Subversive Criminal Puppeteers: Update from R2K
By Dave Bailey
Perhaps the results surprised a few people. On December 15th, and the so-called "Union Stagehands"—actually state troopers—who had infiltrated the puppet-making warehouse could only identify a single one of us whom they had arrested as being traceable to any crime. This individual was "Stinky," a member of the Clown Bloc, whom they had propositioned more than once and sexually harassed when she told them where they ought to stick their shit. Their targeting of her was highly dubious at best, and the District Attorney (DA) dropped all the charges against the remaining 35 of us.

Back on August 1st, the planned day of action and civil disobedience against the Criminal Injustice System, at 2:05 p.m., three police officers approached the door of the warehouse on the corner of 41st and Haverford. Inside the warehouse, we had made over 300 puppets to get the message out to the Republicans who had infested Philadelphia for their rank and vile National Convention. Our puppets would never see the streets, much less the light of day. Rather, they saw only the insides of one of three trash compactors before being crushed to death. 180 police officers surrounded the warehouse that day, aided by three helicopters, to insure that the 75 of us who had locked ourselves inside would not get our message into Center City. It was a well-choreographed, highly effective preemptive strike to silence the message of the protesters. (See "Subversive Criminal Puppeteers," MediaReader, Issue #3)

From inside a maximum-security prison, I watched a television broadcast on the demonstrations, vaguely making out the newscaster saying how we had no clear message.
For months afterwards, I traveled back and forth from Chicago to Philly, stopping long enough in Chicago to put on a fresh pair of socks. I managed to find some work in Philadelphia making puppets and pageants. I attended some of the motions to dismiss our cases and was befuddled and scared when I witnessed the tenacity with which the city pursued our cases, trying so very desperately to convict us. At the time of my writing this, their heated felony cases have slowly fallen apart, with not one felony conviction yet!

So now it is over. The Haverford 75's trials are finished, and we have begun the process of filing civil suits. It has been a struggle to glean the meaning of all of this; many of us who were arrested inside the warehouse are full-time puppeteers. Where does all of this leave the Puppetista now? I have watched as puppets and the cirkus arts have slowly become defined as criminal by the power holders, and watched, too, as activists turn tail and hide from puppet makers, scared of experiencing a repeat of what happened in Philly. It has been a hard lesson to learn. More and more people have been saying, "Make some street theatre where you are and bring it to the event," which prevents us from meeting and working with others, improving our skills, and strengthening the move away from corporate power.

It is a terrible lesson, one that draws a line between street performer and audience: performers make the theatre; protesters watch the theatre. Few non-performers will have the chance to participate. Yet, this is how many have interpreted and distilled the events in Philadelphia. August 1st: the day street theatre was told by the system to go underground, and obeyed.