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.
By: Alicia Grega-Pikul 11/13/2003 Black Friday has lost its status as the most lucrative shopping day
of the year, but its reputation is bound to linger. The Friday after
Thanksgiving is significant not only to consumers and retailers but
also to the people in over 30 countries that turn the day on its head
with a 24-hour consumer fast.
It isn't subversively left wing to be fed up with the
commercialism of the holidays (if not our American lives, in general).
As the holiday shopping season opens earlier and earlier - we're now
approaching Labor Day - more and more people grow incensed.
Even the veterans are pissed. The president can equate shopping with
patriotism as often as he wants. Did anyone honestly think our brave
defenders would sacrifice their annual day of honors in order to boost
holiday sales?
I love to shop as much as the next person. I'm
not materialistic, mind you, but I do love the rush of a good find.
Last month, I bought seven yellow ""Bendy" action
figures because they were marked down from $5 each to a quarter each.
They're cool as hell but I don't know what I'm going to do with them.
Like you, I am a consumer. But on November 28, I will buy nothing. It's
not about protesting and I have no delusions that my actions (or lack
thereof) will throw a wrench in the proverbial system. Even if EVERYONE
refuses to shop on Black Friday, the world will still not come to an
end.
Buy Nothing Day
is not about causing trouble. It's about pausing for a moment to
consider the ramifications of rampant consumerism and to consider the
possibility of a simplified life.
Free your mind and your wallet will follow
As I wrote this column, a co-worker spontaneously burst out into the Toys R Us theme song. From bikes to trains to video games it's the biggest toy store there is. He had an earworm and he opted to expose us all to its infectious melody. In our heads, we all began to sing along. I don't want to grow up because if I did I couldn't be a Toys R Us kid.
Don't think your mind has been taken prisoner by our commercial culture? Fine. At least admit that it's been occupied.
Who do you want to be anyway? A boring old bah humbug or a Toys-R-Us kid?
Sure, we could exchange gift exemption vouchers
and pledge not to buy each other gifts. Or I could always donate to a
crucial charity in your honor. But what kind of fun is that!?!
In hopes of discovering a satisfactory compromise to this sticky
dilemma, I've decided to conduct an experiment. When I began asking
friends over to a holiday swap party, I expected some confusion and
maybe a little laughter. But even those unfamiliar with the idea of a
swap meet have embraced their invitations. It seems I'm not the only
one tired of going broke every winter, yet still feeling empty for it.
Instead we will all share things we've decided to live without or
artistic projects produced more to scratch a creative itch than serve
an actual purpose. We'll drink homemade eggnog and eat kolachi cookies
and we'll laugh. We'll enjoy each other's company and then we'll leave
with little pieces of our favorite people. No one will go into credit
card debt. And if nothing else, I'll get rid of those Bendy action
figures.
"The more you consume, the less you live," an Adbusters sticker poses.
I've yet to fully grasp this anti-slogan, but it's led me to consider
the sad irony that we're often so busy shopping for the people we love
that we don't have any time left to spend with them.
"Yes it's
cliché, but, the things most worth pursuing, and exchanging - love,
ritual, attention, sacrifice, freedom - are the things no one can buy,"
a Buy Nothing Day statement reads.
MediaChannel.org
