[Nettime-bold] FW: WTO applauded for insulting Gandh

[Leili <leiloop@jps.net>]

----------
From: RTMark Quarterly Report <ann0059@rtmark.com>
Date: 30 Aug 2001 05:42:15 -0000


August 30, 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WTO INTRODUCES NEW MEMBER
Gold and one meter long, phallus is brand-new technology to control
distant workers

Anti-WTO impostors have struck again, delivering a lecture about the
rights of slavery, the stupidity of Gandhi, and the supremacy of free
trade to an enthusiastic crowd of scientists, engineers, and marketing
professionals--all of whom thought they were watching an official WTO
representative.

The 150 experts at the "Textiles of the Future" conference in Tampere,
Finland heard one Hank Hardy Unruh explain that Gandhi's "self-
sufficiency" movement was entirely misguided, because it centered
around protectionism, and that Lincoln, by outlawing slavery, had
criminally interfered with the trade freedom of the South, as well as
with slavery's own freedom to develop naturally. Had slavery never
been abolished, Unruh said, today's much cheaper system of sweatshops
would have eventually replaced it anyhow; following this free-market
logic to the end, Unruh declared the Civil War just a big waste of
money.

Finally, to applause from the highly educated audience, Unruh's
business suit was ripped off to reveal a golden leotard with a
three-foot-long phallus. The purpose of the "Management Leisure Suit",
he explained, was to allow managers, no matter where they were, to
monitor their distant, impoverished workforces and to administer
shocks to encourage productivity--assuring that no "Gandhi-type
situation" develop again.

"If a group of Ph.D.s cheers at such crudely crazy things, just
because it's the WTO saying them, what else can the WTO get away
with?"  said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men, the impostors' umbrella
group. (The entire PowerPoint lecture is available at
http://www.theyesmen.org/finland/, along with some shots captured by
a video crew preparing a film on the Yes Men's activities.)

The Yes Men had a similar experience last October with a group of
international trade lawyers (http://www.theyesmen.org/wto/). And in
July, a member of the group, again passing as a representative of the
WTO, appeared on a major television network show about protest's
effect on the market (http://theyesmen.org/tv.html); among other
things, he spoke about how the privatization of education will
naturally eliminate "unproductive" thinkers from the high-school
classroom, a long-term solution to the problem of protest. (Because
the imposture was not noticed and the Yes Men hope for further
appearances, the show's name is being withheld.)

In other quarterly developments:

* A conference session on techniques to counter anti-corporate
activism, normally available for $225 to corporate clients, is
available to activists for free at http://rtmark.com/prsa/, thanks to
an anonymous donor.

* At the G8 protests in Genoa, activists distributed one thousand
vanity mirrors, which were then used to reflect the sun into the eyes
of attacking policemen; this fulfilled RTMark project MIRR
(http://rtmark.com/archimedes.html), and those who carried it out
received a $1,000 anonymous investment.

The "Archimedes Project" comes on the heels of the medieval catapult
attack on the FTAA fortress in Quebec City, for which the workers were
awarded $200. For the upcoming IMF protests in Washington, D.C., on
September 29, an RTMark investor has offered $500 to any Lacrosse
team that harnesses their skills and equipment to throw tear gas
canisters back to the police (http://rtmark.com/fundhigh.html#LACR).

* A software development kit and book from http://hactivist.com,
entitled "Child as Audience", allows anyone to reverse-engineer the
Nintendo Gameboy. Because of content that many will find
objectionable, RTMark has lent its corporate veil to the project,
meaning that any legal flak will be absorbed by the RTMark corporate
body rather than by those responsible.

* The same label that enraged Geffen Records with "Deconstructing
Beck" is issuing its fourth RTMark-sponsored release, "A Mutated
Christmas," a paean to musical sharing illegally assembled from
copyrighted holiday music. Promotional copies will be available in
late September; press and radio requests should be directed to
mailto:illegalart@detritus.net.


RTMark's primary goal is to publicize corporate subversion of the
democratic process. To this end it acts as a clearinghouse for
anti-corporate projects. A list of just-added projects is maintained
at http://rtmark.com/new.html.

                             # 30 #

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