We've been talking about something similar for weeks, and it is finally happening. Many active protestors and Kossacks have been attempting to organize some sort of ban on Black Friday. Well, here it is. #OWS is stepping up and hitting the big corporations with one thing they can: not spending. As we've talked about earlier, this is yet another unilateral, personal action that we have expected as a major part of phase 2 of OWS. They have named it #OccupyXmas.
From AdBusters:
Hey dreamers, occupiers, rabble-rousers,
You’ve been sleeping on the streets for two months pleading peacefully for a new spirit in economics. And just as your camps are raided, your eyes pepper sprayed and your head’s knocked in, another group of people are preparing to camp-out. Only these people aren’t here to support occupy Wall Street, they’re here to secure their spot in line for a Black Friday bargain at Super Target and Macy’s.
Occupy gave the world a new way of thinking about the fat cats and financial pirates on Wall Street. Now lets give them a new way of thinking about the holidays, about our own consumption habits. Lets’ use the coming 20th annual Buy Nothing Day to launch an all-out offensive to unseat the corporate kings on the holiday throne.
This year’s Black Friday will be the first campaign of the holiday season where we set the tone for a new type of holiday culminating with #OCCUPYXMAS. As the global protests of the 99% against corporate greed and casino capitalism continues, lets take the opportunity to hit the empire where it really hurts…the wallet.
On Nov 25/26th we escape the mayhem and unease of the biggest shopping day in North America and put the breaks on rabid consumerism for 24 hours. Flash mobs, consumer fasts, mall sit-ins, community events, credit card-ups, whirly-marts and jams, jams, jams! We don’t camp on the sidewalk for a reduced price tag on a flat screen TV or psycho-killer video game. Instead, we occupy the very paradigm that is fueling our eco, social and political decline.
Historically, Buy Nothing Day has been about fasting from hyper consumerism – a break from the cash register and reflecting on how dependent we really are on conspicuous consumption. On this 20th anniversary of Buy Nothing Day, we take it to the next level, marrying it with the message of #occupy…
We #OCCUPYXMAS.
Shenanigans begin November 25!
Here in the US, for the last 14 years, "Buy Nothing Day" is also "Black Friday" - two very contradictory labels for the same day. Black Friday is the day we as a nation display our rampant consumerism, whereas Buy Nothing Day... well, is pretty self-explanatory.
Historically, Black Friday is so named because it was the day when corporations would come out of "the red" and into "the black" - the day they made profits. Of course, this no longer applies, as now these major corporations are profitable year round. Nevertheless, this day still remains one of their most profitable. With the full force of the Occupy Movement and even its indirect supporters, a moratorium on shopping this coming weekend could certainly send a very strong message.
There are numerous events created on Facebook, asking for your participation in refusing to spend. Find one, start your own, or check with your local Occupy or at their website. For example, Occupy Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, and Everett are planning to Occupy Wal-mart on Friday, the 25th.
A little trivia note: In 1999, AdBusters made a commercial for Buy Nothing Day. It seems, one year later, the only network that aired it was a very disgruntled CNN:
The Guardian (2000):
In the best traditions of consumerism, the organisers had hoped to advertise the day on television. When they made their first attempt, last year, every major network found reasons why it could not run a commercial telling people not to buy anything.
A CBS spokesman told Adbusters: "This commercial is in opposition to the current economic policy of the United States."
Only CNN agreed to run the commercial after being told that a refusal would lead to an embarrassing story in the Wall Street Journal. This year the network agreed to run the ad, said Lasn, only to have an apparent change of heart.
"It was a very strange experience," he said. "When we first approached them they said 'no worries, no problems, there's plenty of time.' Then they told us all the spots were sold out."
Finally a compromise has been reached and the 30-second ad was due to be screened once only last night.