The following story, by David Ho, appeared in the Associated Press on September 29, 2002: 

Amid outraged protester cries about everything from AIDS to war, police did give in to one demonstrator demand: "Bananas!" 

That was the only word spoken by a protester in a gorilla costume who hopped up and down outside the District of Columbia Courthouse on Saturday.  Inside, some of the hundreds of protesters arrested Friday were being processed. "He's outraged that they've locked up his brothers and sisters in a cage," another demonstrator said. 

About a dozen police officers joked with the gorilla, offering him a sandwich. He refused, instead grunting and voicing his one word request.  The police complied. One ran off and a few minutes later Officer S.C. Braxton handed the gorilla-clad protester a bunch of bananas. 

 "Stop monkeying around," another cop said. 

Analysis: 

As a long time activist associated with the debate community, I wanted to share a brief insight about the ties of the production of knowledge, sitatuationist media-based criticism, and the hope for debate-associated activism (rather than activist associated debate). 

Despite have a million things to do, I was committed to go to the IMF/World Bank demonstrations.  I feel really strongly, that as westerners with privilege, we should use that privilege to do as much as we can to slow the damage of global capital.  Despite my increasing dissatisfaction with the Seattle-style activism that seems to permeate the anti-capitalist movement in 2002, I knew I was going to go.  The question was -- "what to do?"

I usually work with a loose affinity group of people I know and trust.  We work on specific actions, take care of each other, and use internal dialogue to make decisions and constantly work in a fluid small group to push as much as possible. 

The World Economic Forum in New York City sucked.  I watched a bunch of people I care about get the crap beat out of them by the police with NO recourse.  It was so bad, that someone who was pretty reasonable wound up really cynical and angry.  I was pretty sure that the DC cops were going to be even more crafty.  They were either going to beat us up and get away with it, or we were all going to jail, or both.  (In fact the cops were even better at their jobs than the NYC cops.  It was as though someone had given a copy of Gramsci's Prison Notebooks to the cops.  They were so good at giving teeny little presents to shut down protest -- that they effectively crippled the demonstrations.  Oh yeah, and when they couldn't do that, they simply arrested all the organizers, activists, medics, legal observers, independent press, and anyone who got in the way.  Man, they did a Gramsci negative block better than anyone else I'd ever met . . .[I assume that the cops are negative because they are against change . . .]) 

So after one particularly enjoyable spar with the police, the monkey and I met a reporter named David Ho from the AP.  He was as bored with the protest as we were, so we agreed to an interview.  David dutifully stuck his recorder in the face of the gorilla who promptly screamed and grunted at him.  I chose to interpret these grunts explaining “its silly to interview a gorilla – they don’t speak English . . .” I explained that the monkey was outraged that the police had locked up his friends and that he had spent some time in a cage and didn’t like it.  I also explained that the IMF/WB structural adjustment policies destroy local habitat for primates.  David from the AP wanted to know the monkey’s name.  So I told him that it was Guy Debord, the long dead founder of the French situationist movement.  He also wanted my name, which I gave honestly.  I also gave him my cell phone and answered a few more mundane questions. 

We didn’t give much thought to the event, other than to laugh.  We had this image of the papers dutifully reporting that Guy Debord, the dead situationist, had accepted bananas as reparations from the DC police for the loss of habitat . . . we laughed long and hard at this idea.  On the car ride home, I got a cell phone call from David Ho.  He wanted to speak to “Guy” and for a minute I didn’t know what he was talking about until I remembered.  So I gave the phone to the activist playing Guy Debord, and laughed as he filled him in on some bogus biographical data.  We laughed the entire ride home.  The next day, I got another phone call from David.  He wanted to know if this was Guy Debord, the French leader of situationism.  I told him that it was.  He said he didn’t believe me and I came clean that we were making fun of him.  He didn’t think it was funny. 

So I figured that it was over.  A humorous anecdote for my scrapbook.  Then on Monday I found the article on Lexis-Nexis. 

Art parodying politics reported by the media, who although in on the joke, can’t NOT report on the spectacle of a gorilla with cops!  What the hell?  Interpretation failed me. 

So my thoughts:

1.    The media structure filters the evidence we receive.  If you don’t believe me that the folks that write/report the cards that we read in rounds are as silly as ducks with cigars, then hopefully my anecdote might persuade you.

2.    Activism is fun and can fulfill an otherwise bland life.

Well, I'll stop aping the media system, stop monkeying around, and stop making pun of people.