July 4th Guerilla Theater in Akron : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

Over a dozen activists with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Akron came to the annual fireworks celebration in downtown Akron to display an anti-war message critical of US Empire to thousands of Akronites. The "captive audience" was watching the Akron Symphony play a variety of musical pieces while activists flipped through various slogans twice. As one picture below shows, there were literally thousands of people in our vicinity, nearly all of whom watched us or were at least aware of our presence.

The first messages were designed to warm the crowd to our presence, so we displayed messages more-or-less friendly, uncontroversial, and apolitical ("Hello Akron" and "Happy July 4"). Then, we moved onto more political messages via a "Support the Troops" message (this is the one message that the group had mixed feelings on; it's ambiguous as to just *how* people should support them, as individual people? as human lives? as potential resistors or AWOLs? as conquerors and occupiers of Iraq?). This message was intended to introduce the following political slogans, and to project a sort of "disclaimer" that the group was not anti-American. The group then clarified how U.S. troops should be supported: "Bring Them Home". The rest of the messages were slogans often found in US peace marches and rallies.

Crowd reaction was mainly passive--as one would expect. There was the occasional cheer, particularly for the first two apolitical signs. The "Support the Troops" got a polite applause, while the following "Bring Them Home Now" got less cheers, but louder ones from certain audience members. The rest of the signs were met with little reaction. One group of early 20 year old males (those who are at the perfect age to goto Iraq and die for "a cause" or a "flag") who were snickering off to the side gave a quick, yet audible,cheer when the "130,000 Iraqis Dead" message was shown. We were not surprised by that jingoism however, and were pleased others did not join in with similar racist jeering.

We're recommend others try this at other places where large numbers of people are. Even if there's little reaction, it still is an opportunity to rattle people's perspectives a bit and inject a stronger critique to what would otherwise be a mere flag-worshipping event. But, remember to practice beforehand. We did two run-throughs before going to the throngs, and it helped immensely. Also, remember to make the letters big enough as to be visible to those far away.

Finally, on a "lighter" note, the Sympony's musical choices were often hilarious, particularly when they were playing the Imperial theme from "Star Wars"... it was an ironic twist to our anti-imperialist signs that hopefully others noticed, too.

The controversial slogan... to warm up the crowd

There was also "Money 4 Health Care", "Money 4 Sewer Fix", etc.

Love you all! This is awsome!

I am so proud and moved by this action. Your hearts are so open and loving. Thank you for putting your values into action.

Love, Priscilla

job! great idea, you all just gave a bunch of people something to plan for up here.

Great idea! I hope that this type of informational protesting catches on around the US and world wide. Instead of us yelling, shouting or even speaking... the power in having someone else read what we think is amazing. They can read it like it means nothing and later reflect on what it truly means. Or they can read it as if it does mean something (because it does) and feel the urgency to help!
GREAT JOB!

We did a similar thing in Philly at the Live8 concert . A group of us went into the crowd with huge letters 5feet tall that spelled out " Drive Out The Bush Regime!" the crowd was dense -maby close to a million there. Folks in the crowd were helping to hold up the letters and it was very polarizing because it was during Toby Keiths performance -he is a reactionary country singer that sings that " Proud to Be An American " song. Some folks were jeering others were cheering. Good job! I wouldn't have done the "Support the Troops" however. It gives a message like "don't support the rape but support the rapist" to me.We don't need to tail after folks approval to put out the truth ourselves. We need to be fearless on where we stand and our convictions.We also need to always keep a global perspective and not get sucked into nationalism. Good idea otherwise and we should do this type of thing every Forth or any other type of patriotic holidays! Give folks something to think about.