Billionnaires for Bush (or Gore)
Daniel Graeber, writing in the current New Left Review:
At the American Party Conventions, Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) dressed in high-camp tuxedos and evening gowns and tried to press wads of fake money into the cops’ pockets, thanking them for repressing the dissent. None were even slightly hurt - perhaps police are given aversion therapy against hitting anyone in a tuxedo. The Revolutionary Anarchist Clown Bloc, with their high bicycles, rainbow wigs and squeaky mallets, confused the cops by attacking each other (or the billionaires). They had all the best chants: “Democracy? Ha Ha Ha!”, “The pizza united can never be defeated”, “Hey ho, hey ho - ha ha, hee hee!”, as well as meta-chants like “Call! Response! Call! Response!” and - everyone’s favourite - “Three Word Chant! Three Word Chant!”
There’s more useful information here, which includes the RACB’s official communiqu�, calling on people to come to Philadelphia “to show the Republicans they are not the only clowns in town”:
We are not, however, calling for a strictly anarchist clown bloc. We hereby open the call to those who do not identify as anarcho-clowns, but nonetheless struggle to create the same revolutionary antics: autonomist fan-dancers, situationist contortionists, anti-fascist jugglers, council communist hula-hoopers, wobbly tall-bike riders and stilt walkers, radical cheerleaders, primitivist fire breathers, and yes, even anti-state libertarian marxist mimes! Our intent is not to be divisive of the larger protests, but to support them by wearing very large shoes.
The same page also reports an excellent Billionaires for Bush (or Gore) chant: “What do we want? Prison labor! How do we want it? Cheap!”
Jo wrote [16.2.2002]: That’s all fine, but why no mention of the passing of Waylon Jennings, the hardest working man in Country?