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santarchy
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santarchy
Unlike Buy Nothing Day, when people are asked to "participate by not participating," Steal Something Day demands that we "participate by participating." Instead of downplaying or ignoring the capitalists, CEOs, landlords, small business tyrants, bosses, PR hacks, yuppies, media lapdogs, corporate bureaucrats, politicians and cops who are primarily responsible for misery and exploitation in this world, Steal Something Day demands that we steal from them, without discrimination.
The Adbusters' intellegentsia tell us that they're neither "left nor right," and have proclaimed a non-ideological crusade against overconsumption. Steal Something Day, on the other hand, identifies with the historic and contemporary resistance against the causes of capitalist exploitation, not its symptoms. If you think overconsumption is scary, wait until you hear about capitalism and imperialism.
Unlike the misplaced Buy Nothing Day notion of consumer empowerment, Steal Something Day promotes empowerment by urging us to collectively identify the greedy bastards who are actually responsible for promoting misery and boredom in this world. Instead of ignoring them, Steal Something Day encourages us to make their lives as uncomfortable as possible.
As we like to say in Montreal: diranger les riches dans leurs niches!
And remember, we're talking about stealing, not theft. Stealing is just. Theft is exploitative. Stealing is when you take a yuppie's BMW for a joyride, and crash into a parked Mercedes just for the hell of it. Theft is when you take candy from a baby's mouth.
Stealing is the re-distribution of wealth from rich to poor Theft is making profits at the expense of the disadvantaged and the natural environment. Stealing is an unwritten a tax on the rich. Theft is taxing the poor to subsidize the rich. Stealing is nothing more than a tax on the rich. There is solidarity in stealing, but property is nothing but theft.
So, don't pay for that corporate newspaper, but steal all of them from the box. Get some friends together and go on a "shoplifting "spree at the local chain supermarket or upscale mall. With an even larger mob, get together and steal from the local chain book or record store. Pilfer purses and wallets from easily identified yuppies and business persons. Skip out on rent. Get a credit card under a fake name and don't pay. Keep what you can use, and give away everything else in the spirit of mutual aid that is the hallmark of Steal Something Day.
Comments
Hide the following 19 comments
Wrong!
15.12.2006 23:09
sceptic
Your an Idiot
16.12.2006 02:51
First of all, corporates know your are going to steal stuff, so they put the price up, but they do it before you actually steal it. In other words they put some money on the side for revenue lost by theft.
Second, if they loose money, that's brilliant, it would take a hell of a lot of stealing to actually cut into their profit margins though.
Now there's only one point, why do it all in the same place in the same time, and if you do, why put it up on Indymedia, you know there will be millions of extra cops on the streets, why doesn't everyone steal from a corporate around where he lives, if we all do it on the same time, the police will be stretched to cope with it, Say that at exactly 1pm and 5pm they will get a million calls of a million shops all over the city/country/world, they will not be able to cope, probably only few people will get nicked (hopefully).
Name?
I'm the idiot?
16.12.2006 10:41
sceptic
Donate To A Charitable Organization
16.12.2006 11:47
Scrooge
Stealing IS dealing with the symptoms not the cause of captilasm.
16.12.2006 12:25
James1984
Buy nothing day and the farse that is adbusters
16.12.2006 14:08
Squirrello
squirrello
e-mail:
gormlesssquirrel {a} hotmail.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.spidermilk.co.uk
High prices increase theft
16.12.2006 14:44
Of course petty theft is not going to bring about the collapse of capitalism, I don't think anyone was suggesting this. But neither is a G8 protest. At best it's going to contribute a little (very little) to the cause. But it is a morally justified fun, more fun than paying and more justified than giving them money.
Name?
CAPITALISM
16.12.2006 16:11
name ?
Your motives are a mystery
16.12.2006 17:25
Hot chicks, and consumption...
besides why do you even presume I am a man? unless you think I am a lesbian or something.
I hate capitalism, because, in it's modern pretext, it is an encapsulation of everything wrong in the world. Everywhere in between starvation in Africa, to multi billion dollars weapons industry, is defined by "Capitalism", it might not be the best word to describe it, and in fact, it is been so over used, it's nearly a meaningless word. But I hate everything that it represents still, and I would hate it if we used the term "Gargigalism" instead. I hate the fact i would have to work an 8 hours day, and give the money to some rich bustard, I hate the fact that the only satisfaction i would get of life is to buy things, things I wouldn't even wanted otherwise. I hate the fact that this world is so unfair, and that some people are getting rich of killing others, I hate the fact that I have no voice or power in decisions that will affect my life, I hate the fact that I have to pay for everything, and I hate having to consider how many hours work is anything I want or even need is worth, and the pleasure I know i won't get of it. I hate exploitation, advertising, brain wash, superficiality, oppression, shoes, playstations and expensive cars, I hate cheap flights and I hate the knowledge that everything I do, be it buy food or go on the bus is inevitably going to bring money to someone who doesn't deserve it, and will increase the share holder's purse, share holders who probably have their hands in lots of other dodgy business, be it arms trade, slave labour or what ever. I hate capitalism for these reasons and many many more,
"Hot chicks" have nothing to do with it, I would much rather live in a good world.
I don't know if it's even worth mentioning just how sexist these statements are BTW.
Steal stuff, and than steal more and more, If you can get away without giving them a penny of your hard earned cash, go for it.
Name?
morally justified?
16.12.2006 17:38
You can steal from the 'big corporations' because, like, man, they're eeevil.
So where do you draw the line? How about a medium corporation? Well, fairly justified.
A small corporation? The corner shop? The local newsagents? The bloke next door?
sceptic
X-Mas Shoplifting
16.12.2006 18:45
If your next door neighbour is a multi millionaire, than by all means steal from him. but i find it's much easier to justify it to yourself if you steal from a faceless corporation.
Personally I don't think there should be any property, except maybe for a few personal belonging, definitely not a multinational.
Where do you draw the line? when you've developed and established a strong sense of morality,challenged it, and have a strong conviction in your motives, you can just about break any law.
Why are you so against stealing from them anyway? you can't honestly think that this will severely harm the rest of us do you?
Name?
There shouldn't be any property
16.12.2006 20:09
Trade is immoral?? Now, let's see - can you fix your plumbing? the electricity in your house? No? What do you do? You call in a tradesman. Noooo - this is immoral! Trading means one person makes something, because he's good at it, and trades it for something else, which he's not so good at making.
Capitalism - nasty stuff. And here's 'Name?' propagating his views by means of a computer and the Internet - and do you think we'd have those without capitalism?
sceptic
trade is one thing - capitalism is another
16.12.2006 21:00
anarcho
Eurgh.
17.12.2006 00:48
There are ways to debate the effectiveness of particular tactics without
A) being superior and/or offensive
B) losing sight of the fact that ultimately you have more in common than is different between you
rogue
Argh
17.12.2006 04:30
He believes that thanks to rich business man we have the Internet, I believe that it's more to do with the combined efforts of some of the smartest people in recent history, he believes that those people wouldn't of done it, wouldn't of organised themselves without someone getting rich of off it, I believe they would of.
Than there's all this petty stuff, trying to guess if I am a man or a woman, trying to figure out my life style, all this bullshit. I can very well try to conceive where you are coming from, but I won't reduce myself to your level, instead I am going to focus on your argument.
Trade? if we can define it first it would help, If you mean, two parties, exchanging good or services, where one is making profit of the other, or even worst, one is making profits for a third party, on some exchange rate, in which either the consumer (call it party one) is paying more than the service/good is worth, or that the provider(party two) works for less than he's effort is worth to make party three (the corporate say) money, than yes I am completely against it, I'd rather own nothing. This definition is inherently exploitative.
If you mean, people sharing skills, for the common good, be it a plumber or a car maker (that's a different argument). and if they do it on equal terms, than by all means, there's nothing wrong with it. If we could find a common ground, say I will fix your sink, and when I need my car fixed someone else will do it, and you will, I dunno, use your amazing skills of policing somehow. than is this even trade? And if instead of doing it to make profit, we do it to contribute to the greater good, or to an individual's comfort, or whatever. than money itself is not such a bad thing, It just ensures people do their bit. (I personally believe that having a currency will cause competition, and thus exploitation, but this isn't the point, the point is one of equal terms to share our workload)
Than we return to where we've started, which was, Is it OK to steal from big businesses, now to begin with you said that it's wrong because they will raise the prices, and I said it's alright because, the prices are already inflated, and those that actually do the work get much much less than their worth. (actually i don't think that's exactly what I said, but it's my point). Do you expect me to feel bad for stealing from HMV, why? because it will undo the fabrics of society? to hell with the fabrics of society!
Now the house thing, you get comfort from knowing that you're children have got a place to live, and you enjoy the privilege of decorating it, unfortunately, in this day and age, the only way you could do this, is by owning it. and this is fine, but do you honestly see no difference between owning your family's house and a multinational? You do really see no difference in between having enough money to buy food for your children and having enough money to buy half the state of Utah? and although your children live in a nicely decorated house, with Santa coming in and out of your chimney or whatever, there are countless others who don't. this is why I hate capitalism!
I would rather abolish property altogether, but in a market economy, this doesn't work, this is also why we should abolish it, we can fend for ourselves, fix our own sinks, and make our own computers, whilst working a lot less, if we'd found a way to decentralise the way we do things, of course I am not saying that one person should build his own computer and fix his own sink, that will just be stupid, what I am saying is that they should do it for one another, not for increased profit margins. It's those profits which gives us the legitimacy of stealing, it just means that the profits are redistributed more equally (Ideally we could send those playstations back to their makers in china). a profit HMV have no legitimate right to own. Ok i think in my drunken state, this is as a coherent argument i can produce, Good night, I'll check it in the morning, and hope I didn't make a fool of myself here :)
Why do you defend capitalism so vigorously, do you actually like living like that? do you like consumption being the sole purpose in life?
Name?
About Proletarian shopping.
17.12.2006 10:39
Real proletarians in general don't steal and like me they have to put up with their lot in life just like my neighbours have to. But some of us are aware that if things don't change soon they'll have to... Global warming etc. How long can we keep on working for the man before we have to take control of our own lives? At least I try and put something back in by working people with problems
Theiving a jar of coffee from Sainsbury's may be victimless crime, but it aint the way forward folks..
Joe Public
I agree completely
17.12.2006 14:05
Name?
You do seem hung up ...
17.12.2006 20:47
Then you go to say 'is paying more than the service/good is worth'. What is something 'worth'? Something is worth what you're prepared to pay for it. What is this computer 'worth'? Anything you like. Offer me a thousand pounds, and I'll take it. Offer me a tenner, and I'll say - not worth it, mate. So, what is 'worth'?
We do need rich businessmen to make computers at a price we can afford. To set up a semiconductor factory takes a great deal of money - otherwise known as capitol, and where is that capitol going to come from? And let's say a businessman spends a million pounds setting up a factory, and produces an item he sells for a pound. He sells 900,000. He's made a loss. He sells 1,100,100. Shock horror. he's made a 'profit'. Nasty, nasty man. Indeed, the more popular his product is, the nastier he becomes, poor chap.
By the way, I'm pleased to see you're not a student - an educated person would not have written 'those people wouldn't of done it' but 'those people wouldn't have done it'. Unless our education system is even more dire than I thought it was.
sceptic
If you want to be a miserable git, that's your problem
18.12.2006 00:23
Thanks for that maths lesson, very useful. Your argument stands as is, that is to say, this is how things are done now days. It doesn't in anyway justify why this is how things should be, does it?
Sure the business man build the factory, sure he spent his cash on it, and sure he wants to make more cash out of it, but that doesn't make it right. It's worth pointing out the the business man doesn't actually produce the out put does he? no, he pays his workers to, and there lays the problem, in the one step you've skipped out of in this equation. You seem to defend the "natural order" of things blindly, even though this natural order is where slave labour plays a major role. You seem to say, it's fine, you had a million dollars, you by all means deserve to get a 10 per cent return on this, by virtue of having it to begin with.
You also skipped the fact that the semi conductors he (his slaves) produce are only a by product of him making profit, it's not the purpose of his exercise.
And besides, none of this is any reason for it not to steal from him.
Also, I didn't say I'm not a student, just like you didn't say you're not a cop. Maybe I am a student, maybe I'm a plumbing student, maybe I'm an immigrant, maybe I'm dyslexic, or maybe all of those. As for intellect, for thinking outside of the box, for constructing a coherent argument, not just explaining how things are, well your not very good at it, so I'm going to reduce myself to your level and say, little intellect, pissing people off, supporting capitalism, I'll say your a well paid cop, quite racist/sexist, quite bad at your job, under appreciated amongst your colleagues, and with severe sexual problems, now, If you'll excuse me, I'm getting quite sick of this conversation.
Name?