[asia-apec 839] Ruggiero pied by P.I.E (People Insurgent Everywhere)

[PAN Asia Pacific]

(This Message comes from Peoples' Global Action)

Dear PGA'ers,


Thought you'd like to know that some of your friends in London had a meeting
with Renato Ruggiero, Director-General of the WTO.  In a well-planned
operation, as Ruggiero left The Royal Institute of International Affairs
(RIIA) in London after his keynote speech on the second day of conference
entitled 'Trade, Investment and the Environment', he was met by three
representatives from 'People Insurgent Everywhere (P.I.E.). Each of the
three came carrying a large lemon pie, with extra cream...While one engages
in small-talk, from the left appears a perfectly aimed pie - right on
Ruggiero's left cheek.  A second draws a direct hit.  'That's a present from
the dispossessed!' shouts one of the P.I.E'ers. 'We are everywhere!' comes
another call, before the three pie throwers make off into London's West End
crowds, leaving Ruggiero to lick his wounds and mourn his dignity.

This is all captured by video-camera, photojournalists and the print media.
With his head white with cream and bits of pastry stuck to him, he runs
inside.  Chased by the video-camera operator.  The final shot is of Ruggiero
slamming the bathroom door into the face of the brave video person.

NB.  The conference centred on the coexistence of free-trade and environmental
sustainability.  It was aimed at NGO's.  It only cost them US$700 for 2 days.! 

NB2. This action formed a holy trinity of powerful men feeling the force of
the pie. Right-wing economist Milton Friedman got the treatment in San
Francisco, then Monsanto's big chief Bob Shapiro got it in the face this
week. Maybe there's an outbreak underway.... 

Below is a more in-depth account of the day

---------------------
VIVE LES ENTARTEURS! or THE PIE'S THE LIMIT!

In a nutshell: 

World Trade Organisation Director-General Renato 'Rocky' Ruggiero gets lemon
pied at London conference on 'Trade, Investment and the Environment' by
representatives of the Biotic Baking Brigade, (a.k.a People Insurgent
Everywhere, or P.I.E). They cite his ceaseless services to global
exploitation and destruction.

The Build-Up: 

The Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), a.k.a Chatham House, is
nestled in a discreet, leafy square in the heart of London's West End,
normally the haunt of sleek shoppers and secretaries-of-state whose purring
Mercs await their masters obediently. On Friday October 30th it played host
to a bewildering gathering, for this was the second day of a conference
entitled 'Trade, Investment and the Environment', organised by RIIA,
'supported' by the Guardian newspaper, and sponsored by the following
(...take a deep breath):  Imperial Chemical Industries plc (ICI), the
Department for International Development (DFID), the Worldwide Fund for
Nature (WWF), the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
(ICTSD) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI; home of our reptilian
friend Mr. Peter Mandelson). And the price of this unmissable 2 day event?
£881.25 for corporates, and a once-in-a-lifetime not-to-be-missed knockdown
bargain basement £440.63 for NGO's.

The keynote speaker to this array of the great and the perhaps not so good
was none other than Renato 'Rocky' Ruggiero, a one-man charisma bypass as
well as outgoing Director-General of the World Trade Organisation. Rocky is
probably one of the most powerful, if little known, men on the face of the
planet, since as the WTO's first boss he has, to paraphrase his own words,
rewritten the rules of the global economy. Those rules now defend the
principles of 'free trade' above those of working conditions, wages and
environmental protection: the WTO is the temple where the mantra of the
markets (ie. profit) is worshipped, and Rocky is its High Priest.

Now Rocky knows that a fairly effective green/social justice coalition
temporarily knackered the MAI, (it may now be inveigled through the WTO); he
also knows that these concerns are a huge hindrance to the continued
imperial progress of his organisation. So, he reasons, if I can co-opt
middle of the road NGO's into a phoney committee that makes them feel like
they're getting somewhere, I will have drawn their sting and driven a handy
wedge between them and more grassrootsy resistance such as that of groups
acting as People's Global Action (PGA). (PGA, for those of you who aren't
aware, came into being in February this year to counter the creeping poison
of the WTO, 'free trade' and corporate rule. PGA actions around the G8/WTO
meetings in May this year were massive and widespread, and included the
overturning of what was widely thought to be our Rocky's very own Merc
during the Geneva leg of the Global Street Party.) This wedge was also
Nestle boss Helmut Maucher's divide-and-rule tactic at the recent Geneva
Business Dialogue, when he drew a line between 'responsible' NGO's with
paid-up members and transparent accounts, and unnamed, unacountable
'activist pressure groups', PGA obviously being uppermost in his obsessively
suspicious corporate head.

The Action: 

Anyway, digressions aside, the Chatham House conference was obviously a
perfect opportunity for Rocky to further his plan of spoonfeeding greenwash
to NGO's by giving them a baby chair at the table of power. Little did he
know that as he waxed lyrical on the joys of sustainable economic growth and
the gorgeous new world he envisioned of the world as one huge trade
superhighway...little did he know that outside waited trained
representatives of the UK arm of the Biotic Baking Brigade, a.k.a. People
Insurgent Everywhere - P.I.E. for the acronymically challenged - each armed
with an exquisite lemon pie enhanced with the tackiest most wastefully
packaged product known to man: whipped cream in an aerosol. So,
after a hard morning's work schmoozing with reps from UK groups with £440.63
to burn, as well as delivering a 20 minute keynote address, the bald-pated,
bespectacled, well-rounded Rocky emerged from the hallowed portals of
Chatham House. Our fearless band of entarteurs (to use the original Belgian
term made famous by Bill Gates-pier Noel Godin) approached him, one hailing
him before he could step off the kerb to reach his chauffeur-driven motor. 

'Mr. Ruggiero?' said the pie-handler, feeling desperately for his pie. 
'Yes?' said Rocky, his minder stepping between charge and assailant, the
latter still fumbling in a plastic bag for ammunition. 

Suddenly out of left field comes a perfectly-aimed pie, striking Rocky on
the left cheek. Again out of nowwhere a second pie scores a second direct
hit. Rocky goes down, shielding himself with a sheaf of documents from the
glare of cameras and the eyes of conference delegates sucking at ciggies on
the pavement.
'Oh my gaad!' shrieks an unidentified American accent, possibly referring to
the nightmare that is the North American Free Trade Agreement. 
'That's a present from the dispossessed!' shouts one exultant assailant.
Another achieves full coverage by spreading thick, sickly cream all over
Rocky's sweaty head. As he cowers, one shouts 'And that's from the
turtles!', reminding him of the recent landmark WTO decision refusing the US
permission to boycott turtle-unfriendly shrimp. Then a quip of 'Are you
bananas Mr Ruggiero?', questioning the curious logic that promotes free
trade while proactively screwing Caribbean banana growers, rubs it in even
further. 'We are everywhere!' comes another call, before the adrenalised
entarteurs make off into the West End crowds, leaving Rocky to lick his
wounds and mourn his dignity.

Rocky slithers back into Chatham house, with videographer in hot pursuit,
the final shot being of the bathroom door slamming in the intrepid
cameraman's face.  Temper, temper, Rocky.

The Epilogue: 

Reports are not yet in of the atmosphere in the Conference for the rest of
the day. Who can say whether the discussion on 'How can trade and investment
liberalisation and environmental sustainability be reconciled?' saw sense
and decided that "They can't; actually it's all just a plot by corporations
and their economic police force the WTO/World Bank/IMF to spout a little
retractable greenwash, forge a pragmatic alliance with institutionalised
NGO's and carry on pillaging as normal." Who can say? It would be
presumptuous to tar every delegate with the same brush, but certainly until
we unite in the belief that the Rocky's WTO et al are unreformable, we will
never get within pieing distance of the promised land...

The fearsome threesome appear to have escaped to fling and fight another
day. The pieing of Ruggiero completes an unholy trinity of recipients over
the past month: first archfiend economist Milton Friedman gets the treatment
in San Francisco, then Monsatan CEO Bob Shapiro orders a full facial (also
in SF), and now Rocky Ruggiero goes down for the count on the steps of
Chatham House.  Could this be the start of a global epidemic of entartement? 

After all, we are all entarteurs...

''''''''''''''''''
The Rhymin' Piemen
''''''''''''''''''


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