Bezos wedding venue disruption 'a symbolic victory for people power', activist group says

FRANCE 24 English

FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks to the spokesperson for the "Everyone Hates Elon" activist group, which unfurled a giant banner reading "If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax" on Piazza San Marco, in protest at plans to shut down parts of the city for Jeff Bezos' celebrity wedding. He says the group "wanted to make a point that it's just obscene that any one person can do that at a time when most of us are struggling to pay the bills".  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

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00:00This is Apropos.

00:04Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez have touched down in Venice

00:08ahead of their star-studded wedding bash.

00:11The nuptials of the billionaire Amazon founder have drawn the ire, though,

00:15of protesters who are claiming victory after the couple moved their main celebration

00:20from the city centre to another location.

00:24And Tony Kerrigan has the story.

00:25The lovebirds have landed in Venice.

00:32Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and his betrothed Lauren Sanchez

00:35have invited around 250 A-listers for three days of lavish wedding celebrations,

00:40which will see whole swathes of the floating city closed to the public,

00:44to the ire of locals.

00:51It's not a good thing.

00:53As usual, only those who have money can do this kind of thing.

00:56Venice is now the property of tourists.

00:58We who were born here either go to the mainland

01:00or have to ask them for permission to board a ferry.

01:06Residents have come together in protest,

01:09galvanising support from international NGOs

01:11who colourfully argued on a 400-square-metre banner

01:14if you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.

01:18And the activists claimed a small victory on Tuesday.

01:21The main reception was set to take place in the 16th century

01:25Scuola Grande de la Misericordia.

01:27But the Bezos millions were no match for activists threatening to flood the nearby canals

01:32with inflatable crocodiles to prevent their guests arriving.

01:35So they've scaled back their ambitions to the medieval arsenale.

01:39The switch came the same day that a life-size mannequin of Bezos holding an Amazon box

01:44was thrown into the Grand Canal.

01:46And grievances are not limited to residents of the city affected by its housing crisis.

01:50For many, the event represents wider social and economic injustices.

01:56We think that one big billionaire can't rent a city for his pleasure.

02:01So we are here because we want to stop this injustice society, injustice climate,

02:08and we want to change the mind of people, we want to change the society.

02:14Around 90 private jets are set to land in local airports

02:17for a wedding valued at around $55 million.

02:23Well, for more, we're joined now by a member of the British activist group Everyone Hates Elon.

02:28Thanks for being with us this evening.

02:30You do wish to remain anonymous on the programme,

02:33but you're part of the group that unfurled that anti-Bezos banner in St Mark's Square this week.

02:39Tell us more about the protest and why this was a cause that your group felt necessary to take on.

02:45Yeah, thanks.

02:47Thanks for inviting me on.

02:49We started as a group a few months ago.

02:53Obviously, we called Everyone Hates Elon,

02:54and we started in response to Elon Musk's getting involved in politics.

03:02But Elon Musk isn't the only problem.

03:06There's lots of other billionaires that are influencing our lives,

03:10and Jeff Bezos is obviously the second richest man in the world.

03:15A couple of months ago, when he sent Katy Perry to space as part of the Blue Origin space flight,

03:24we put a message out.

03:26We did a bus stop ad that said,

03:28if you can send Katy Perry to space, you can pay more tax.

03:31And that went really viral,

03:33and it was something that resonated with a lot of people.

03:35And so when we saw that the story that he was renting,

03:39basically shutting down half of Venice to get married,

03:43it just felt like it was something that we really wanted to make a point that it's just obscene,

03:50that any one person can do that at a time when most of us are struggling to pay the bills,

03:54and when politicians talk about having to make really difficult decisions to fund public services.

04:00So that's why we wanted to kind of put a message out there,

04:04and we did it on a, you know, 20 by 20 meter banner.

04:07And it looks like the couple, sorry for cutting across you,

04:10it looks like the couple have been forced to essentially move the location for the wedding,

04:16or part of the celebrations in any case.

04:19Groups there, protesters describing that as an enormous victory.

04:22What was your response?

04:23I think, like, as a group, we were started as three friends without a penny,

04:30taking on the world's richest men.

04:32And, you know, these people like Jeff Bezos have all of the wealth,

04:38all of the resources in the world, and they have lots of power.

04:42But I think victories like this show that when ordinary people come together,

04:47when we use our creativity, when we use our sense of humor,

04:51we can take on people who have lots of power,

04:54and we can show, you know, it's not going to solve the problem of wealth inequality

05:00that Jeff Bezos has moved his wedding a few miles down the road.

05:04But it does, it is a symbolic victory for people power and to show that, you know,

05:10we do have a say in, like, how these billionaires impact our lives,

05:15and we can take them on if we come together.

05:18But apart from the symbolic victory that you refer to there,

05:21do campaigns like this actually make a difference?

05:25Well, I think it's really easy to think that there's nothing we can do.

05:29I mean, when we started, we started on a Zoom call, you know,

05:33looking at Elon Musk tweeting amplifying far-right figures in the UK and across Europe,

05:40feeling like there's nothing we can do.

05:44But we made a decision to start campaigning on that.

05:47And actually, you know, we've seen him step back from politics directly

05:52as a result of campaigning from groups like ours.

05:56You know, we had a big impact on that and other groups like Tesla take down.

05:59So we really have seen that ordinary people, like, coming together, you know,

06:06without the resources of these billionaires can actually impact things.

06:10I mean, we've got, we wanted to start a conversation about wealth inequality

06:14and our message, which is that if you can shut down, you know,

06:18if you can rent Venice to get married, you can pay more tax.

06:21It's a very simple message.

06:22That has been on the headlines around the world in the last 48 hours.

06:27And that is a victory in and of itself.

06:29To me, that's a more important victory than where Jeff Bezos gets married.

06:34I want a conversation started about Jeff Bezos and people like Jeff Bezos

06:38and companies like Amazon paying their fair share of tax.

06:42Yeah, Greenpeace has also joined the protest.

06:45It's been saying it wants to draw attention to the low taxes that billionaires like Bezos are paying

06:51while allegedly exacerbating the climate crisis with their more or less environmentally unsustainable lifestyles.

06:59Is that something that you would sign up to as well?

07:03Well, absolutely.

07:04We did the action on Monday in collaboration with Greenpeace.

07:07And, you know, the reason that we're calling for figures like Jeff Bezos and companies like Amazon to pay more tax is like,

07:15you know, they are, you know, it's the second richest man in the world.

07:19Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world.

07:22We're facing, you know, a cost of living crisis.

07:25People are struggling to pay their energy bills.

07:28Like rent is getting higher every year.

07:30We're facing a climate crisis.

07:32It's like these are all things that require strong public services and governments being able to invest

07:38so that we can build a better future together.

07:41And ultimately, that means, you know, when billionaires,

07:45we've got more billionaires than we've ever had before and taxing them so that we can use that,

07:51so that some of that wealth can go toward solving some of the biggest challenges we face

07:57is really what this message is all about.

08:00Yeah, it's a complicated issue when we start talking about taxation.

08:05But is there evidence that campaigns such as yours, that they actually reduce,

08:10that they actually result in laws being changed in these billionaires actually paying more taxes?

08:16Obviously, it depends on which countries we're referring to specifically.

08:20Well, of course.

08:21I mean, you know, throughout history, I think, you know, people used to pay much higher taxes.

08:28You know, we're an organization that's based in the UK and at some of the, you know, 70 years ago,

08:36people paid 95% income tax.

08:40And that's not necessarily something we're calling for.

08:42Like we're not a policy organization.

08:44But, you know, due to campaigning and people power, people, income taxes were much higher.

08:53Wealth taxes have been, you know, implemented in countries around the world as a result of campaigning.

08:58And so it's something that we've seen before, you know, happened before.

09:02And it's something that can happen again.

09:05And it's only going to happen again if people see that it's not up to people like Jeff Bezos to shape our lives,

09:12that we are all active citizens and we can come together and have a say about how our societies work.

09:20And as you say, you're an anonymous collective, you're speaking to us without giving us your name.

09:27We're not putting your location up as well.

09:30Does all of this, does it raise concerns that speaking up, that protesting for these issues that you believe are so fundamental

09:39that that actually places you in a vulnerable position given the current geopolitical climate?

09:44Well, I think, like, yeah, here in the UK, we have a situation where there is a direct action protest group

09:53that's, you know, about to be prescribed as a terrorist organization.

09:56They're called Palestine Action.

09:59And, you know, as a result of them putting some red paint to make symbolic points about the UK's complicity in the genocide in Palestine,

10:08they're being prescribed as a terrorist organization.

10:10And we're in a situation where protesters are being increasingly criminalized, certainly here in the UK and around the world.

10:19And, you know, we, some of the actions we've done, we don't ask permission.

10:22We didn't ask permission for the, you know, authorities in Venice for us to put down a massive banner in the Plaza San Marco.

10:30And so it's more about the nature of the actions we do.

10:34It's safer for us to be anonymous.

10:38And, you know, that's also we're taking on some of the richest men in the world

10:42and we don't want to make it any easier for them to sort of, you know, come after us, essentially.

10:48And just finally, what would you say to critics, including, for example, the mayor of Venice,

10:52who kind of described these protests as ridiculous, saying that lots of different events take place in Venice every year

10:59and they actually bring benefits to cities like Venice?

11:03What's your response to that kind of criticism?

11:06Well, I think, you know, you only have to look at the fact that there has been an incredible uprising of locals in Venice

11:16as part of this No Space for Bezos movement to see that the mayor is very much out of touch with what people are feeling in Venice.

11:27That was a very much the sense that I got, you know, going there.

11:30When we put the banner down, we had people coming up to us saying, thank you.

11:34Thank you for doing this.

11:35You know, that they're so frustrated that half of their city is being shut down for one man's wedding.

11:41So, you know, of course, the mayor might think that it's helpful when a billionaire comes and spends, what, you know,

11:47over $48 million on a, you know, to rent out city.

11:51Maybe that's helpful for him.

11:52But for most people in the city, the message I got was very loudly.

11:56And clearly that they didn't want that and that that's not something that they are happy with.

12:01OK, we'll have to leave it there for now.

12:03But thanks so much for joining us on the programme.

12:05That was a member of the British activist group Everyone Hates Elon speaking with us anonymously there from the UK.

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