Contact Michael via e-mail.
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!
Search the NEPA Whirl-Mart Site
Get your Networking on
Regional (NEPA)
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.
National Call In Day Against Starbucks Tuesday March 25, 2003
Join the Organic Consumers Association, Global Exchange, the Community
Alliance for Global Justice and other social justice, environmental, and
food activists in a "virtual march" on Starbucks to change their company
policies by actively promoting Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolate in all of
their stores and removing Genetically Engineered ingredients from their
food and dairy products.
PLEASE CALL, FAX, EMAIL OR WRITE STARBUCKS ON MARCH 25!
Call Toll Free: 1-800-235-2883
Write: Orin Smith, CEO Starbucks PO Box 34067 Seattle, WA 98124-1067
Email: osmith@starbucks.com Send a free fax from our website
Tell Starbucks:
*They need to stop serving GE ingredients including rBGH in their dairy
products, in all of their 6,000 cafes.
*They need to brew Fair Trade coffee in all of their cafes at least once
a week.
*They need to make sure all their coffee growers are receiving a fair
wage for the coffee they grow.
Starbucks says they are a socially responsible company, they need to
prove it! We are calling on Starbucks to brew Fair Trade Coffee weekly;
provide clear evidence that they are in compliance with their previous
promise to improve the wages, working conditions, and lives of the
people who grow and harvest the coffee they buy; and remove GE
ingredients from their products.
OrganicConsumers.org Campaigning
for food safety, organic agriculture, sustainability, and fair trade
MediaChannel.org
