buy nothing day with the bnp

feistyfingers | 27.11.2008 22:13 | Liverpool

next to nowhere is proud to present an opportunity for all the liverpool
activists to join together in a spirit of togetherness, openness &
communication.

i guess we can all agree that over-consumption is a very bad thing & i
reckon that most of us see capitalism as the root of the sickness that is
infesting our society. yes?
anyone a racist? no?
oh my, we seem to have something in common after all!

well, on saturday 29th november it's time to put your mutual aid where
your mouth is.

at 11am maybe meet & greet nick griffin (bnp) who could be pleasuring our
city with his presence in his bid to become mep for the north west of
england. he's called for the party faithful to gather in protest at the
arrest of several members last week. are we really going to let this
happen?
meet at the top of church street at 10am.

afterwards,
from 12pm, the social centre shall be transformed into an oasis of
anti-capitalism.

we'll have:
a fabulous free-shop full of quality free goodies,
free tea n' coffee,
vegan cafe (donations only),
open mic, film, performance, spoken word...

now, i know that some people are a bit scared of actually getting involved
in next to nowhere, preffering to discuss the shortcomings of the booking
policy from a safe distance.
just to be clear, and restate the bottom line of next to nowhere from its
constitution - everyone is welcome to get involved at the social centre
provided that they are willing to work in a non-hierarchical way through
consensus.

'actions speak louder than words' - please can people work together in
mutual support to help make this world a better place and take on the
evils which are fucking up our world or say nothing and stop this on-going
criticism from the sidelines, whilst doing nothing at nowhere.

who knows, the open-mic forum could even provide an opportunity for people
to express their feelings about the social centre, in a non-hierarchical
way of course!
or, we could just have a good old-fashioned knees up...

together, let's start to dance on the graves of multi-national corporations!

feistyfingers
e-mail: feistyfingers[ta]yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.liverpoolsocialcentre.org

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

consume less??

28.11.2008 00:16

Consume less?? WTF! There is nothing wrong with consuming. Its not consuming - i.e. poverty, low wages that are the problem - most peope don't have a choice but to consume less. I find the whole buy nothing day as patronising liberal nonsense and I'm disppointed to see the liverpool social centre wrapped up in it.

anarchist

DEAR RED KEYBOARDWARRIOR

28.11.2008 02:13

CONSUMING IS NOT A NOT PROBLEM?
LOW WAGES IS THE PROBLEM?

GET A GRIP
THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF SELLING YOUR PRECOUS TIME TO DO A POINTLESS CRAPPY JOB FOR TOKENS SO YOU CAN CONSUME SHIT YOU DONT NEED AT THE COST OF A HABITABLE PLANET AND THE DESTRUCTION OF MANY HUMAN AND NON HUMAN LIFEFORMS,
IS THE PROBLEM, THE AMOUNT OF CRUMBS YOU ARE GIVEN IS IRRELEVANT.

DIY IS SOLUTION.

OUR POVERTY IS IN KNOWLEDGE, TIME, CONFIDENCE, EXPERIENCE, LAND....NOT MONEY.

A RED REFORMIST IS JUST AS BAD AS A LIBERAL ONE.
SLING YER HOOK AND STOP GIVING ANARCHY A BAD NAME.

BUY NOTHING LIFE

indeed, consume less (we've only got the one planet)

28.11.2008 02:38

When you're consuming resources that impact on other people in other parts of the world, if you join the dots, there's something a little suspect to think about when consuming... If you look through the veneer, the shelves in shops are full of death and destruction. Sure the origins of Buy Nothing Day might be liberal, but that doesn't mean we can't use it to open up space and ideas that people aren't usually exposed to.

And if you want to see what's happening elsewhere, or take part in Steal Something Day, a critique of BND from years gone by, see

http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21802

another anarchist
Homepage: http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports

Consume BETTER!

28.11.2008 11:16

the workerist red, the shouty idealist and the action earth mother all have valid points to make and all look like complete tits when expressing them.

In fact wouldn't trust any of them with any form of fututre society.

The World's Best Anarchist

interesting....

28.11.2008 12:55

now why not come along and actually engage in a face to face debate or even use the open mic option to take to the floor to tell us just what is the right way to fix things.
i presume you know.....

lookin forward to seeing you.
i'll be the stressed out skinhead trying to spit in the monsoon of capitalism that is currently raging all around her, why not introduce yourself and join your phlegmatic spittle to mine, rather than gettin a bit overexcited when face with the luxurious anonymity of a computer screen.

with rage, love n' an ickle bit of hope
m*

feistyfingers
Homepage: http://www.adbusters.org

feistyfingers...

28.11.2008 16:57

No-one could ever accuse you of being phlegmatic. I see you as more choleric!

Neon Black

people are poor

28.11.2008 17:01

Just because you live in the west doesn't mean that you are not hungry, cold, in debt, work a 60 hour week, lost your pension, can't afford your prescriptions, lost your job, .. look around at the poverty. When in poverty you will take pleasure in some indulgences like TV, or any number of items that aren't 'green' when you can get your hands on them.. I don't think that you'll get far telling poor people to consume less, it isn't really fair.

So maybe the target audience should be clear- tell rich people to consume less. If you want to promote a free economy to poor people then you can spin it a different way 'here's how we can get free stuff' (free stalls etc).

I think the intentions of buy nothing day are great, but the messages get really mixed and confused.

here's an example: elderly people die of the cold in UK during winter. Then you get a young healthy looking person giving them a flyer saying 'give coal the boot' or 'use less fossil fuels', something like that.. See how this needs a re-think.

So maybe the problem with the buy nothing day message is typical of the problem of the whole green movement being unable to relate to the mainstream, lower incomes, no incomes or less privileged.

jan

Ever noticed

28.11.2008 18:38

how the anti-consumer society green brigade is almost entirely composed of middle class people who consume more than anyone else?

Like their heroes, Al Gore, Prince Charles and other rich toffs, the greens are notorious for living the good life their middle-class, university educated backgounds enables them to do, and then they have the cheek to preach to the rest of us.

When greens and the anti-consumer people actually do more than recycle a few plastic bags, offset their frequent flying with a few quid penance money and choose the most economical 4x4 for the school run then perhaps the rest of us will take them more seriously.

Until then - be quiet!

Pete

for crying out loud

28.11.2008 20:20

For the love of God, these anti-BND rants from the left drive me up the wall,

"Pointless load of middle class wank" , "Art school tosh" whatever, there seems to be a concerted effort from the left to prove that they are poorer and more hard done by than anyone else. We all struggle to survive, that's the point of capitalism, if we didn't then we wouldn't have a working class as we wouldn't need to work. For the most part, especially on our highstreets on Saturday afternoons, we all consume too much.

IT IS OBVIOUS THE POINT OF BND IS NOT TO TELL THE POOR TO STARVE!

the point is to ask people (mainly affluent saturday afternoon shoppers) to look at what they consume and think about where it has come from, how it was made, and how most of it is going to end up as landfill. Most of the people who bump into BND actions on highstreets whilst shopping DO consume too much, probably most of the people organising BND actions do too. Perhaps it's a good idea for these people to think about this, and spend a day looking at alternatives.

BND'er