It’s Getting Hot In Here

Wednesday 8th July, Rome, The Avaaz Action Factory in Europe today carried out it’s 6th and most adrenalin-filled action so far: a spectacular ‘Strip Mob’! I challenge you to think of anything quite like it : 15 people danced and chanted while taking their clothes off at the Spanish Steps in Rome, during a maximum security time – the G8 summit.

Why on earth…? To save the earth! We want to let Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister and current G8 President, know that we need climate action now, not the kind of “action” he’s been getting in the news about recently, such as the naked-photos scandal. We believe that taking off your clothes is not an adequate response to climate change! As we all know, we need strong emissions reductions! Each G8 country has the finance and the responsibility to act now on climate change, if we are to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

At exactly 11.02am (with synchronized watches, guerrilla style!), most people standing around the middle of the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagno) turned out to be part of the amazing vocal strip-tease. Not only did 15 chanting strippers suddenly start dancing, but double that amount of media also manifested in front of the stunt, all within 10 seconds. The few people who weren’t anticipating the action – several sincere tourists – quickly scattered out of the way as whistles and the refrain of Nelly’s ‘It’s Getting Hot in Here’ began – our clothes came off, to reveal our matching green underwear!

Our message (chanted in Italian) followed: ‘Berlusconi! due gradi di meno, meno vestiti sul terreno!’ meaning ‘Berlusconi! less than two degrees, less clothes on the ground!’

Police, journalists and tourists alike were all amused: we yelled first in English, then Italian, and we were dressed to impress!! With the extensive media attendance, the police didn’t seem to want to cause a scene for such a peaceful action, which was a relief, because as the first day of the G8 meeting in Italy, and the riot police were everywhere.

The carabinieri did deal with those activists who, instead of stripping off in the very public area, unfurled a banner behind the strip mob:

KEEP THE CLIMATE COOL
then Berlusconi can keep his clothes on

The entire stunt lasted less than a minute, and at the end of the very short strip-mob (just as the police were escorting away our banner-holders), all the dancers threw their clothes at our Berlusconi actor, then re-dressed and dispersed quickly, to meet up elsewhere for a debrief……………… except for those 3 who were taken away in a wailing police van to be held for an hour at the police station, and given an official warning. It turns out, having Berlusconi’s name on the banner was the biggest official problem of an action which we did not get police permission for.

As we expected, the Italian and international media’s general interest in showing skin in photos paid off, just search for ‘G8 striptease’ on the net! Everyone was really pleased with the strip-mob turned out! See photos here and a video of this action will be posted soon at https://sites.google.com/a/actionfactories.org/eu-actionfactory/Home/videos