At Home with the Fresh Juice Party
Meet the "satirical action group" that spent $105,000 to interrupt the president — and hear their song
By: Katharine Mieszkowski
Just hours after members of the Fresh Juice Party disrupted a speech by President Barack Obama, The Bay Citizen met with eight of them at a home in the Oakland hills.
Three members of the party, which describes itself as "a satirical action group," bought 21 tickets to Thursday's fundraiser for Obama at San Francisco's St. Regis Hotel. At $5,000 a ticket, the group spent $105,000 to have breakfast with — and serenade — the president.
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While he was speaking, one of the activists stood up and said, "Mr. President, we actually wrote you a song. Can we sing it?" Then, for several minutes, 10 of the activists sang while waving signs that read “Free Bradley Manning.”
Manning is the Army intelligence analyst accused of passing secret government documents to WikiLeaks. On Wednesday, he was moved to a medium-security facility in Leavenworth, Kan., from the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., where he was reportedly held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
Some of the Fresh Juicers came from as far as New York and Los Angeles to participate in the protest, the group's first "official" action.
We asked them to give us a sample of what Obama heard Thursday morning.
Naomi Pitcairn explained why she was moved to ask the president to free Bradley Manning in song.
Planning the action, the pranksters considered many ideas, including stripping down to their underwear.
The participants say they support Obama, but wanted to find a way to press him about Manning.
At the event, the president complimented the singers — “You guys have much better voices than I have” — before returning to his speech. Party members say he spoke with them after the fundraiser.
The song was the Fresh Juice Party's debut. They’re already undertaking their next action, a contest with cash prizes inviting others to sing their song.
Video recording and editing by Adithya Sambamurthy.