Really Free Market in Modesto Draws Hundreds

On Saturday December 3rd, between 200-300 people participated in a full scale gift economy in action, when they showed up to the Really Free Market organized by the Modesto based Direct Action Anti-Authoritarians (DAAA) Collective. A day earlier, the Modesto Bee had run a positive article on the event, interviewing one person from the collective, and also gave a number to call for people wanting to help out with the event. (Read that article here: http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/12/1787238.php). The day the article came out, the phone was ringing off the hook, with many people calling to voice their support and interest in the "anti-consumerist, pro-community" idea and also ask if we could pick stuff up from them. Many people voiced their concern for giving to large charities, and thrift stores, because they didn't want anyone to have to pay for the items, and they also didn't want to line the pockets of various bosses. We also got a call from a Katrina survivor looking for some help after moving over to Modesto, and also from another person who asked us to organize a Really Free Market in a town right next to Modesto!

DAAA Collective organizers got to the Really Free Market site early, (the event started at 1pm, we got there at 12:30pm), and we were overjoyed to see that someone had started the party without us! Large amounts of clothing, toys, and three mattresses, were allready laid out on the grass and the parking lot by the Wal-Greens sign that we had chosen to be the spot for the Really Free Market. As we got our banners set up, and got our own stuff out of our car, no-one stopped us to ask, "Who's the organizer here? What do I do? How does this work?" The community had risen to the occassion, and people openly shared and gave items. As more and more cars came in that had items to donate, more and more people started to arrive. As cars would come in, teams of people would go to them, and help them pull the items out of the cars and onto the ever shrinking east end of the parking lot. The only problems that occured, was when people started going through items in the cars, and others reminded them to get the items out so everyone could look at them, and the drivers could drive away. The collective also passed out many copies of outreach flyers about the DAAA Collective, Food Not Bombs, and Really Free Market.

Our collective has done the RFM for about two months prior to the massive one that occured last week, but it was because of community involvement that it was a success, (the bags and boxes of things we brough was tiny in comparassion to the massive amounts of things others brought). It was great to see the community acting as a community, and not looking towards the "organizers" of the event for direction. We are hoping that with this influx of people to the market, that more and more people with come, and every Saturday afternoon, transform the Wal-Greens parking lot into a community mutual aid station.