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Do-It-Yourself Geopolitics 287
etc. The idea was to produce a menacing atmosphere, then bifurcate in unexpected
directions. An action was undertaken against the weapons manufacturer
Indra: several dozen white-suited “arms inspectors” surged up the
stairway of the Wrm’s Barcelona ofWce and began disassembling the communications
equipment, which was placed into boxes marked “Danger: Weapons
of Mass Destruction.” Even more effectively, a photographic Forumaton was
set up in various locations, allowing grinning residents to “pose against the
Forum,” with signs that said “The Forum is a business,” “The Forum is for
real-estate speculation,” “The Forum is a piece of shit,” and so on. A crescendo
was hit with Pateras Urbanas, a sea-going invasion of the Forum on precarious
rafts like those used by immigrants crossing the Straits of Gibralter.
Hundreds of participants, outlandish costumes and pirate Xags, four hours
in the ocean with the Coast Guard everywhere, and a wild landing on the
grounds of the tourist spectacle that wanted to turn its back on anything
real. The action was all over the Catalan newspapers, and the deXation of
the “Barcelona logo” provoked resounding peals of laughter from the people
that have to live in it.
Could this kind of subversion go further, deeper, involving broader
sections of the population and producing positive effects of resymbolization
and political recomposition? The Chainworkers collective in Milan thought
FIGURES 10.6A AND 10.6B.
Protesting beneath World Forum Wreworks and
in the streets of Barcelona, Spain, 2004.
Images from http://www.forumbcn2004.org.