Nmherman on 24 Feb 2001 16:40:03 -0000 |
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[Nettime-bold] Fake Money and its Discontents |
++ Find this story and followup articles at http://minneapolis.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1074 audio at www.mpr.org, noon-1pm, Friday 2/23 Interesting note: No coverage of protests in the student paper, the Minnesota Daily. Fake money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Max Herman The Genius 2000 Network http://www.geocities.com/genius-2000 ++ Personal Account of Disruption of Thomas Friedman Award Ceremony by Ben Grosscup 3:18am Sat Feb 24 '01 benmalone@aol.com This is a personal account of a disruptive action at a Thomas Friedman Speakign engagement I am writing as a person who helped disrupt a ceremony and speech of Thomas Friedman, New York Times Foreign Affairs Correspondent, on Friday February 23. The action was meant to embarrass Thomas Friedman and the administration of the University of Minnesota for their support of neo-liberal economic structures and corporate globalization, radicalize people who questioned Friedman's neo-liberal ideology, and show the strength of people who stand up to fight corporate globalization. The ceremony we were disrupting was basically awarding Friedman for being a "great intellectual." I think the corporate controlled oligarchy of the U of M administration is doing everything it can to make the U of M into a corporate diploma factory to train a work force for a lifetime of servitude to the corporate masters. One particularly egregious example of this is their incestuous relationship with Cargill Inc., the Minnesota-based biotechnology multinational corporation. The University and Cargill are both putting up funds to make a research facility that will produce research that to which Cargill will have all the rights. I arrived at the front steps of the Northrop Auditorium where Friedman later spoke. A few of the people I had met in various circumstances and at the organizing meeting the night before were present. We decided to break up into groups. I was part of one of the small groups that went in the auditorium and sat quietly waiting until Friedman began his speech. Others stayed outside and passed out flyers, though I personally never got a chance to see a copy of what they were passing out. After an "academic procession," where U of M alumni wearing hats with the little strings walked on stage to organ music, a rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner," and an introduction by U of M president Yudof, Friedman began his speech. I wish I had recorded the Yudof's introduction because there were a number of very pro-corporate statements Yudof said that I would have liked to examine here. Shortly after Friedman began talking about his book, stating his now famous over-simplification that globalization has replaced the cold war system, came the first visible signs of disruption and dissent. One person near the front row stood and threw a large amount of what appeared to be fake money into the air. Simultaneously, people held up the banners they inconspicuously brought that denounced Friedman's neo-liberal economic agenda and the University's ardent support of it. Individuals yelled statements like, "Globalization is killing the poor in the third world" and some chanted in unison, "Globalization: Shut it down!," and "We are the people and the students of the U, we do not support this point of view." As the chants began, Friedman stopped. Our resolve in continuing to disrupt his speech was not rock solid and the chants did begin to cease. I can say for myself that it was rather intimidating to see cops to the sides of the auditorium and being told to "shut up," by some people who came to see him speak. He referred to our action as "moronic," though I expected this response and was not intimidated. I then pointed out very loudly yelling something to the effect of, "You think anyone opposing capitalism is moronic because you are a capitalist." The proceedings were aired on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) from 12 noon to pm. We heard afterwards that Garry Eichton spliced in commentary about protesters making disruptions as they occurred. However, we heard that MPR did broadcast Yudof threatening us with arrest for our disruption. We exited carrying banners. One said something like "U of M Celebrates 3rd World Debt and Poverty," referring again to Friedman's support of institutions like the World Bank and International monitory Fund. Then we congregated outside the auditorium chanting "Thomas Friedman is a corporate Lap-Dog." At times people held a bullhorn and articulated the critique of Friedman, the New York Times and the U of M. Then people went to Williamson Hall, where Friedman began a book signing at 2:00pm. We gathered outside of the bookstore holding the banners and some individuals spoke out to the people in line and in the area about their views. By this time, the crowed had dwindled some and the energy had taken a definite down turn. I left as Friedman walked into do the book signing. There were many cops and I could see no way to continue the energy from earlier in the afternoon. I had no interest in beginning a dialogue with Friedman because it would have been on his terms and it would have taken place in the presence of cops who had authority to arrest me. I slipped out at that point. It should be recognized that in many ways, our action was disconnected from the lives of most of the people in the world. We were fighting an ideology. To be familiar with this ideology, you'd have to have read Friedman's writings. I think that is something to consider as we put our precious efforts into campaigns. We can't build a mass movement by disrupting one person's interpretation of a neo-liberal ideology. Nonetheless, it was worthwhile to demonstrate dissent. Though I think our education efforts need to stay focused on the issues, it is enormously helpful to be familiar with what Noam Chomsky calls the "cultural managers," like Friedman, who barrage us with this ideology through corporate propaganda outlets like the New York Times. I wish we could have been more organized and had a greater resolve to disrupt his speech. I don't see any reason why we should be tolerant of the many capitalist assumptions pervade our society. Friedman has been enormously successful in convincing many people that corporate globalization is irreversible and the best you can do is make a lot of money for yourself. He adds that rising to the top or "the front of the herd" is the only way we can steer the inevitable capitalist expansion to gain things like a "good standard of living," "sustainable globalization" and other nonsense. We need to show that we won't take it anymore, and we'll fight to stop this neo-liberal vision. The people already convinced that there is nothing we can do to corporate globalization will likely be angry at us. But uneasiness that our actions will offend some should not tame our militancy. _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold