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What is a Whirl-Mart?
The action is comprised of a group of anti-shoppers ranging in size from 1 to 50 members. The ritual consists of activists/actors arriving at a Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us or another chain superstore at 12-noon on the first Saturday or Sunday of the month and proceeding to push empty shopping carts slowly and silently through the aisles. Eventually, all of the participants locate one another and form a single-file chain of anti-shoppers which weaves, wanders, and whirls throughout the store for about an hour. It is a collective reclamation of space that is otherwise only used for buying and selling. It is a symbolic display of the will to resist the capitalist ideology.
'Whirl-Mart' is an experiment that can be approached from several different angles. As a work of art, it examines and blurs the boundaries that have been established between performance art, protest, living sculpture, and direct action. As an action of resistance, it utilizes the power of silence in occupying private consumer-dominated space with a symbolic spectacle. As a ceremony, it is a counter-ritual to shopping that transforms the super-store and its wall-to-wall array of products into a surreal and colorful cathedral. And what the heck-- it's just darned fun!
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Rally of One Peace can begin with YOU NEPA BLOG Blog by & about Northeastern Pennsylvania: issues, events, discussion, photos WatermelonPunch.com NEPA Whirl-Mart's web host xradiograph what Michael does when he's not "fightin' the man" SurfScranton.com 1,000+ regional links
National & Worldwide
Whirl-Mart Ritual Resistance International Whirl-Mart HQ World Changing Models, Tools, and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future Critical Mass Critical Mass is not an organization, it's an unorganized
coincidence. It's a movement ... of bicycles, in the streets. Rev Billy's Church of Stop Shopping Lots of great scripts from/for performance interventions
with a heavy focus on Starbucks. Commerce
Jamming Commerce Jamming source page. AdBusters A global network of those who want to advance the new social
activist movement of the information age. Commercial Alert wants to keep commercial culture within
its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting
the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and
democracy. No Media Kings Jim Munroe's guide to doin' it for yourself Booksense.com Internet book search that sends your order to your nearest
independent bookstore. Starbucks Delocator Search that helps you locate locally owned alternatives to Starbucks
Media
The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media
outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth Project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and
alternative journalism. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the first to identify
threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression
in the digital age. Declan
McCullagh's Politech Politech is the moderated mailing list of politics and technology.
Topics include privacy, free speech, the role of government and corporations,
antitrust, and more. MediaChannel.org The global network for democratic media.
PLUS the News Dissector's Weblog. CorpWatch.org counters corporate-led globalization through education,
network-building and activism.
Why does so much freaky stuff happen at WalMart. K-Mart & Target don't have the same issues. I'm reminded of a WM near me in Tunkhannock. The place is Deliverance with fluorescent lights. I've never seen so many sleeve-less plaid shirts in my life.
Seems I got the winning banner wrong. It still won't fit here. But you can see it over at the
Banner Art Collective.
Many entries were strong, so contest officials almost decided to
split the grand prize of $0 (USD) between several entries.
Ultimately, though, the grand prize was awarded to Zebra3's
"buy-sell(f) nothing," a banner which subverts the textuality of
corporate logos to good effect.
Also, my el-cheapo more-money-than-it-is-worth digital camera followed me this morning:
Matt B. braved the elements, the police,
Target staffers, and hordes of frenzied shoppers to strike a blow for counter-consumerist freedom.
and the winner of the Banner Art Collective contest is not here, because it's wider than the blog. Runner up entry is here instead.....
Seems when I went to the BAC this morning, they hadn't officially
posted the winner, & grabbed the most recent posting. Which is
still pretty funky, and can be seen below, and a wider more-active
version over at my personal site.
Now get out there and STOP SHOPPING!!!!!
For those of you unable to resist the urge, I am offering--for the low,
low price of $4 USD--a handsome certificate (suitable for framing)
absolving you of your Buy Nothing Day Buying Sin. Postage included. No frame. May or may not be redeemable in the afterlife.
During the ceremony, Missy McUnicef vowed to obey Ronald McDonald "so long as
he continues to make financial contributions" to Unicef. Ronald McDonald promised
to "contribute a miniscule percentage of my exorbitant profits to children's charities,
so long as the partnership scheme gets kids to nag their parents to take them
to McDonald's yet again."
In connection with Buy
Nothing Day (November 29th in America and Canada, November 30th in Europe),
an annual international event held to protest the unoffical opening day of holiday
shopping, the Banner Art Collective is holding
a contest for the best presentation of net.art and subvertisements in online advertising
space.
As Christians we confess Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
The Lordship of Christ extends throughout every area of our life.
Nothing is excluded from His Lordship. This includes our transportation
choices. The Risen Lord Jesus is concerned about the kinds of cars
we drive because they affect his people and his creation.
Making transportation choices that threaten millions of human beings
violates Jesus' basic commandments: "Love your neighbor as yourself"
(Mk. 12:30-31); and "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (Lk. 6:31).
I think it's a great idea. This next bit, though, is just irreverent.
Friday, Nov. 29
11am Lackawanna County
1pm Luzerne county
more details to come....
sorry for the lack of updates! I've been working on promoting the Jim Munroe/PAST DUE
event. If you're in the region, show up at the Afa Gallery in Scranton sunday at 8pm & pick
up your NEPA-WHIRL/BND fliers!!!
Jim Munroe has produced
'zines, CD-ROMS, given DIY workshops, was managing editor at Adbusters,
has written the novels Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask and Angry
Young Spaceman, and runs the indie book resource site nomediakings.org
from his home in Toronto. His new book about the year 2036, Everyone In Silico,
contained so many mentions of corporate brands that he decided to invoice them
for product placement. When they failed to respond, he wrote pointed and amusing
Past Due letters.
People around the world have sent Jim McKenna
and John Lieberman more than 80,000 CDs offering trial subscriptions to AOL's
Internet services. They say when they collect a million, they'll go to the company's
front door in Virginia to say, "You've got mail."
"Basically, we'll enlist the help of volunteers who are willing to
take a pickup load and drive back to AOL headquarters with us,"
McKenna said. "We will be as obvious as possible and very polite."
AOL is responding by offering to help. "If they reach their goal ...
I'd be happy to give them directions and greet them at the door,"
company spokesman Nicholas Graham said. "We would make a contribution
ourselves to put them over the top."
According to an
article in the Scranton Times, the smallest businesses are booming in Northeastern
Pennsylvania, according to new data from the census bureau.Entrepreneurs, home-based
businesses and mom-and-pop retail shops have increased about 2 percent in the
region.
"New technologies are fostering independent businesses," Austin Burke, of the
Scranton Chamber of Commerce, said.
"You can set up a scanner, print and fax from your computer at home ... In many
cases, you don't need an office. No one is going to know if you're in the Chrysler
Building or in Forest City." Large companies are also turning to independent small
businesses for many services they once had in-house, he added. For example, many
companies will no longer keep an employee, such as an accountant or contractor,
on the payroll but will encourage the individual to stay in business by signing
a contract for their services. The company may also pay a portion of their startup
costs, he said.
According to this article
in the NYTimes, organized labor is escalating its attempts to unionize what has become, in just 40 years,
the nation's biggest company and the world's largest retailer. In the United States alone, it owns 3,300
stores and employs more than one million workers.
And not one of them is a union member. In fact, unions have
made only one successful effort at organizing at a Wal-Mart
in the United States - in a butcher's department in a Texas
store. Two weeks later the company disbanded that
department.
Wal-Mart gives all its employees a handbook that says,
among other things, "We are not anti-union." But it gives
its managers a 56-page guide called "The Manager's Toolbox
to Remaining Union Free." The guide tells managers, "It is
important you be constantly alert for efforts by a union to
organize your associates."
The NEPA-WHIRL Whirl-Marters will be doing a double-whirl at two locations: one
in Lackawanna County (Scranton area), one in Luzerne County (Wilkes-Barre area).
Please Join Us
The people at Adbusters say "don't go out empty-handed. Take advantage of
the BND tools - radio and TV spots, posters, handbills, gift exemption vouchers
- all available for free at BND
headquarters."
1.6 million consumers should no longer be receiving telemarketing calls. People
who registered their names, addresses and telephone numbers with the state prior
to Sept. 15 will be the first to benefit from law. The law is considered a major
victory for consumers annoyed by unwanted calls, and could cost telemarketing
companies thousands of dollars if violated. Complaints will be investigated
and penalties will be enforced by the attorney general's office under Pennsylvania's
Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer
Protection Law.
Penalties include a $1,000 fine per violation and $3,000 fine for each
violation involving a consumer 60 or over. Repeat violators are subject to a
permanent injunction forfeiting their right to conduct business.
MediaChannel.org
People around the world have sent