Today's the big day for the protesters. I wasn't too sure what to expect, since it seems that there have been so few people here during the other protest events. Today was the exception, though - protesters came in from all over the country (Mexico), to march down one of the main streets and up to the barricades that prevented them from reaching the convention center, where the WTO meetings were being held.
Our plan for today was risky: We set up a stand along the main traffic circle in downtown Cancun, where many of the protesters had been camping out for the previous week. It was about 400 yards from the barricade, where the protesters were planning to end their march. We operated under the guise of offering sodas & bottled water for sale at either a free trade price (50 pesos), or a "fair trade" price (200 pesos), which covered such things as a living wage, health insurance, and child care for our employees, as well as union dues and government tariffs.
The timing couldn't have been better. Its been really really hot the whole time we've been here, and today was no exception. The humidity was even worse than I ever remember it being when I lived in Florida, and our whole group had grown accustomed to walking around in clothing drenched with sweat.
The results of the sale were about what we expected: about 75% sold for the free trade price, while the remainder sold at the "fair trade" price - evidence that even in a free-market system, people who understand the benefits will voluntarily pay more for a product, regardless of a less-expensive alternative.
However, this was not the purpose of our operation. In fact, Starchild only thought about keeping track of the sale once it was already underway. What we were looking for was the reaction to our sale...and it was really entertaining. Tom and I set up in locations to the front and rear of the stand with video cameras, as if we were documenting the protest march. We concealed a microphone on Louis, and another on the table so we could record the interactions.
At first, the passers-by were sort-of confused. Many stopped to read the sign, and stood there with perplexed looks on their faces. You could almost see the reality of the situation set in, as people realized that this "fair trade" thing they were promoting was going to make things cost them a lot more.
...and then came the crowds. Thousands of people marched over the hill, many of them dressed up in home-made body armor and shields, carrying all sorts of makeshift weapons, wearing gas masks and army boots. One American protestor, a rarity among the crowd, came over to confront Louis about the sale, and explain that "this isn't what fair trade is all about". She insisted that fair trade referred to fair treatment of the _producers_ of goods, and not the people selling them. She was really upset about the fact that we were selling Coca-Cola products, since Coca-Cola is a giant multi-national corporation that epitomized everything the protesters were against. I got a nice close-up shot of the Sony video camera that she was holding in her left hand, while making angry gestures to Louis with her right.
The march was the largest that we'd seen since we arrived in Cancun. There were plenty of so-called "anarchists" on hand, who firmly believe that private property must be destroyed (both in practice, and in concept), in order to promote liberty. At one point, a group of them, all armed, encircled Louis & our stand, holding hands to form a human chain around it. Others motioned to one another, preparing to deface our set-up with cans of black spray-paint. We decided that perhaps it was time to pack up & go. I radioed the others.
We regrouped, and, after Louis changed clothes to change his appearance slightly, returned to the crowd to document the action. The protestors ended up pulling apart the barricade, piece by piece, in order to try and confront the wall of Federales in riot gear on the other side. I'm not sure whether such a confrontation ever took place; if it did, it must have been pretty small, as I never did see any real commotion. The crowd was pretty large, and pressed tight against the remainder of the barricade.
Despite the crowd's size, the media still made up a substantial percentage of those present. I took the opportunity to hand out press releases (discretely) to about 15 news crews, and talked to several of them for quite a while.
One crew (actually two brothers from London) were there working on a documentary film. I handed one of them (Thom??) a press release, still folded from my pocket. He opened it, and seeing the Bureaucrash logo on top, said, "Oh, you're with the free trade guys who are here." I responded, "If you've heard of us, then we must be doing our job pretty well." He concurred, and told me that "people are talking" about us, though I gathered from his tone, that it wasn't in a good way. No matter.
I gave one interview to a reporter for the NPR syndicated show, Voice of America. Keep your ears open for me.
