The Yes Men strike at Tampere

23.08 11.23 Tapio Laakso

The organizers of the Tampere textiles seminar wanted Mike Moore, the general director of the WTO to give a presentation at their affair. They sent Mr. Moore some mail via the www.gatt.org -site. The organizers failed to notice that the site in question is a fake compiled by the Yes Men. Even the dozens of links to sites opposing neo-liberalism and globalization or the very interesting research and news topics were not revealing enough. "Today, however, another Holocaust is taking place: it goes by the name of "distrust of big business," and it is every bit as terrible as the last."

Since Mike Moore couldn't make it to Tampere, Hank Hardy Unruh was the WTO representative in his stead. Professor Pertti Nousiainen, who was responsible for tendering the invitation to Mr. Moore, stated in an interview by Helsingin Sanomat that no one opposed the man's ideas or accused him of being a charlatan. So, the man must have been saying all the right things about the markets and free trade.

The entire Unruh presentation is available at the Yes Men's website and it is definitely worth a look. The presentation shows that if the presenter has enough status, they can pretty much say anything and no one will react to it. The third slide in the presentation, Worlds of Opportunity, contains pictures of corporate logos and powerful people from around the world.

"Looking around at this diverse sea of faces, I see outstanding elements of corporations like Dow, Denkendorf, Lenzing, all at the forefront of consumer satisfaction in textiles. I see members of the European Commission, Euratex, and other important political bodies that aim at easing rules for corporate citizens. I also see professors from great universities walking into a prosperous future hand in hand with industrial partners, using citizen funds to develop great textilic solutions to be sold to consumers for profit and progress."

Unruh continues about the WTO: "What do we want? A free and open global economy that will best serve corporate owners and stockholders alike. When do we want it? Now." Unruh present a slide of Charles Darwin and compares the market to the laws of nature. Things have a way of working out. Every once in a while, the markets do need help and that's what the WTO is there for.

Unruh's presentation says that the United States Civil War was a result on the protectionism of the northern states and that the markets would have done away with slavery sooner or later. The presentation also touches upon Gandhi and the liberation of India from under the power of Great Britain. All of this was due to Gandhi's inability to understand the free markets and the poor administration practices employed by the British.

Unruh advocates a privatization of education. The aim of this education should be to help children turn their attention away from unproductive matters and focus it on more sensible things.

After the presentation Unruh exits the stage whil the audience applauds. The seminar's MC mentions his presentation three times during the rest of the day.