On the night of Tuesday August 30 members of the Infernal Noise Brigade, Seattle's own activist marching band, were arrested in protests at the Republican National Convention. Andrea Fredricks related the story, as told to her by Brigadier John Nash: "(The) group was rounded up into a large mass of protesters then penned with nets. They were told to leave but when they began to move, they found that the street had been blocked. They were then pushed into nets and told to sit down. The police scared them and some were hit with batons. Arrests were made at the Public Library and Ground Zero. They were held in a warehouse, in holding pens. Some of those who were arrested were held for over 24 hours and not allowed to speak to attorneys."

Frankly, it would have been news to me if INB members hadn't been arrested. Aside from heightened probability because of the wide nets being cast over protesters and bystanders alike, INB members are seasoned activists who know the ropes of nonviolent civil disobedience and anticipate, even welcome, arrest. Not that we shouldn't be concerned about their safety but, as somebody once said: Mission Accomplished. Upon their return, I expect they'll be throwing a fundraising party to offset the legal fees they're no doubt racking up.

Heavy irony is the new Dadaism in political activism. Billionaires for Bush staged a soiree in Grand Central Station (to an audience consisting mostly of the NYPD, state police, uniformed military personnel, FDNY, and plainclothes detectives) and the Party Liberation Front threw an early-morning dance party in the Financial District where they passed out donuts, party hats, and horns and "celebrated" capitalism.

A colleague of mine, the head of an arts institution in New York, told me they were secretly assisting the Yes Men with a project related to the RNC. The Yes Men--who articulate a more intellectually rigorous irony--have taken Augusto Boal's Invisible Theatre technique (where performers insert themselves into everyday situations and address social issues) to the next logical step by impersonating delegates at major world economic and trade gatherings. They can hardly be classified as "guerrilla," though. Architects of www.gatt.org, a fake WTO website that exposes the detrimental effects of WTO policies, the Yes Men were mistakenly invited to deliver a talk at the 1999 WTO convention in Seattle. They seized the opportunity and delivered satires of WTO policies straight to the delegates. Since then, they've traveled the world as WTO representatives, outlining absurd proposals (auctioning election votes to the highest bidder, establishing a market in human-rights abuses) and causing disruptions behind the closed (and gated and barbed-wired) doors. When I heard Bush's speech was interrupted twice by protesters, I couldn't help but wonder....

kurtz@thestranger.com