash.
Washington – For three days this week, a hellish bunch of confused leftists gathered at the Washington Hilton, near Dupont Circle. The occasion? Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), a trade show/ strategy camp for leftist activists, politicians, and organizers.
Our fearless BureauCrash head honcho Jason thought it would be a great idea for our newly formed “crashing” team to cut its teeth on charging into the fray and stirring the excrement.
THE PLAN
The CAF conference featured a large gallery where leftist groups could set up display booths and advertise for their organizations.
We decided that it would be fun to infiltrate the gallery and set up a fake booth, advertising “Pyramid Investing,” a private investment fund to “create a retirement program for the working poor.” The “fund” was an exact replica of the very real Social Security program, and we created brochures describing the plan. The idea was to try and sell the fund idea to passersby and get them to see how ludicrous Social Security really is. By removing the title (Social Security) we would expose S.S. for the fraud it is.
THE INVASION
At 1100 hours on Wednesday, Red Team (Dragnet, Cuz, and myself) departed HQ and headed for the CAF convention. We were packing our big gun - the massive digital video recorder – and our cell phones (I had a wireless headset on for an extra air of sophistication and success). I was wearing my favorite pastel white sport coat (a la Don Johnson), and I had all the confidence of a used car salesman. We couldn’t lose.
We were initially concerned as we approached the entrance. We were late in finding out about the convention, and I had never heard of crackpot CAF before, so we wanted to make sure we knew the lingo for the convention. Jason was back at HQ, so we called him. Unable to get through, I thought it best to just wing it. In a pinch, I knew I could just start throwing out buzzwords like “living wage,” and “exploitation of the poor,” and “gun control.” If the heat really came on, I knew I could just say I was Harry Reid’s aid. Nobody effs with Harry Reid…except us. At 1130, the invasion began.
There was a lot of movement in the hotel; people moving boxes and displays, chatting with displeasure about the horrors of Wal-Mart, etc., etc. Lots of attendees sported the stereotypical t-shirt, baseball cap, and sandals look…(sigh)…journalists.
Movies are highly instructive. Take “The Paper,” a movie about newspaper reporters. In one scene, Michael Keaton – playing an assistant editor – is forced to infiltrate a police station. Smiling and waving to the station manager while walking briskly, he gets in the inside. “A clip-board and confident wave will get you into any building in the world.” I have a little addendum: a smart suit and a camera crew will get you into any political convention in Washington.
By 1135 Red Team had made its way into the gallery. The trick was to find an empty table that was close enough to a crowd but far away enough from officials. I scoped out a booth for us, and Dragnet set up the camera. Cuz collected sleek brochures from around the gallery and we displayed them prominently on our table to make it look as though we were an important and well-funded group. The booth right next to us was packed with goodies, but it’s staff must have been out at lunch.
At 1140 we had a huge scare, because a security guy literally came from behind and surprised us. All of a sudden I could feel someone looking over my shoulder. I could tell he was studying our display, and so I had to think fast. I spun around, and with a broad, warm smile, I introduced myself as Charles Bronson and started handing him brochures from the table next to ours. The group next to us was advocating a free internet, and so I started preaching the gospel of e-freedom. The guard still didn’t seem completely convinced, so I handed him a few stickers, which made him a happy camper. Satisfied, cheerful, and full of e-freedom, the guard said goodbye and walked away. Home free.
For the first 20 minutes or so, I simply approached people and asked them if they’d like to, “find out about a new retirement fund for the working poor.” Surprisingly, the first wave of people said they didn’t care to learn more, they didn’t have time, or they were busy with something else. Even Village Voice reporter Anya Kamenetz refused to listen.
I was shocked. I mean, if someone came up to me at a convention on our side and asked me if I’d like to learn more about a new plan to provide retirement for the working poor, I wouldn’t be able to say no. How could anyone? I guess not everyone is concerned about the poor. Compassionate liberals, my ass.
After the first wave, it got a little better. I hooked a few people in and tried to sell them the “Pyramid Investment” plan.
“We don’t invest in the market,” I said, “because, what’s the market, right? You can’t ever trust the market or Wall Street types. No, we invest in people.” At that point, the person would usually be enthralled. So, I’d describe how the plan worked and without fail we had people confused left and right. Once the person understood how the plan worked, the typical exchange worked like this:
“Wait a minute,” they’d say, “isn’t this like Social Security?”
“No. This is a private investment plan.”
“But how could this ever work? What happens if you don’t get enough subscribers to pay into the system and support the retirees?”
“Well, that shouldn’t ever happen, I mean we’ve got an excellent sales team and we rack up new subscribers all the time.”
“But, what do you do with the money you collect from the subscribers?”
“Oh, we just hold on to it. Since we don’t invest it, you never have to worry about losing it.”
“So you don’t earn any interest or anything?”
“No.”
“You just hold on to it?”
“Well, I mean sometimes we have to take money out of it to cover our expenses and other pet projects that we have, but we usually put the money back in time.”
“But wait, that doesn’t sound right.”
Some of the more intelligent people who understood a few economic principles – like depreciation – would ask:
“But if the money just sits there, doesn’t it depreciate?”
“Well, yeah.”
We got great footage of these exchanges and people walking away disgusted with our proposals. Hopefully, they’ll make the connection.
It was like a scene out of Thunderball. Dressed in formal attire to blend in with a reception, crashers brought large rolled up “Climate Criminals posters into the conference center. In the evening we discovered that they don’t use their elaborate security service so we entered undetected. We put our posters in place ready to fall during the final day of the conference.
The schmucks from Greenpeace built an ark. Presumably, this is supposed to make us think that they are so serious about impending floods from global warming that they are preparing by building an ark. Kind of funny, since this ark is tiny, maybe 15 feet by 10 feet, and it couldn't possibly hold all the enlightened folks at Greenpeace. Then it occurred to me that it was supposed to hold all the smart people at Greenpeace, in which case its actually quite spacious. Ironically, the ark is constructed of wood, and I cant help but wonder how many carbon-cleansing trees had to die for their pretty ark. OK, so heres the best part about the ark. These nit-wits that preach about over-consumption have AIR-CONDITIONING inside! Powered by a DIESEL GENERATOR! They have a huge solar panel right outside which is just as big as the ark, but its not enough to power 100 cubic feet of air conditioning and a few lights. Ugh. Smack me over the head.
Today I met what may be the dumbest people to walk the face of the earth. I hate to make a statement like that though, because something tells me every day I will start my journal entry Today I met the dumbest people on earth, and then I will lose credibility. Anyway, banality continues to abound here at the UNFCCC. Surprise, surprise. Today we attended a session hosted by a new conglomerate of stupidity. Oxfam, Greenpeace, WWF, and a whole host of other useless people have bound together to form a new group called Working Group on Climate and Development. Its like when they make a comic book into a movie and all the villains who always worked alone in the book come together for dramatic effect, but together theyre even more bumbling and inefficient and bureaucratic than they were on their own, so even though the super hero is played by some lameass actor he still has no trouble beating them. Well, not exactly like that, but you get the idea. Their theory is that if they band together and be super obnoxious, governments will be unable to ignore them. And I hate to say it, but its true. Its a sad state of affairs when you can have no scientific evidence to back up your claims whatsoever, but can still get legislation passed based on the grounds that you are a nonsensical loudmouth and arent afraid to threaten people. Andrew Simms, the guy who moderated the panel, actually referred to them as the coalition of the slightly pissed off. Nice. He stressed the fact that people dont really seem to care about global warming (duh, maybe because it doesnt exist) but that he and his cohorts were going to push it and make it a mass global issue. If this guy woke up tomorrow and decided aliens were taking over the earth, all his little lackeys would follow him and they would yell and protest until, despite the fact that the skies were UFO-free, some government would pass anti-Martian legislation. And rich people would pay for it because it was their fault the aliens were there to begin with. Another panelist, Sarah Latrobe of Tear Fund, said they care about poor people and are committed to tackling issues important to them." If they really care about helping people then why dont they ask the people what issues are important to them, rather than shoving an agenda down everyones throats? Jennifer from WWF said, We need to work together to create a movement around the world. If people really care about an issue, movements create themselves. If you have to force it its because no one cares. (Im almost done ranting, bear with me here.) Latrobe went on to say that as a society we need to come to terms with the concept of sufficiency. We need to redefine our definition of progress. Most of us are consuming far more than we need. Speak for yourself, you backwards socialist bitch. Its staggering how completely blind these people are to their hypocrisy. The same panel that preaches that we consume too much also joked that if anyone elses cell phone went off during the presentation, that person would be hooked up to several volts of electricity. Gee, I hope they meant solar-powered green electricity.
Tonight we went to yet another reception, this one hosted by the European Union. This marks the third world government that has bought me a drink in as many weeks. Thanks guys. Gotta love traveling with Bureaucrash. The food and drink at this one was way better than last nights. And we got terrific pictures of the monkeys living it up. My favorite features a guy in one of those tweedy jackets with the elbow patches double fisting his beers in the foreground and another guy in a blazer guzzling beer in the background. My second favorite features a guy with a huge mustache and a huge pipe billowing smoke into the air. Doesnt he care about global warming? read more »
Today marked the first day of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For the life of me, I cant figure out how they intend to fill two weeks with the same boring nonsense and not have it get positively dull. Oh wait, thats right. They don't care about it being dull. These people just seriously love to hear themselves talk. Theres tons of booths set up here. They all represent groups that essentially want the same thing. The big focus here is on pushing wealthier nations to adopt drastic measures to prevent further global warming. Unfortunately, this means completely ignoring the fact that there is absolutely no legitimate evidence demonstrating that a) there really is human induced global warming, and that b) the wealthy nations are responsible for it. These people talk a lot about the ethical need to take care of people in poorer countries, but they totally ignore how unethical it is to coerce someone into taking responsibility for a problem that may or may not even exist. Theyre such narrow minded hypocrites.
Anyway, today was a relatively slow day for us. We distributed a welcome letter that parodied some of the conventions regulations and policies, particularly one insisting that any documents to be distributed must be approved by a representative at the documents counter. I wrote the letter because, well, lets face it, Im head of the bitter sarcasm department.
This evening we attended a reception hosted by the Argentinean Ministry of Health. It was held outdoors in a lovely courtyard, adjacent to a plush indoor VIP room, complete with burly bouncers and a velvet rope. Uniformed waiters circulated hors dourves, which were mostly empanadas. The surrounding conversations were all dull, of course, but hey, those corn and tomato empanadas kicked serious ass. There were also carving stations where gigantic hunks of meat were being peeled off the bone and popped into small buns for the bureaucrats. It was kind of fun to watch the Greenpeace people eagerly watching the chefs hack up animals to make them delicious little sandwiches. Theres another bunch of hypocrites. Dude, I cant eat meat, but if they were serving panda I would have eaten it with relish in front of every Greenpeace rep I could pin down just to piss them off. We got some great photos of the bureaucrats enjoying their free government cheese, or in this case, wine. We also got great shots of the trash that these environmental Nazis scattered all over the lovely courtyard. Hundreds of disposable plastic wineglasses were used and most of them ended up on the ground, along with napkins, crumpled cigarette packets, you name it. So by day they preach about how the rich Western countries are ruining the world with our excesses, but by night they secretly get drunk out of environmentally unfriendly glassware, and throw their trash wherever its convenient. Theyre like deranged superheroes.
GENEVA - At the premiere of an anti-capitalist film which coincided with the annual World Health Assembly meeting, Bureaucrash encouraged the audience to consider the negative consequences of eliminating market incentives for producing life-saving medicines. Sadly, the World Health Organization (WHO) also seems to have succumbed to such pressures. In June, crashers countered the anti-market activists at the WHO’s World Health Assembly in Geneva, with a campaign called ‘Capitalism heals, socialism kills’. At the premiere of an anti-capitalist film, Bureaucrash circulated a fake press release which encouraged the audience to consider the negative consequences of eliminating market incentives for producing life-saving medicines. Our presence ensured that this event was a genuine, informed debate – rather than a one-sided affair.
A former mid-level W.H.O. bureaucrat had a documentary film made about his fight to steal the intellectual property of drug manufacturers. The movie premiered in Geneva, Switzerland, in May of 2004, where Crashers had gathered to do what they do best – crash socialist events. During the movie they passed out our propaganda to the audience ... who were probably glad to have something to read instead of having to watch the dreadfully boring movie.
Today was the last day of meetings for the WTO. We found out about a planning meeting being put on by some of the NGO's, and being held in one of the hotels downtown. The meeting was in preparation for the next big globalophobic event: the protest of the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) meeting in Miami this November.
Jason went ahead with a video camera to record the planning meeting so that we'd know what to expect in Miami, and to scope out the layout of the room . Louis made one last trip to Office Max to make copies of a letter (mostly text from the FreeTradeNow.com website) to let the attendees know that we'd be seeing them in Miami (Bureaucrash, that is, not necessarily this particular group of 'crashers...but we'll see).
The letters concluded by thanking them, "for shopping Cancun", and explaining that, "even though [their] policies aren't helping the local population, their tourist dollars certainly are."
Unfortunately, Edgar & Tom had already left to fly back to the states, but the rest of us were still around to enjoy the fun: We waited until the meting was underway; Starchild and I went in through the front door, while Adam and Suzanne came in through the back. We each took a side of the room, and walked down the aisle passing our letters down to everyone in attendance.
Apparently, we'd done a better job than I'd realized of making ourselves seen among the crowd of anti-freedom protestors during the last 6 days, as one of the girls sitting at the end of my rows looked at me when I got there and said, "I really don't want one of your flyers, and thank you very much for coming to our meeting."
Now,the thing to realize here is that the reason all these NGO'S and protesters are in Cancun is because they think it's unfair that they should be denied access to the WTO meetings. They complain (and I agree) that the WTO doesn't have representation for their points of view, and that they therefore don't have a voice in the trade agreements that affect their lives (i.e., they don't have a voice in decisions that curtail their freedom to trade in a way they see as fair and just). Now, here we are in a PUBLIC meeting, advertised in the schedule of events for the week, making our voice heard (given, in a slightly disruptive fashion), and she wants to complain about it?!
The hypocrisy & inconsistency of some of these people is without bounds, and becomes quite clear as soon as their beliefs are challenged. They talk about the need for freedom & liberty, and in the next breath say that individuals shouldn't be allowed to decide for themselves what is and isn't fair or reasonable according to their own situations. They complain just as I do about the power wielded by corporations, and how far removed they are from the desires of the people, but then champion democratic government - an institution with much more power, and one that's much harder to sway - as the answer to all of their problems. They claim to be looking out for the best-interests of the local populations in underdeveloped countries, and then organize to try and prevent a student group (CFACT) from distributing 2 tons of food to people in a nearby village, in the interest of biodiversity - a far less pressing problem than the hunger that plagues the village now.
We've got one more 'crash planned for midnight tonight. (We've been informed that there is one more large group of NGO representatives staying in a hotel nearby, and we'll be repeating the "Maid Service Requested" operation I've described previously.) Until then, everybody is going to be relaxing by the pool. I'll have my laptop with me so I can get some more of this video footage ready for the Bureaucrash website before I fly out tomorrow afternoon.
Signing off from Cancun, Mexico.
Señior Shane
AUTHOR: Shane read more »
A spokestatist from the Sierra Club wanted to get his pro-government message out to television crews. Instead, viewers at home got a screen full of Bureaucrash. Crashers stood with signs that included “Free Trade Now!”, “I Love Free Trade”, “Free Trade is Fair Trade”, “Ownership Promotes Stewardship”, “Free Trade Frees People” and “Free Trade is More Fair.” Shocked that young people could think independently, the irritated enviro-alarmist accused Crashers of being the “sons and daughters of the [WTO] trade ministers.” A Crasher accused him of "posing as an environmentalist when he was just an advocate of big government.”
"Anti-capitalists" engaging in capitalism, "environmentalists" damaging the environment, what the heck is going on down here?
Since the start of the WTO protests, Bureaucrash cameramen have uncovered consistent inconsistencies among leftists. One Mexican protestor Bureaucrash told Bureaucrash that he intensely dislikes capitalism, but had to confess a deep desire for coca-cola and pizza hut. This does not come as a surprise, since most protesters sport brand names and sleep in Coleman brand tents. They also consistently speak out against the Mexican government. Most shocking is how poorly some of the leftists are treating Cancun itself, as well as it's native population. Local Mexicans have appealed to the leftists to respect their homes and businesses, but Bureaucrash cameramen have discovered that these pleas have been ignored. Though they claim to be protecting workers, leftists have littered the city with garbage. Graffiti covers local shops and parks, and many businesses were even forced to close early out of fear of vandalism and destruction.
Today's the big day for the protesters. I wasn't too sure what to expect, since it seems that there have been so few people here during the other protest events. Today was the exception, though - protesters came in from all over the country (Mexico), to march down one of the main streets and up to the barricades that prevented them from reaching the convention center, where the WTO meetings were being held.
Our plan for today was risky: We set up a stand along the main traffic circle in downtown Cancun, where many of the protesters had been camping out for the previous week. It was about 400 yards from the barricade, where the protesters were planning to end their march. We operated under the guise of offering sodas & bottled water for sale at either a free trade price (50 pesos), or a "fair trade" price (200 pesos), which covered such things as a living wage, health insurance, and child care for our employees, as well as union dues and government tariffs. The timing couldn't have been better. Its been really really hot the whole time we've been here, and today was no exception. The humidity was even worse than I ever remember it being when I lived in Florida, and our whole group had grown accustomed to walking around in clothing drenched with sweat. The results of the sale were about what we expected: about 75% sold for the free trade price, while the remainder sold at the "fair trade" price - evidence that even in a free-market system, people who understand the benefits will voluntarily pay more for a product, regardless of a less-expensive alternative. However, this was not the purpose of our operation. In fact, Starchild only thought about keeping track of the sale once it was already underway. What we were looking for was the reaction to our sale...and it was really entertaining. Tom and I set up in locations to the front and rear of the stand with video cameras, as if we were documenting the protest march. We concealed a microphone on Louis, and another on the table so we could record the interactions. At first, the passers-by were sort-of confused. Many stopped to read the sign, and stood there with perplexed looks on their faces. You could almost see the reality of the situation set in, as people realized that this "fair trade" thing they were promoting was going to make things cost them a lot more. ...and then came the crowds. Thousands of people marched over the hill, many of them dressed up in home-made body armor and shields, carrying all sorts of makeshift weapons, wearing gas masks and army boots. One American protestor, a rarity among the crowd, came over to confront Louis about the sale, and explain that "this isn't what fair trade is all about". She insisted that fair trade referred to fair treatment of the _producers_ of goods, and not the people selling them. She was really upset about the fact that we were selling Coca-Cola products, since Coca-Cola is a giant multi-national corporation that epitomized everything the protesters were against. I got a nice close-up shot of the Sony video camera that she was holding in her left hand, while making angry gestures to Louis with her right. The march was the largest that we'd seen since we arrived in Cancun. There were plenty of so-called "anarchists" on hand, who firmly believe that private property must be destroyed (both in practice, and in concept), in order to promote liberty. At one point, a group of them, all armed, encircled Louis & our stand, holding hands to form a human chain around it. Others motioned to one another, preparing to deface our set-up with cans of black spray-paint. We decided that perhaps it was time to pack up & go. I radioed the others. We regrouped, and, after Louis changed clothes to change his appearance slightly, returned to the crowd to document the action. The protestors ended up pulling apart the barricade, piece by piece, in order to try and confront the wall of Federales in riot gear on the other side. I'm not sure whether such a confrontation ever took place; if it did, it must have been pretty small, as I never did see any real commotion. The crowd was pretty large, and pressed tight against the remainder of the barricade. Despite the crowd's size, the media still made up a substantial percentage of those present. I took the opportunity to hand out press releases (discretely) to about 15 news crews, and talked to several of them for quite a while. One crew (actually two brothers from London) were there working on a documentary film. I handed one of them (Thom??) a press release, still folded from my pocket. He opened it, and seeing the Bureaucrash logo on top, said, "Oh, you're with the free trade guys who are here." I responded, "If you've heard of us, then we must be doing our job pretty well." He concurred, and told me that "people are talking" about us, though I gathered from his tone, that it wasn't in a good way. No matter. I gave one interview to a reporter for the NPR syndicated show, Voice of America. Keep your ears open for me.
Today was the "big march" against the WTO in Cancun so when the big government cheerleaders walked over the hill, Crashers greeted them with our "Fair Trade" Soda Stand. We offered thirty protestors two prices for Cokes, Sprites or Bottled Waters: fifty cents or two dollars depending on whether or not they wanted to pay the free trade or fair trade price. Not surprisingly, 2/3rds chose the less expensive free trade price making it the choice of this generation. A group of anarchists formed a human chain around the Crashers because, like governments, they wanted to limit the peaceful trade between individuals. Or maybe the were tired of their fellow protestors looking like fools. Later a Mexican vendor set up shop in the exact same spot so his supply could meet their demand.
Crashers had a BÖll on Wednesday night when they crashed the Cancun Best Western Hotel where members of the Heinrich BÖll Foundation were staying. They were targeted because while they hold forums to demand "fair trade," maids are cleaning their rooms for $6 a day. View the flier that greeted the hypocrites at the Heinrich BÖll Foundation when they woke up on Thursday morning.
September 09 We picked Shane and Edgar up at the airport and prepared for Operation: Fair Trade Fraud for later that evening. It was set to launch after we fueled ourselves with Mexican Food and Margaritas. Unfortunately, a plain clothed member of the Mexican Police demanded that Crasher shanesteinfeld go to the airport with him. He goes into more depth in his report. After that run-in with the Mexican Bureaucracy we headed back to HQ and planned the next day. We ended up getting to bed at 4 AM.
A Wisconsin Crasher was forced to pay union dues to the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association although he didn't want anything to do with them. To expose the unfairness of mandatory union dues he developed the Fair UWGA campaign. The site allows people to send letters of grievance every time their paychecks are robbed by unions. Join the fight against compulsory union dues because one day it could be you.
On the 24th of August, thousands of people will gather in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. According to this crowd, the earth is suffering at the hands of human beings (and mostly those in wealthy countries), who consume too many resources and energy, cause environmental problems, and exploit people in poor countries.
Their solution? We should all consume fewer resources and less energy, that global governance should dictate exactly how we consume and produce, and that people in poor countries should adopt 'appropriate' technologies and regulations that are dictated by environmental groups and wealthy countries, so that they develop 'sustainably' rather than how they please.
This ecological imperialism must be stopped. Keep posted for details on people who will be promoting a freedom-oriented point of view at the WSSD. read more »
There are crashers in Venezuela and they have taken to the streets