Wednesday January 19, 2000
www.rtmark.com This site produces spoof versions of the enemy's websites. While retaining a graphic similarity, real information is given instead of the office propaganda of the organisation - but with a sense of humour, instead of dry politics. Subversive humour is about making corporations look ridiculous. There's an added advantage when those being subverted become apoplectic about these spoof sites, as they did before the World Trade Organisation's Seattle conference when its director-general called this site underhand. A similar thing took place with a spoof Shell website which was established at the beginning of '99. What's so good when you search for a company website, for example in Shell's case, is that our subverted website appears directly next to the official address.
On the other hand, Etoys is a huge corporation that does mail order e-toys, and they took to court a European group dedicated to subversive art who used the same name. The corporation was getting very upset that its customers were getting diverted. That was quite interesting - the law, politics, virtual territory and how businesses colonised the net.
www.oilcompanies.org It exposes the sophisticated green-wash employed by corporations with huge public relations budgets and returns the web to what it should be - access for all. It makes our message as accessible as that of the corporations, regardless of how powerful they are.
www.agp.org A very good way to find out about global resistance is by looking at Peoples' Global Action (PGA). It's a global network of groups and people resisting capitalism. Our own site (www.gn.apc.org/rts/) is good for more local resistance. I think it explains a lot, and it's witty, and it gives information - where and when a particular event or action takes place. There tends to be a generic way websites are laid out and Reclaim The Streets breaks the mould.
• Interview by Andy Ajiz
