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Buy Nothing Day in Birmingham

Soy-lidarity! | 28.11.2005 00:15 | Culture | Globalisation | Birmingham

Reflections by one activist on the Birmingham day of action for Buy Nothing Day.





Food Not Bombs and the Free Shop
Food Not Bombs and the Free Shop

Front of the Bull (sans turd)
Front of the Bull (sans turd)

Rear of the Bull
Rear of the Bull

Corporate Bull™shit
Corporate Bull™shit

Shop-dropping
Shop-dropping

A more honest window display
A more honest window display

The elusive 'roller-clog'
The elusive 'roller-clog'

House party in House of Fraser
House party in House of Fraser




Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Found outside a sports shop.
Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Found outside a sports shop.


A free shop and the Food Not Bombs stall were set up outside the Virgin Megastore, on the border of the Bullring Complex. The Free Shop was stocked with a selection of clothing, toys, games and Food Not Bombs served free curry, fruit and vegan cakes.

In conjunction with the Free Shop and Food Not Bombs, a day of mischief had been planned by a small collective in the weeks leading to Buy Nothing Day, and began with our non-shoppers paying a visit to Nike Town, craftily sticker-ing. Inspired by a window-shop mannequin which was wearing 6 hoodies simultaneously, we endeavoured to establish just how much of the Nike range one could wear simultaneously. Seemingly all of it! Staff were honest enough to not recommend the purchase of such an outfit, despite rumours that the ‘ski-on-top cyclist-on-the-bottom all-weather-footballer’ look was very much the ‘in’ style this winter.

Round the corner, at Birmingham’s favourite photo spot – The Bull – that proudly stands outside the Bullring, was momentarily overshadowed, as a more popular family photo opportunity emerged: the giant accumulation of 100% genuine Corporate Bull™shit that had so gracelessly tumbled from the bovine anus. Children flocked to have their picture taken with it. Grinning parents nodded in agreement with the ‘Corporate Bullshit’ slogan which labelled it.

As many of us know, the Winona-Ryder-celebrity-shoplifter-chic is old news among UK consumers, and this season shop-dropping is the new black. Rather than stealing the detritus that these corporations have for sale, we instead strive to give back all the rubbish they’ve been selling people over the years. Dubbed ‘product placement’, we strive to subvert the window-shops of our favourite chains-stores with a more honest approach to marketing. Rather than marketing useless tat as a must-have accessory, we let the product speak for itself: looks like crap - is crap. It’s lack of practical usage its key selling point.

To prove this point, we proceeded to try and buy this rubbish back from the sales assistants, hoping that they would not notice the difference between our rubbish, and their rubbish that already littered the window-shops. One such product-line that we added to their stock was a few pairs of battered 60’s wooden shoes, complete with retractable wheels, that were sadly un-claimed from the Free Shop. A primitive pair of skates, ‘roller-clogs’, if you will. A member of staff – as predicted - so used to his employers selling utter junk, that he took a pair round the back, to check if they had another pair in our size. Alas, they returned empty handed.

“An introduction to Radical Rambling” then took place outside Waterstones, where non-shoppers were talked through the process of regaining the Public Right of Way that used to (or may still, we await the data…) beneath the Bullring, as well as other Rights of Way that are under threat elsewhere in Birmingham. We were also briefed with the rules relating to behaviour in the Bullring, and the positive impact reversing a stopping order on the Right of Way could have on this.

One of the objectives of the day was to take back space that had been entirely neutralised, and put it to a different use, or give it a different aesthetic. In keeping with this idea, the Topshop mannequins were treated to quick make-over of rubbish, including some banana neckwear, and a kid’s stethoscope. Taking this idea a step further, we endeavoured to practice some Corporate Feng-Shui, where we could take items from one part of the store and move them to another - where they weren’t intended - but would create a more desirable aesthetic for the potential consumer. It was thus decided that we would decorate the House of Fraser home section into our own living room, fit for a Christmas party. Decorations and tinsel were taken from the floor above, the stereo was plugged in, party hats were distributed and cakes, drinks and jelly were consumed. It was a delightful festive gathering.

Eventually thrown out, we reached the end of what was (in my opinion) a successful, albeit small-scaled, day of action.

 http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Related articles:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2005/11/328394.html

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2005/11/328338.html

Soy-lidarity!

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

Brilliant work...

28.11.2005 09:41

Just to get in before some spastic troll tries to deny your efforts, your stuff was very creative and well thought out.
It's encouraging how many people ("the general public") join in and applaud things like this now, whereas a few years ago they were blind to what we were trying to highlight.
I think humour is a great help, and your stunts have a done a lot to further the cause.

non-consumer


stop your shops

28.11.2005 11:20

Like all the major cities in the UK Birmingham city pushes the shopping experience in your face, so its refreshing to see locals pushing back.This time of year its all so depressing for families on low incomes who feel they need to buy to reinforce thier childs identity and to make up for being poor. Come January the real price is when the stress of poverty and debt kicks in. Keep on antishopping it gives people hope and inspires others. The more of us who interupt the process the better.

dot


re

28.11.2005 11:58

How can this type of activism create a working class mass movement against capitalism?

a spastic troll


surely class struggle politics involves a critique of consumerism?!

28.11.2005 13:32

hey firstly can people drop the offensive, marginalising reference to 'spastic troll'?!

In response to the last comment, i'm not sure that this kinda activity should be labelled 'activism' - it appeals to a broader cross section of people who wouldn't want to consider themselves activists at all. shopping whether we like it or not brings and unfortunately defines a lot of people together albeit in an individualistic and alienating pursuit of products in our shopping centres.

If you can engage them in something that complements existing forms of outreach like leafleting and discussing stuff then surely this is something to be valued. If it's just perceived by them as nothing more than mere 'spectacle' or some kinda self indulgent art then that's altogether very different too.

in terms of your reference to 'a working class movement' - are you talking in the past, present or future tense here?

in the present tense i find it really difficult to perceive a working class movement here in the uk. if you want to romanticise about a working class 'movement' in this country then fine, delude yourself.

but if you're really sincere about helping build one to challenge late capitalism then i suggest you think about challenging one of capitalism's dominant forms, consumerism, in a way that engages people and hopefully some day we'll see the end of this socio-economic system.

at no point would i want to suggest this is a substitute for direct class struggle politics and action :P

Here's a bit on consumerism and Marx:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism

'Consumerism is a term used to describe the effects of equating personal happiness with purchasing material possessions and consumption. It is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen.'

'Marx argued that the capitalist economy leads to the fetishization of goods and services, and the devaluing of the worth of a good or service, and instead focusing on its price in the market. In many critical contexts the term is used to describe the tendency of people to identify strongly with products or services they consume, especially those with commercial brand names and obvious status-enhancing appeal, e.g. an expensive automobile, rich jewellery. It is a pejorative term which most people deny, having some more specific excuse or rationalization for consumption other than the idea that they're "compelled to consume".'

terrorised to consume


support the war on terror - keep shopping!

28.11.2005 13:53


"If you love your country, if you want to fight terrorism, go out this weekend and shop"

U.S. President George Bush


George Bush


Is consumerism helping to prevent a movement?..

29.11.2005 10:43

..I'd say it is. It's one of the biggest absorbers of rebellious desires there is and if people arn't willing to engage with consumerism and how it operates then they are ignoring one of the key areas where late capital operates.

Like the other poster says this sort of stuff should be done as part of a broader picture otherwise it can be misinterpreted as an action 'against them' rather than 'about us' , and as long as it realises the limitations of attacking overconsumption when the majority world (including of course our own poorest communities) can't even think about the luxury of stopping shopping then coolio.

see 'anti advertising and hip consumerism'

 http://www.sfu.ca/cmns/223d1/anti-ads_(12).htm

stuffit


Attacking the Symptons and Not the Problems

01.12.2005 13:58

There is no point spending all of this time attacking consumerism, it is but a sympton of capitalism. And how many working class people shop in the house of frasier? And think of the workers who you pissed off by making them clean up your mess? the same people who are the only people capable of carrying out a future revolution. This is just activism for activism sake.

Creating a spectacle may be fun and imaginitive form of protest, but is it really that useful? or even appropriate? What did you achieve? Im sorry if i come across patronising but to be honest Anarchists should be organising to attack the root of the problem not the branches. It implies that capitalism can be made acceptable through the abolition of consumerism.

Chris
mail e-mail: chris_strafford@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.wmanarchists.org


West midlands anarchists and consumerism

09.12.2005 12:46

this is a question for Chris who it seems likes to self nominate him/herself as some kind of spokesperson for west midlands anarchists on Indymedia - or at least that's who it appears sometimes on here. Correct me if I'm wrong on this! :)

So if you're so obsessed with tackling the 'cause' of capitalism and not the 'symptoms' as you put it, which incidentally I reckon is a false dichotomy, then please explain this campaign against the retailer Brighthouse on your website.

 http://www.wmanarchists.org/brighthouse.htm

confused anarchist


re: confused consumer

14.12.2005 18:00

I am no spokesperson for WMA first of all, they are all able to speak for themselves.

The anti brighthouse campaign is not about preaching to tell people not to buy, consume, obey. It is about warning them of the problems which could arise from using parasites like Brighthouse and giving alternative ways of paying for items, which we do by putting details of credit unions on our leaflets and on our sites. We do not ask people to not consume, we simply are showing that they dont have to be in so much debt and have to face the harsh practices of brighthouse. Its more of a campaign against the creation of working class debt than against consumerism.

Attacking consumerism is like hacking at the branches of a tree, we need to go to the root of the problems.

Chris
mail e-mail: chris_strafford@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://www.wmanarchists.org