Buy Nothing Day!!

Sweet!
be there or be a hippie fuck.

bring your cameras to this event and document it for posterity by uploading your pictures to this site.

Thanks in advance.

Did anyone get in? I counted about 25-30 cops outside of Neiman. People scoffing at the fur protest... the cops don't help to make the public hate the protestors, they trust in their God (cops and money) I guess.

This buy-nothing day speaks to the rich; the rest of us go shopping the few days we have time to do so, when we are not working to pay the rent and buy food and not taking care of chores. Obviously, if you cannot afford to pay cash or pay your credit card bill in full each month, then you are not managing your money wisely and should think twice or more often before you shop. It is also not good to be buying something just because someone else has the same thing that you really do not need.

That said, I bought things that I use and I helped street artists and homeless to the best of my ability as well. The workingclass depends on our spending money for their jobs, and I can assure you, jobs are scarce as hen's teeth, whether you are a skilled or unskilled worker. These are very tough times and are going to get worse so long as the war machine rolls on.

You should also know that among those workers who actually celebrate Xmas, clothes are the most common item purchased, and I can assure you, we do not buy fur coats! Children under age 10 receive toys bought at reasonably priced stores (not FAO Schwartz); other common gifts are food and household items that are always very useful. One workingclass man from Florida I knew said that every child in his family received a pair of jeans each year at Xmas and that pair had to last a year. To them, that was Xmas.

I really think that instead of this bourgeois buy-nothing day which is a slap in the face of the workingclass who try to make their lives and homes better by buying useful things, you should make the day after Turkey Day a day to serve the workingclass in whatever manner possible. Give food and money to the homeless; buy useful items from street artists; do whatever you can to make life a little bearable for your fellow workers. That message will be very well-received by the majority of us, namely, the workingclass.

So big deal,

If you didn't buy your stewed prunes today, you'll most likely buy them tomorrow.

No offense, but I think you would be better to focus your energies on something more pressing; say like the WAR ON IRAQ!

You're not going to be able to stop American consumerism in the next 2 months, but you might stop a war!

"The inside of these hospital cars can be made to different sizes. Along with this comes a mortuary embalming station. This was originally developed by Arms Corps in South Africa with the concept that patients are embalmed onsite. This negates mass burials or graves. The remains are preserved. It can handle 800 bodies an hour. The bodies are embalmed, put into body bags, and stored at room temperature for later burial when the incident is over. "

I love it that everyone is so critical!
"Those damn buy nothing day celebrants, they just don't understand the working class pains. Or they're so Bourgy and full of themselves."
Wake up! Buy nothing day is a brilliant event. Things need to get worse, people need to lose jobs, the shit needs to hit the fan. In fact, I would recommend we get there all the quicker by promoting "Steal Everything Day." Crush corporations, and get the working class laid off, after all, you only have your slavery to lose.
Down with half baked criticism!
Onward with youthful foolishness, it is our only hope left.
Otherwise you fools would have us all managing the insanity, keeping things at that point of containment. Phew! to that.

I love it that everyone is so critical!
"Those damn buy nothing day celebrants, they just don't understand the working class pains. Or they're so Bourgy and full of themselves."
Wake up! Buy nothing day is a brilliant event. Things need to get worse, people need to lose jobs, the shit needs to hit the fan. In fact, I would recommend we get there all the quicker by promoting "Steal Everything Day." Crush corporations, and get the working class laid off, after all, you only have your slavery to lose.
Down with half baked criticism!
Onward with youthful foolishness, it is our only hope left.
Otherwise you fools would have us all managing the insanity, keeping things at that point of containment. Phew! to that.

then you don't understand working class pain. It hurts when you lose your job. It REALLY hurts when your parents lose their jobs.

"Mean everything in the world to you after you bought it. Simple exchange of values. You give them money. They give you a stuffed dog."
"... The road to hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs."
-- The Sun Also Rises

A critique of consumerism is needed. Buy Nothing Day is mostly an educational event and has no economic effect-- though I wish it had!

The self-appointed speakers of the working class who've posted here seem to think improving working class conditions can be achieved by some macro-level consumer spending strategy (with preferably intelligent shopping choices though!). You guys have the same economic program as George Bush and the democratic party. Whatever happened to class war? What about the redistribution of wealth and Power?

As somebody who is underemployed I'd like to see my unemploymant benefits extended so I can avoid working some stupid job for a few more months!!

For the past nine years ( 11 years) , a few
self-described "culture jammers" from
Adbusters Magazine have dubbed the last
Friday in November "Buy Nothing Day."

>From their stylish home base in Vancouver's
>upscale
suburb of Kitsilano, the Adbusters' brain
trust has encouraged conscientious citizens
worldwide to "relish [their] power as a
consumer to change the economic
environment." In their words, Buy Nothing
Day "[p]roves how empowering it is to step
out of the consumption stream for even a
day."

The geniuses at Adbusters have managed to
create the perfect feel-good, liberal,
middle-class activist non-happening. A day
when the more money you make, the more
influence you have (like every other day). A
day which, by definition, is insulting to
the millions of people worldwide who are too
poor or marginalized to be considered
"consumers."

It's supposed to be a 24-hour moratorium on
spending, but ends up being a moralistic
false-debate about whether or not you should
really buy that loaf of bread today or ...
wait for it ... tomorrow!

Well, this year, while the Adbusters cult
enjoys yet another Buy Nothing Day,
accompanied by their fancy posters,
stickers, TV and radio advertisements and
slick webpages, a few self-described
anarcho-situationists from Montreal's East
End are inaugurating Steal Something Day.

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: dranger 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.

You are Sick Communist, really sick -- even sicker than Nessie. Now that's really really sick.

The best thing for you to do would be to move to Cuba or Zimbabwe. You'd be much happier there. We Americans would be much happier too, if you were there. So please, don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of the country. Just leave, go, get out.