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Report from Wrexham 'Free for All'

freefrall | 05.04.2008 19:31 | Ecology

Freeconomy Wrexham held its first ‘Free for All’ Bring and Take event today at Acton Community Centre. Everything for the day: the space, all the wonderful goods on offer, the van, the refreshments and everyone’s time were donated – big thanks to all the people who helped make this event a success.

Ashley advertises the event
Ashley advertises the event

Arty shot of our banner
Arty shot of our banner

Punters browsing
Punters browsing

Glenys and Rosemary and our display board
Glenys and Rosemary and our display board

An event for all ages
An event for all ages

The lads have a break from shifting furniture
The lads have a break from shifting furniture

Two grown-ups learning how to share
Two grown-ups learning how to share

Browsing the tables
Browsing the tables


Stuff kept arriving through the morning and loads of previously unwanted items found new homes. Some people expressed surprise that everything was being given away, rather than sold, but were soon converted to the idea.

The best bit was seeing people’s faces as they discovered something they could really make good use of. When the freeconomy removal team delivered a donated trampoline to one family, they were offered some more stuff, including an adult-sized tricycle. At the next stop, the trike had to come out of the van and was left on the pavement for a minute. An elderly passer-by walking with the aid of a stick spotted it and his eyes lit up. He couldn’t ride a bicycle, so a tricycle was just what he needed - another satisfied customer.

All the leftovers were taken to our donated storage space, where they’ll be sorted and kept for the next event, or to be given to anyone who needs them. All the electrical goods will be tested so they can be given away safely next time.

We were asked lots of times about when the next event would be happening. Loads of new names appeared on our ‘sign-up’ sheet and we’ll be meeting on Monday to plan future free-for-alls and other activities within the free, sharing, happy, hopeful gift economy.

Previous report:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/395180.html
Report in local press:  http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/news/New-group-brings-back-oldfashioned.3932781.jp

freefrall
- e-mail: freeconomywrexham[at]yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

Nice one!

06.04.2008 11:11

Brilliant stuff - do you have plans to make it more permenant? Bath Activist Network have been running a monthly free shop for two and a half years now. Its gotten to be a talked about and well used community resource and gives the public a positive view of anti-capitalism/anarchism and puts more spikey/contraversial actions into a positive context (in that, when we do spikey/contraversial stuff, people go 'oohh, its those nice people from free shop, they must have a good reason to be pissed off!'). Making these things permenant is vital, as it provides a lasting alternative to capitalist power structures, in a way that one off events do not.

Bath Activist Network have a pretty swanky zine/booklet thing that we hand out with the free shop, that you could easily write the name of your town/city in. To get a copy posted or e-mailed, e-mail  bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk

Free everything!

BANner
mail e-mail: bathactivistnet@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/bathactivistnetwork

Yes please

06.04.2008 15:49

Thanks BANner. Yeah, a copy of your zine would be great, ta. I'll email you. Might also be good for us to get some ideas from you on how to make these events work well. We're certainly up for doing more - our idea is to move them around local communities in the Wrexham area, preferably with a local group working with us each time so we don't all get burnt out! We might also be able to hold events in the downstairs part of our storage space on weekends. The other thing I want to work on is shaming the council into stopping good stuff being allowed into the council skip sites. In the Isle of Man they have places at the skips for anything with a useful life to be left/taken. It's not rocket science but our council doesn't seem to be able to get its corporate head around the idea. Maybe we'll start on this campaign after the May elections in Wales. I think we could set up a mobile collection unit just outside the household 'recycling' site, just to show how much stuff could be saved from the skips...

freefrall