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Operation Hey Mackey! – Whole Foods, Oakland
It was a beautiful Friday night in Oakland.
California that is.
Things were going swimmingly at the Oakland Whole Foods.
Operation Hey Mackey! - Whole Foods, Oakland from Jamie LeJeune on Vimeo.
And then at 6 p.m., musicians started arriving.
More than 40 of them.
Trombone.
Clarinet.
Drums.
Singers.
And they gathered in the back of the store.
And began singing a song.
It was a take off of Toni Basil's 1982 pop hit "Hey Mickey."
(Hey Mickey You're So Fine
You're So Fine You Blow my Mind
Hey Mickey
Hey Mickey.)
But these were former Whole Foods shoppers.
Boycotters now.
Who were turned off by the CEO, John Mackey, when he pronounced in August in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that health care was not a human right.
So, they adapted the song - just for him.
"Hey Mackey, you're a swine, you're a swine, you blow my mind, Hey Mackey."
"Oh Mackey what a pity, you don't seem to care."
"We're not as rich as you, but we still need healthcare."
"Oh Mackey you're so greedy can't you understand."
"It's guys like you Mackey"
"What you do, what you do Mackey"
"Don't break my heart Mackey."
Max Bell Alper, a union organizer for AFSCME, was one of the organizers of the Whole Foods musical protest in Oakland.
"We were all disappointed in Mackey's Wall Street Journal op-ed," Alper said. "We came up with this song, got some musicians together, choreographed a dance number, and we went to Whole Foods in Oakland and did it."
The group handed out flyers that read in part:
"Whole Foods is sickening . . . Sustainability cannot endure without preserving the dignity and health of not only the planet but our fellow people."
Alper said that customers reacted positively to the musical protest.
"There were people who came up to us afterward and told us - you are right, I'm going to boycott Whole Foods also," Alper said. "Or they would say - I was boycotting Whole Foods after Mackey made his statement, then I started slacking, now you have shaken me up, and I'm going to start boycotting again."
Alper said that the employees were most excited - "they came from behind their counters and started clapping along with us."
Alper said that Whole Foods managers are regularly given training on union avoidance.
"That's code for union busting," Alper said.
Oakland police and homeland security police were called - but there were no arrests.
22 Comments so far
Show AllNice.
Great performance and message...perhaps their next stop could be in front of the offices of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein to remind them that single-payer health care is the only real HEALTH CARE REFORM, a public option open to all US citizens is a MARGINAL COMPROMISE, and every other "health care reform" scheme the legislative and executive branches or the US gov. are advocating are HEALTH CARE DEFORMED.
Nancy Pelosi is one of the strongest supporters out there for a fair and strong future Health Care Plan. It was Nancy Pelosi who gave (July 31, 2009) Single Payer a voice. Google Congressman Anthony Weinder and Nancy Pelosi and health care. Ed Schults is giving Pelosi credit where credit is due. She's the left's strongest supporter on healh care. Pelosi is fighting for a strong Public Option and for Single Payer. She's getting a bad rap, she doesn't deserve it. She does support Progressives. Harry Reid, now that's another question. Something is wrong with that man.
Um, Pelosi is my rep. Trust me, that broad is no leftist. She needs to be voted out of office. She takes just as much HMO slush money as the rest of the corrupt congresscritters.
Oakland rocks !!!!
Unlimited spending to protect us from terrorists but limited spending to protect us from illness. Don't it make 'ya proud!
I love it! Reminds me of the musical protests of the 60s and 70s that appealed to our better natures and still accomplished change.
More power to the Musicians! DIRECT ACTION is always good and this musical assault should be followed by much more DIRECT ACTION and lots of letters to Mr Maggot, er Mr Mackey.
I have left Mr Maggot quite a few letters. I am a BOYCOTT MYSTERY SHOPPER and each and every one of you can, and should, be one, too. It is easy and fun. You can do it alone, with a friend or friends!
Simply enter Whole Frauds and do your regular shopping, but go ahead and splurge. Toss in those obscure and crazy-expensive items from the top and bottom shelves, and make sure the frozen food is on the bottom of the shopping cart. See how fast you can fill the cart to overflowing; then, slip your pre-written letter to Mr Maggot where the melting blueberries won't ruin the letter, park your cart, and walk out of the store. Be sure to mention to Mr Maggot that the melting mess is what you WOULD HAVE PURCHASED had he not been such as ass, and Bored Directors not such spineless wimps. Trust me, it creates LOTS OF WORK for the working folks at Whole Frauds (win-win) AND it hits the Maggot in his fiscal testicles (win-win); kind of death by a thousand cuts, or "a thousand carts." I know it is Aggressive-Passive but Direct Action always rocks and my source "inside" Whole Frauds tells me workers LOVE it and MANAGEMENT cringes each time they get a drippy letter for Mr Maggot. What else can one person do that HELPS workers and HAMMERS the Maggot?
JOIN THE FUN and vote with your feet! Be a MYSTERY BOYCOTT SHOPPER TODAY! And while you are at it....Go ahead and be one tomorrow and the next day too! Make it a party!
This is great! Thanks to everyone who took part!
Brilliant! Guerrilla theatre is one of most powerful weapons in non-violent struggle. And this is G.T. at its best! Thank you, Operation Hey MacKey!
"It was a beautiful Friday night in Oakland.
California that is."
Yeah, things weren't so nice in the other, less well-known Oakland.
homeland security police !!!?
TLR
This caught my attention, too. Will they become the ensurers of corporate tranquility? Frightening possibility.
Nice production. The fade-out, with the bystander reading their flyer while the band marches off into the distance, was hilarious.
Well played, folks.
I've wondered where the youth of this country has been. I just sent out a link to this article/video to 25 friends and activists.
I loved it. It brought a tears. Wonderful, fun, creative, bold. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It warms the heart. Imagine what sick people will feel when they see the youth of this country standing up for them. Each and every one of these young adults’ parents should be proud beyond words. They’re leaders.
I wondered if a bunch of 50 and 60 something hippies tried to pull this off if the difference would have been that they would have been fined and/or put in jail.
Whole Foods probably realized what type of backlash it would have been to their organization if these young adults were thrown in jail. The public out cry would have been overwhelming. A business killer. Now, if MacKey would just give the Wall Street a retraction. Say he thought it over and he was wrong, and that health care is a human right. If not, let there be more impromptu anti Whole Food concerts in more cities down the road.
Could somebody sponsor these people and send them around the country touring Whole Foods? ABC, NBC, CBS... Fox LOL! Why not? I bet your ratings would go up? Great job Common Dreams. Thank you too.
That. Is. Brilliant!
Oh it makes you want to shout!
Joe
Oakland has SPIRIT.....where are the rest of the liberals in cities like mine..on the west coast...and the resistance and embarrassment that we must launch against WHOLE PAYCHECK??? I have done my own little protest out in front of my local market one day and people would come by and say "Yeah, I know, but it is so close to my house....and I don't normally do the bulk of my shopping here." Well, dollars equate to support...one dollar or one hundred dollars...I live a few blocks away too...but the only thing I do when I go in their store is take a DUMP in their bathroom! That is how I feel about them!!!
Beautiful.
Good post.
Maybe people are beginning to understand that it was the unions that built middle America providing health care, safe working conditions and even week end time off.
Heathcare is not listed in the constitution as a human right but it is a humane and morally right responsibility.
Whole Foods (FRAUDS) is, and always has been, a yuppie health food drug store for the rich. Those who do not care about others having health care will continue to spend lots of money there, but others will, and get more people to, boycott this selfish, anti-union health food drug store. Economic power is political power in this sick, greedy, American society. F-ck Whole Foods and their corporate ways.