WEF Billionaire Report-Back by Mya Cash

WEF Billionaire Report-Back, by Mya Cash

February 23, 2002

If anyone is interested in joining the NYC Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg, contact jennpozner@yahoo.com

Darlings,

Mya Cash, broadcast billionaire and board chair of the NYC Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg, here as always to remind you that the nightly news is brought to you by MY-a cash… not yours. Before I report back about the Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg’s counter-protest in support of the World Economic Forum earlier this month, I must take a moment to gloat about the jackpot I just won from my friends in the federal appeals court, which drastically weakened FCC regulations on media cross-ownership earlier this week. I’m pleased to report that these newly relaxed rules will allow for increased consolidation of transnational media companies, and my broadcasting colleagues and I are readying ourselves for a new wave of mega-media mergers (see Broadcasting & Cable, http://www.tvinsite.com/broadcastingcable/70127.htm, the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35724-2002Feb19.html or AlterNet, http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12451 for more information). This development is a sure indicator that billionaires’ investment in the legislative market continues to pay dividends. And let me just give a shout-out, as the rabble say, to FCC chairman Michael Powell, a media mogul’s best friend. Powell, a regulator who calls regulation “the oppressor,” recently stated that “the market is my religion.” As a Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Without further ado, we get to this report-back from the Billionaires’ World Economic Forum counter-protests from Feb 2 – Feb. 4. I apologize for the tardiness of this memo; my assistant was supposed to type up these notes immediately, but as our old friend Kenneth Lay knows all too well, it’s simply impossible to find good help these days. (Such a shame Kenny Boy’s boys at Arthur Andersen weren’t creative enough to cover their cooked books).

Now, then… on to the business. As our first action in our newly-formed advocacy group – the NYC Billionaires for Bush and Bloomberg – the WEF counter-protest was a great success. In a dignified romp through the streets of NYC we endeavored to out-shout the hoodlums trying to disrupt every billionaire’s favorite martini-drinking, money-moving annual shindig. As lumber industry giant Art Kilwoodz notes on the NYC Billionaires web site http://artandpolitics/nycbillionaires/, billionaires made our presence known in a variety of capacities throughout the WEF weekend. Inside the Waldorf Astoria, where we power-schmoozed with hundreds of other wealthy elites, the food was delectable, the spirits divine, and the connections forged were priceless. Over cocktails with cronies from fine corporations as Citicorp, Chevron, General Electric and Disney we made progress on further deregulation and consolidation within the energy, weapons and media industries; the ties strengthened here will surely pay rich dividends in the coming months and years. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention another insider highlight: the almost sinful pleasure of munching thousand-dollar hors d'oeuvres and sipping fine chardonnay while listening to a moving, live performance of “Homeless” by Ladysmith Black Mambazo – a toe-tapping good time, to be sure.

But as advocates for wealth power we felt it important for the corporate elite to take to the streets with our message of wealth power. Of course we were the epitome of elegance in mink coats, Armani suits, top hats and tiaras. Even our butler looked the paragon of fashion as he poured champagne every time we became parched from chanting. As you might expect, we were met with rousing receptions from our compliant employees in the corporate print and broadcast media (see links to media coverage at the end of this note).

On Saturday, Feb. 2, approximately twelve to fifteen billionaires bedecked in formal finery voiced strong opposition to the unruly protestors, handing out cash, attempting to bribe cops (“Hey officer, everyone has a price – what’s yours? How much to start using those billy clubs?”) and chanting slogans such as “Big money, united – you people aren’t invited!”, “Up with Profits – Down with People!” and “WEF: Wasn’t Enron Fun?” (alternately “WEF: Wealthy Executives Forever/ WEF: Wealth Equals Freedom/ WEF: We Emerged Fine/”). Our old stand-bys such as “Welfare for the Wealthy – keep our profits healthy” and “What do we want? Prison labor! How do we want it? Cheap!” were big hits, and we moved by the sentiments of a band of wealthy aspirants in theatrical garb chanting “Money, money – more, more! Protect the rich, eat the poor!” Perhaps most heartening came mid-afternoon when we happened upon a bland-featured, soulless group of Horatio Alger-esque worker-bees calling themselves the “Faceless Corporate Bureaucrats,” who happily chanted whatever we billionaires asked them to repeat, just like good middle managers should. We showered them with the greenest of bills and they thanked us for our largess, nodding in approval when we detailed the blueprints of the modern American dream: as long as they don’t rock the boat, put their faith in the free market and never whine or worry about the conditions under which their employers’ products are made, they too might one day become billionaires. If only all the misguided slacker kids blocking traffic were as receptive to our message as the Faceless Corporate Bureaucrats.

No matter. The fact that we were dwarfed in numbers by between 15,000 and 20,000 uncouth protestors was of little significance. In today’s plutocracy money matters more than people, meaning that ten Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg were worth more on the legislative market than 20,000 angry citizens. Case in point: our media entities (eg, CNN, New York Times, etc.) followed orders quite dutifully, under-reporting the crowds’ numbers at anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 people. G-d bless America.

Ever-diligent, our pro-WEF lobbying and promotional efforts did not stop on Feb. 2. When approximately 150 Reclaim the Streets and other NYC activists gathered on Monday, Feb. 4 to stage a theatrical protest outside a building where Enron’s accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, does some dealings, several Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg were there, raising our voices and our placards in support of big money. Our signs read “Hire a Child: Little Hands Make Big Profits,” “Free Trade, Free Labor!,” and “Billionaires (Heart) the W.E.F. – Wealthy Executives Forever!” Also happily in attendance were more than 250 uniformed (and an unknown assortment of plainclothes) police officers. We Billionaires found the riot gear-clad police eminently helpful and solicitous of our concerns. While the cops penned the meddlesome hippies and their puppets onto a tiny subsection of the sidewalk, they stood stoically by our side and lined up behind us as we held an impromptu press conference for reporters, photographers and broadcast news cameras. For about five to ten minutes they allowed us to stand with them for our protection as we praised the WEF to the press, explaining that while the group’s influential members had done much to increase the wealth gap between rich and poor domestically and abroad in the past several years, much more work still must be done on that front. At one point an officer instructed us to move away from the 250+ officers on the Alliance Capital building’s steps and stand with the protestors in the small space of sidewalk below. But Art Kilwoodz reasoned with them. “Officer – we’re counter-protestors, we’re not with those people. We have a different message,” Kilwoodz insisted, while I chimed in, “We’re here to salute the WEF and big business -- surely, you don’t expect us to associate with that low element?” To their credit, after taking a look at Art’s fine tuxedo, felt tophat and sunglasses with green dollar signs on the lenses, and after observing my tiara, fur coat and hundred dollar bills proudly perched in the V-neck of my black evening gown, the officers responded to our liking:

“Oh, OK!” – and allowed us to continue our discussions with the media while they stood behind us. (When another officer a minute later asked his fellow buddy in blue whether they should move us to the sidewalk, he responded, “No, they’re counter-protestors. They don’t belong with those guys.”) So, for another five to ten minutes we held forth with our press conference:

“We Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg have grown tired of these anarchist, commie, slacker thugs and their tedious complaints about the growing gap between rich and poor, human rights violations in overseas sweatshops, and the increasing consolidation of media companies,” we told reporters. “The reality is that at the turn of this century the top five percent of the nation’s households controlled more than sixty percent of the country’s wealth – and that’s great –but our message is simple: Sixty percent is not enough! We are very excited about the privatization of the water supply in developing countries, we’re thrilled at the kid-glove treatment we’re receiving via Bush’s energy policies, and we have high hopes that the current war will continue for many years, providing us with many opportunities to sell arms and defense technologies to the friends of our enemies. If at any future point our current allies become our enemies, as has happened in Afghanistan over the decades, we can always maximize our revenue stream by selling weapons to their enemies at some later date.”

We also took the opportunity to salute our old billionaire pal Mike Bloomberg: “Bloomie won the NYC Mayoral election the old fashioned way – he bought it. Bravo!” we cheered into boom mikes and rolling cameras. “Bloomie’s PR coup was sheer beauty, a model many billionaires should consider emulating. He campaigned on a platform of raising the educational status and economic enfranchisement of poor minority kids, then immediately slashed social services budgets upon taking office – yet he did find several million dollars in overtime pay for personal bodyguards – er, police – to protect billionaires.”

We reserved our harshest words for Kenneth Lay, who fell from grace in so unjust a way. “Kenneth Lay gives billionaires everywhere a bad name. By getting caught, he ruins the boondoggle for the rest of us,” we told the press. “Kenney-boy and key staffers at Enron and Arthur Andersen were doing great work in the legislative market for three decades – buying up loyalty from Democrats and Republics alike. Quid pro quo, baby – their legislative investments made fabulous returns. They got to pay scant taxes, they wrote energy regulations to their liking, and eventually got to cash out of the company while still encouraging small investors and workers to jump aboard their corporate Titanic – these are guys after our own hearts. We do have to give Ken props, as the kids say – he did take the money and run, and we can respect that. But with all that financial investment in both sides of the political fence, with all his friends in high places, this Enron scandal should never have happened. I mean, Ken Lay would have been our HERO if he hadn’t gotten caught. Shame on Ken for getting caught!”

Eventually one sergeant not on our payroll barked some disbursal orders at us and forced us down below with the rabble – quite an unpleasant experience. But from that vantage point we were able to offer payoffs to passersby, law enforcement officials and media representatives alike, waving dollar bills just barely out of reach. “Officer, can I interest you in a payoff? I’ve got a great non-unionized, no pension, private security job for ya…” Various reporters were more receptive to our incentives, accepting bills in exchange for the promise that they would not interview any protestors about the substance of their economic inequality complaints or, if they did interview them, to only focus on colorful, trivializing details such as the color of their Manic-Panicked hair and the sun as it glinted off their piercings, or their intent to do violence against our storefronts (regardless of whether that intent exists).

In the end, these media employees seemed to take our advice to heart. As reported by one of those IndyMedia upstarts http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=18995&group=webcast, ABC’s Nightline cancelled a planned segment exploring protestors’ activities and messages because, as the activists were told, there was not enough violence at the gathering. Bravo, ABC. (I must remember to send a thank-you car (perhaps a Humvee) to my friends over at ABC.)

As for media coverage of the Billionaires, many links and details are available at the NYC Billionaires site, http://artandpolitics/nycbillionaires/.

A feature article headlined “Billionaires at the Barricades” in a Florida magazine called Too Square (see http://toosquare.com/html1/articles1/mar2002/newyorker/index.php) profiles the Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg, calling us the “most appealing” protest group during the WEF weekend.

We appeared in an excellent documentary by Amy Goodman about the WEF (available for sale – contact DemocracyNow.org for info), and in several indymedia videos (possibly including http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=14749 - can’t verify as it won’t load on my compputer). We were also filmed by approximately a dozen independent documentarians from across the US, Britain and Germany for upcoming projects. Additionally:

- Democracy Now!’s Feb. 7^th (maybe also the 4^th but for some reason I can’t load it in my PC to confirm) shows include interviews with Billionaires: http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow.html (click on these dates in the archives) We were also interviewed on several live WBAI reports through the WEF weekend, though we do not have audio clips of those broadcasts.

- A photograph of us ran in the NY Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-02-05/News_and_Views/City_Beat/a-140377.asp)

- Between The Lines, WPKN 89.5 FM's weekly radio news magazine, interviewed several Billionaires, including Mya Cash, Fillmore Pockets, and Jewel T. Arra --
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=4229

- An independent radio host interviews Billionaires:
http://gk41.home.mindspring.com/wef/

- a cartoon of the Billionaires ran with an AlterNet story http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12331

- WACB-7’s story includes a link to a short video segment by reporter David Ushery, with a very, veryquick visual of a few Billionaires in the protest crowd
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/WABC_020402_WEFfinalday.html

- A brief mention in a piece by Liza Featherstone in The Nation http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=featherstone20020204

Finally, though these have not turned into stories yet, we did do interviews with reporters from the New York Times, 1010 Wins radio, the BBC, the Village Voice and a variety of other outlets, which relationship-building is always good for potential future coverage.

Below is a list of chants and slogans we used during the WEF weekend, FYI. For further information on the Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg feel free to contact my “personal assistant,” Jennifer Pozner, at jennpozner@yahoo.com

Until next time, remember – the nightly news is brought to you by Mya Cash… not yours.

All hail the $6.00 lattee,

Mya Cash

PS -- If you want to join the NYC Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg, please contact jennnpozner@yahoo.com

Chants, slogans, etc.:

WEF – Wasn’t Enron Fun?
WEF – Wealthy Executives Forever!
WEF – Wealth Equals Freedom!
WEF – We Emerged Fine…
Welfare for the wealthy – keep our profits healthy!
Big money/ united/ you people ain’t invited! (Go home!)
What do we want? Prison (or sweatshop) labor! How do we want it? CHEAP!
Hire a child: Little hands make big profits.
Free trade! Free labor!
We’ve got money, yes we do. We’ve got money, we stole it from you!
Who needs day care? Hire an au pair!
Down with Democracy! Up with plutocracy!
Enron’s only sin was getting caught! Shame on Ken for getting caught!
2-4-6-8, being rich is really great. 3-5-7-9, all the money – mine, mine mine!
Whose suites? Our suites! Whose yachts? Our yachts!
Corporate power, stronger by the hour. Take it from the needy, give it to the greedy.
This is what plutocracy looks like.
Ain’t no power like corporate power ‘cause corporate power don’t stop.

NYC Billionaires for Bush & Bloomberg - unofficial site
http://artandpolitics.com/nycbillionaires/