Forum Post: National action next Friday -- General Shop
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 17, 2011, 1:39 a.m. EST by Hobohemian
(260)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
OK, this is just a preliminary message to you guys from a supporter out in Oakland CA. The General Assembly at Oakland has not passed or considered the proposal that I'm talking about, and I will present the proposal for you if and when it is approved. However, this is a time-sensitive action that requires GA approval from any Occupy group that wants to endorse and take part. It is a completely non-violent and non-destructive action that was brought to those of us in Occupy Oakland from members of the community who came up with the basic idea on their own and encouraged us to endorse it.
The General Shop is an action designed to encourage all citizens across the United States to boycott all corporate chain-stores and all the Wal-Marts and Targets and Macy's, and to bring so-called "Black Friday" money to our local communities and to the owners of small businesses. The action takes place next Friday, 11/25.
If we can even hit 5%, or 3%, or hell 1%, of the money that every year has been flowing into fat corporate coffers every year in the Christmas season, think about it -- we will be making a statement against consumerism, capitalistic excess, the corporate corruption of spiritual traditions, and whatever else you feel like naming. We will try to bring some of that money to the neighborhoods. We will also be countering the negative propaganda that the State has put out about Occupy, which is the idea that we are damaging local business. We are all about local business and local agriculture, at least many of us in Occupy Oakland are into that concept.
Hopefully the Oakland GA will pass this resolution on Friday, but even if we don't manage to do that, I personally encourage people to consider this type of proposal and to draft something like that for your local GA. Specifically I am putting this up right now on the Occupy Wall St. site because both of our camps have been attacked this week in a co-ordinated Homeland Security action. I stand in solidarity with your day of action tomorrow, and I am looking for any way to add my voice to that.
I urge you to consider a proposal like this. We only have about a week to plan it, but Occupy isn't all about making careful plans and getting permits for everything. At least here in Oakland, we don't ask for permits. If enough people show up, you don't need a permit. Talk to local small businesses about setting up a block party, whatever you can set up that's safe and business-friendly but also subversive. You know, face-painting for little kids, as much food for everybody that's not being provided by a corporation -- when was the last time you went to an event downtown in your City where everybody ate good food for free, the homeless right next to the yuppies? That would be the greatest way that this event could come down. But it kind of depends on how people in their own communities can put it together. This is just the first stab at this idea.... I'm an activist at least a little bit for years, so I tend to think in years. Let's build this movement with peace and with focus, on the things that matter. Jobs for people in our cities, not giving all the money to Wal-Mart. This action is a big middle finger to Wal-Mart. Let's think big.
And what is the meaning of this action? What would people left without shopping? Even if they were nothing to eat? Due to this, their life will be better? I think people need more! They need a real improvement. Let's think big!
I really think that if you want to fight globalism, then you have to buy local. It's not like I have all the answers, but this seems like a good direction to move in now. But I'm a total hypocrite myself, because I sometimes buy local and sometimes I buy from amazon or something like that.
At least I haven't totally abandoned the local experience. I buy a lot of vinyl records, at the flea markets and the record stores up in Berkeley and all that. I still like to shop for books in a bookstore where I can thumb through it and feel it in my fingers before I buy it. I like the idea that I can buy produce at the farmer's market or at the flea market that is from a local grower. And I think that should be part of what Occupy is all about. Mono-cropping is going to kill the mother Earth. Wal-Mart is the worst thing to happen to America in our lifetimes, except maybe Citizens United. I mean, come on, we have to at least sometimes buy local (even if it just means buy some Chinese food from that couple with the slightly dirty place on the corner) just to keep these globalists from seizing everything.
Thanks for writing! I just want to say so that we can truly change the world. The main thing is not only to believe, but and think - how this can be done in reality. And even more so, we must act when there is a solution that nobody can beat.
Yes. A few of us have been suggesting this for a short time now. On Black Friday, boycott the corporate big boys and shop locally. Support the local economies. And I do like the idea of the block parties. That's a great addition to the idea. I stand in solidarity with Oakland and believe my relatives out there (the Trammels and their offspring) are with you also, in spirit if not in body. Thank you.
Block parties is kinda what Occupy Oakland is all about, for better or worse. But it's bringing people together, and at least we know that we all love Michael Jackson's music at Occupy Oakland, even if we can't agree on much else.
Well, sorry to not respond sooner, but it's the night before the day... I think we will see a lot of actions against Black Friday just as always, not sure how focused they will be. We found ourselves unable in Oakland to endorse the local "General Shop" for a variety of reasons that we heard about in the Pros/Cons. Some members didn't like the idea of endorsing capitalism in any form, local or global. Some felt that it conflicted with the "pre-existing tradition" of the "buy nothing day." Personally I feel like buying nothing is kind of a weak protest, because your voice is indistinguishable from the voices of all the consumers who didn't buy shit because they didn't have any money. I like the idea of buying local instead because it's more tangible, more anti-globalist because it focuses on local goods and services, you know. Oh well, maybe next year. I'm an activist, so I think in years, not moments.
p.s. thanks to the way that Occupy Oakland works, we were able to put a lot of energy from the LBL into the local "Blackout Friday" effort even though it wasn't endorsed by the GA. So I think in this case our somewhat freewheeling structure worked for the best. I saw our guys handing out fliers and stuff last weekend, so we helped put together tomorrow even if we didn't officially endorse it.
Personally, I think you should be shopping locally (when possible) all year, not just on Black Friday. Start this year if you haven't already. Regardless, I would definitely endorse buying local and/or American-made as opposed to not buying anything at all. You make a good point in the voice of not-buying would be drowned out by all the broke and unemployed among us. Buying local and/or American, on the other hand, would make a stronger statement since it would show up as a statistic; studies would show a decrease in corporate buying AND an increase in local. Also, one advantage you guys have that some of us don't is your favorable climate. You guys should be able to keep it up pretty well over the winter, right? That should help offset the inevitable slowdown we'll have to endure here in the upper Midwest and the guys in the northeast. And I agree, it's better to think in terms of years, not weeks or months. Just think what kind of effect we could have by this time next year.
[Removed]