Feministas' Mayday - Guerilla Stickering

If you're going to do the ace action of putting stickers on Primark clothes it needs to be clearer than 'capitalism kills' if you really wnat to say something. That means nothing to most people, but most people are genuinly upset to find out their clothes are made by people earning bugger all in terrible conditions. I was with some students yesterday who were upset by this when it was explained but they didn't know what capitalism was, why would they? Stickering's great fun, shame it doesn't always actually tell anyone anything except those that already know....

It was May Day yesterday - a chance for everyone to make whatever contribution they can to celebrating workers solidarity and anti-capitalism.
Why did the Feminista post get criticism and snidey little snippings? Do you not think grown women are capable of working out their own tactics? and what were the snippy commenters up to themselves eh?
Why assume people who shop in Primark don't know what Capitalism is? I know, and I got some very nice vests there before I found out about who was making them in Bangladesh.
Do people not know what a feminist is???
As for the feminista label - this is both hommage and joke... perhaps you should check out the feministas before you make assumptions?

Research is showing that anything remotely female gets much higher attacks and criticism on the internet [from women and men] - why is this do you think??? and what's the point of Indymedia if all the armchair anarchists just see fit to have a go when folk put news up?

May Day is about solidarity so don't be such an eeijit

I’m not sure that the first post was much of a criticism. And well, as for people not knowing what Capitalism is I think its pretty much a fair point, still its questionable whether such a protest relied on people knowing what it was in specifics which was being protested. –In primark a different context was being protested which might have made the stickers unusable to post on cash points say –it was the general topic that was being highlighted. And if anyone’s interested there’s a seminar series up in Glasgow talking about neo-liberalism.  http://www.cppr.ac.uk/centres/cppr/esrcneoliberalismseminar/)

As for feminism, yes its getting a bad rap and very few women, and nearly no men consider it part of their value structure unless you point out that actually they do, they just don’t label it as such. I’ve talked to phd students who teach gender studies tutorials and the students consider it akin to swearing at someone. So yes, I suppose some pr is needed –or not.

Still, nice to see something was being done for may day!

mx

1) Partly because MI5 and their infilitrating Spook-Plants have an anti-feminist agenda

2) Partly because not enough female feminists care to respond to their trolling

Sorry if I caused offence - I did not intend to, and it certainly wasn't because the story was something feminist.
I've commented in other places on indymedia too about people tagging on -ista, whether it's imcista, sambatista or whatever, now and in the past.

Of course grown women and men are able to make their own decisions about tactics. Hopefully we can discuss those tactics, and though less good than face-to-face, indymedia has become part of that exchange. We need to do this from a place of trust and solidarity, and try to avoid jumping to conclusions/removing comments from the newswire.

I'm afraid it's just something that annoys me. We are not the Zapatistas. Using the -ista tag doesn't make us cooler or in itself part of some global movement. It does make us more inaccessible. And yes I checked out the feminista page first, and yes, I can understand why it's better than tagging feminist on the back of boilersuits!

In solidarity...

I didn't mean that people who shop in Primark won't know what capitalism means (I used to shop there too as do all my family who do know what it is), just that most people in general don't know what it is or why you'd be against it, until it's explained anyway.

And no I wasn't doing anything for mayday but I do lots of stuff thanks.

I've got to say this action was a bit wank really. The stickers didn't really inform anyone of anything and most people would just be confused by criticisms of places like Primark. Primark sell decent clothes for fuck all, and thats why people shop there. All clothes on the high street are made in sweatshops anyway: attack the economic system as a whole, there is no good part of it.

Apart from that, i don't really see what was feminist about this action, and i really really resent the idea that its being criticised because it was feminist. Its being (gently) criticised cos it was a bit pointless and weak, why go saying 'can't you believe a women can do something for on her own'? Bit of a jump to conclusions there.

Feminism is an integral part of anticapitalism and mayday. I think the best overtly feminist group on mayday was the Sex Workers Union one year (2002?) but i'm sure there are plenty of better ways to reassert the importance on women's struggle on mayday than this.

Have a think about it.