It's Guy Fawkes Day - Here's The Factory That Mass Produces Those Masks For Protesters Around The World
"Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot...."
Guy Fawkes masks, immortalized in the movie "V for Vendetta," have become a global symbol of protest and anonymity through the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring.
Right now people are gathering all over the world for the Million Mask March.
"The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny - and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way," British graphic novel artist David Lloyd, the man who created the original image of the mask for a comic strip written by Alan Moore, told BBC.
The global event, organized by the amorphous hacker group Anonymous, is sure to irk authorities as Guy Fawkes masks transform identifiable citizens into anonymous dissidents.
"My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolize that they stand for individualism - V for Vendetta is a story about one person against the system," Lloyd told BBC.
Canada recently passed a law that bans the wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly and carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.
Reuters notes that these masks in Brazil are manufactured for sale to stores specializing in costumes.
An interesting note is that Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world and parent of Warner Brothers, owns the rights to the image and is paid a licensing fee with the sale of each mask.In 2011 purported members of Anonymous told CNN that activists were ordering masks mass-produced and shipped in from Asia so that Time Warner didn't receive the loyalties.
Here they are in Bahrain:And Brazil:REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
At labor protests in Portugal: And Turkey:Fawkes even made it out to the capital of Syria:REUTERS/Mohammed Abdullah
And, of course, Occupy Wall Street:Another look at the Brazilian factory:
REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci
REUTERS/Mohammed Abdullah
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