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News :: Miscellaneous |
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St. Louis: Walk for Capitalism Overrun by Anti-Capitalists |
Current rating: 0 |
by Colleen McQueer via St.L IMC
(No verified email address) |
05 Dec 2001
Modified: 06 Dec 2001 |
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On December 2, a sunny Sunday afternoon, a handful of earnest, somber capitalists gathered at Blueberry Hill to walkFORcapitalism, one of 108 such walksFORcapitalism around the world, only to be outnumbered, upstaged and satirized by at least twice as many boisterous anti-capitalists. |
First, a note to readers: this is not a satirical article. This actually happened. We swear on our Noam Chomsky. On December 2, a sunny Sunday afternoon, a handful of earnest, somber capitalists gathered at Blueberry Hill to walkFORcapitalism, one of 108 such walksFORcapitalism around the world, only to be outnumbered, upstaged and satirized by at least twice as many boisterous anti-capitalists.
The capitalists, incidentally, were also late for their own much-touted march, giving us anarchists a fifteen-minute head start on our antics. At a little after noon, Ionna and I. B. Richefeller turned up at the corner of Melville and Delmar wearing a long gown and hair ornaments decorated with play money and a suit embellished with a "Billionaires for Bush (or Gore)" pin, respectively. They were accompanied by about five or six of us holding signs that read "CLOWNS FOR CAPITALISM," "WELFARE FOR CORPORATIONS, NOT FOR MOTHERS AND CHILDREN," and "THE POOR AND THE NEEDY ARE SELFISH AND GREEDY," and we gleefully gave out play money to mostly delighted passersby while singing "All we are saying, is give greed a chance" and admonishing passersby not to spend their play money all in one place.
Our crowd of subversives swelled as we approached Blueberry Hill, where we found the capitalists not singing, dancing or chanting, but standing prim-lipped and stiff as boards, with a collective expression on their faces that seemed to say, "If G-d didn t want us to be uptight, He wouldn t have put sticks up our asses." Some of their signs read, "CAPITALISM WILL MAKE YOU FREE," "MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL GOOD" (I am not making this up) and most puzzlingly, "GREEDY DRUG COS MAKE ME WELL." The woman with the latter sign at first thought that we were the people she wanted to join, but then realized that she meant to be with the "straight" group, which seemed to disappoint her son, who wanted to have fun with play money.
The capitalists just stood there for a while as we marched and danced around the sidewalks of the University City Loop, singing "We Shall Overspend" and The Beatles "Money (That s What I Want)," gathering a crowd of supporters as we passed. No opportunity for performance was overlooked: we wore jester outfits, pig masks, neckties emblazoned with dollar bills, oxford shirts with bar codes safety-pinned to the backs, and T-shirts with pictures of child laborers on them and slogans like, "Animal Liberation is Human Liberation." The man in the latter T-shirt was accompanied by two presumably anti-capitalist canines. Accompanied by a wind instrument, we chanted, "Exploitation made our nation," "Privatize the sidewalks," "Child labor builds character," "Might makes right," "Capitalism is better than sex" (accompanied by a woman in a tight dress doing a lewd dance), "The rich don t have to give a shit," and countless other chants and songs. We shimmied and laughed and were joyous.
Finally the capitalists began to march, and we marched behind, among and in front of them. We stopped now and then as their leader (who wore a crewcut that was not retro in intent) gave speeches at institutions that they felt were cornerstones of capitalism, like Commerce Bank, Big Shark Bicycle Company, and other stores. Most of the businesses paid no attention to them, but we applauded whenever they did, only much more loudly. They did not appear to have tangible awards, only words. Sometimes it was difficult to tell which businesses their leader was commemorating, because his bullhorn did not work and he made no attempt to raise his voice.
They also walked past the University City Public Library (where I. B. Richefeller led us in a passionate denouncement of the library as an example of socialism) to present the police with an award no one could hear. The police scarcely paid attention. As the march wore on, the massively underwhelming capitalists mildly and quietly ridiculed us, claiming we were unemployed, uneducated deadbeats who expected to "sit at home and get government checks." They were speechless when a friend of mine informed them he had a college degree and I stated that I had a full-time job.
The march ended at Blueberry Hill to give Joe Edwards, the owner of that bar and many other buildings in the Loop, such as the Pageant (where it costs nearly a day of this reporter s wages to see a show) the International Capitalist of the Year Award. Then the capitalists went to lunch at Blueberry Hill and the rest of us went to the Market in the Loop for free food from Food not Bombs.
This reporter was happy to see several teenage girls who missed the march take up our signs and spontaneously start up their own. There may be hope for America yet, but only if we keep our sense of humor. (Speaking of which, for those who want a laugh, check out www.walkforcapitalism.org or www.billionairesforbush.org.)
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See also:
http://www.stlimc.org/front.php3?article_id=1059&group=webcast
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Comments
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Synopsis from the other side: |
by Sascha Meinrath
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Dec 2001
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from: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProjectLeadersActionNetwork/message/446
From: "Sullivan"
Date: Mon Dec 3, 2001 5:26 am
Subject: St. Louis Walk - Total Success!
[From: Dan Sullivan, St.Louis Coordinator]
Here in St. Louis, our WalkForCapitalism was a great success!
We had about 30 "Good Guys" & an apparently well planned & well organized
counter-protest by about 20 or so unbelievably OBNOXIOUS, loudmouthed
socialists!
We assembled peacefully, adorning ourselves with miniature DBR's with
American Flag pins as centers, rallied & waved our signs at interested
passers-by while we waited for all comers to arrive. (Six really wonderful
kids, from the Kansas University Students of Objectivism Club, who had
driven over 300 miles to join us, had arrived Sat. evening. We had a great
pre-Walk party Sat. night: ate pizza & brownies, listened to Capitalist
lectures, discussed ideas, & made a bunch of really great signs.)
We began the Walk, as planned, at 1:00pm, with a brief speech, explaining
why we were celebrating Capitalism & why Walking was an important &
appropriare way to celebrate (adapted from Prodos "Why Walk" message).
During an hour-long Walk, we stopped to present DBR Awards to over a dozen
businesses & other grateful recipients ... at each stop, one of us made a
brief speech about the business or recipient, why they were deserving of an
award, & making tie-ins to pro-capitalist ideas.
Luckily we had a bullhorn ... the strategy of the socialists was mix in with
us, act loud & obnoxious, & make people think they were part of the Walk, &
to shout us down whenever we tried to make a presentation. They were a
thoroughly disgusting & bad-smelly bunch of louts. The contrast between them
& us was quite obvious, but we did point it out several times as we went, to
avoid any confusion. They were persistent & trailed along with us the entire
way.
They did back off about 50 feet when we presented DBR Awards to the local
Police & Firefighters (who seemed very moved and appreciative) but the jerks
continued to shout in the background, even during our requested moment of
silence for the heroes, in acknowledgement of the Sept. 11 tragedies.) In
the end, the anti-capitalists accomplished nothing but making mindless fools
of themselves (which wasn't hard!) & drawing more attention to our Walk for
us ... making it more of a real comunity event!
The 1st annual St. Louis WalkForCapitalism concluded in front of Blueberry
Hill, a great restaurant/bar owned by the recipient of our International
Capitalism Award, Joe Edwards. Joe was very pleased & graciously made a
short speech of thanks. We finally shed the irrational screamers when we
went inside for an after-Walk (non-free) lunch. A sizable police presence
had gathered by then! We rested, ate, talked, planned a bit for next year, &
drank a toast to Capitalism & to our successful Walk!
I'm too tired to provide more now, but we'll look forward to posting more
details, the text of our DBR speeches, etc., & we'll scan pictures & put 'em
on our website in the near future.
All in all, it was exhausting ... but ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL!! Thanks to
Prodos for the idea, & to all the other PLANet coordinators for the ongoing
encouragement & help in the planning.
Best to all,
[Moderator: Rodolphe Lebrun] |
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