A-Infos (en) Australia, Sydney, wto - spin the bottle bloc report and follow up action

["anarcho sando" <anarcho_sando@hotmail.com>]

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Cops crack down on spin the bottle's "disturbing threats of violence"
by Morris Day 5:50pm Sun Nov 17 '02 (Modified on 9:21am Mon Nov 18 '02) 
article#23325
phone: 0403 065 114 montezboy@yahoo.com

Police Minister Michael Costa denounces Spin The Bottle Bloc's "violent" 
plans; cops seize giant bottle; Spin the Bottle Bloc defiant and pledge to 
pash regardless.

The Spin The Bottle Bloc, an activist group involved in the recent No-WTO 
protests, are planning a game of spin the bottle outside State Parliament 
after their six-foot bottle was confiscated by police at the Olympic site on 
Friday. "We put it down for about fifteen minutes. When we came back it was 
gone," said Morris Day, a member of the Bloc. "It's bad enough the police 
stopped us getting to the hotel, but when they stop us snogging each other, 
it's just unaustralian."

The bottle - a fragile and completely unthreatening prop made of chicken 
wire, acetate and sticky tape - was obviously no danger, so why was it 
seized? The Spin The Bottle Bloc blame Police Minister Michael Costa, who 
denounced their planned action in State Parliament on Thursday. Mr Costa, 
having come across the phrase "spin the bottle" in activist communications, 
pondered the "intriguing" question, "what is 'spin the bottle'?"

"Who doesn’t know what spin the bottle is?" asked Day. "Costa 
obviously wasn't invited to the right parties, but that's what you get for 
wasting your youth in party politics."

Mr Costa liberally and innacurately paraphrased from the Spin The Bottle 
Bloc's call to action, explaining: "Spin the bottle takes the form of a 
blockade. The spin the bottle blockade takes on the WTO in a no-holds-barred 
fight to the finish. And you can join them. I will not read the rest of it, 
but it goes on to say: We invite you to join us for the most militant game 
of spin the bottle ever attempted - turning up the heat until every kiss 
becomes a molotov… [Protestors] have defined what spin the bottle is 
in postings on the Internet. They have come here for violent 
confrontation…" The idea that spin the bottle is a "violent 
confrontation" is absurd. In context, the use of words like "molotov" was 
obviously a joke, a metaphor. A metaphor, for the police minister's benefit, 
is when you use words in a symbolic rather than a literal way. For example, 
when we say we’ve been laughing our arses off at what a fuckhead 
Michael Costa is, we do not actually mean that our bottoms have fallen from 
our bodies, or that Michael Costa's cranium is some kind of sexual 
plaything.

Although it's hard to take any of this seriously, there is an important 
issue at stake. The New South Wales Police Minister cannot tell the 
difference between pashing and terrorism. In Parliament, spin the bottle was 
his one and only example of protestors' "disturbing threats of violence", 
his justification for aggressive police tactics. The minister has wasted 
millions of dollars and injured dozens of people defending WTO delegates 
against the threat of tonsil hockey.

Contact the Spin The Bottle Bloc:
Email: montezboy@yahoo.com
Phone: 0403 065 114

Read Michael Costa's comments on spin the bottle in full:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/lc/lchansart52.nsf/5f030e3470a5afbf4a2564b3001a307c/5f9ea6120ac24387ca256c7200010813?OpenDocument
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/lc/lchansart52.nsf/5f030e3470a5afbf4a2564b3001a307c/1bf1c7185d37176dca256c7200010818?OpenDocument

The controversial call to action:

SPIN THE BOTTLE AGAINST THE WTO
It's getting hot in herre, so let's fan the flames of discontent into tonsil 
hockey revolt! On November 14-15, the World Trade Organisation is coming to 
Sydney. As they work to advance their agenda of free trade and human misery, 
the SPIN THE BOTTLE BLOC will be making bold advances on a different agenda 
altogether. We are sick of the constant stream of propaganda shoved down our 
throats by the organs of the capitalist press, and we have our own ideas 
about which organs our throats would like to accomodate. And so we will spin 
the bottle against neoliberalism, against the camps, against the commodity, 
against the alienation of everyday life under capital and against 
reproducing that alienation in our activism. We invite YOU to join us for 
the most militant game of spin the bottle ever attempted - turning up the 
heat until every kiss becomes a molotov. Woo!

HOW U CAN PARTICIPATE:
* Look out for the STB Bloc with their giant bottle during the WTO protests 
- join the circle, pash an activist.
* Organise an autonomous game of Spin The Bottle with comrades, friends or 
strangers.
* Get involved with the Bloc and don the spunky uniform - contact 
montezboy@yahoo.com for more info.
* Remember: ALL are welcome. Just as we long to break down the racist 
barriers capital imposes on the movement of people, so with spin the bottle 
we will break down the barriers capital imposes on desire - age, sex, race, 
class, sexuality and commodity beauty standards.

SEE YOU THERE





http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=23325&group=webcast


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