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On Black Friday, a New Target: Occupy the Malls!
Nov 19, 2011
What's so effective about the Occupy movement is how it makes creative use of public space to get its message across.
For instance, the terrific techno-graffitti unleashed last night in New York, where protesters projected their message on to the Verizon Building without leaving a trace.
I have a idea for continuing this strategy, but with a new target: the great American MALL.
As you know, it's just one week until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when all good patriotic Americans are supposed to line up at the big box stores at dawn, credit cards in hand, ready to start the mad Christmas shopping rush.
This year it seems that the whole capitalist enterprise that fueled those crazy Christmas shopping binges has started to crack and sway.
I dimly remember why Christmas is associated with gift-giving--it had something to do with the Three Wise Men bearing gifts to the baby Jesus, right? But this American tradition of giving mountains of gifts to one another, competing with each other to buy the biggest, shiniest, best gift of all--that has nothing to do with the spirit of Christmas.
Myself, I prefer to celebrate the winter Solstice in this season, the day when the deepening darkness turns the corner of the equinox and we begin the long slow return to light and warmth.
I propose that this Black Friday, Americans should link arms with our family and friends and Occupy the malls of America. Instead of driving ourselves ever deeper into debt with those credit cards, we should protest the corporate policies of outsourcing that have made it so unusual to see American-made products for sale in American stores.
If we want to put America back to work, we are going to have to reinvent the whole economic model of globalization. It had a nice ring to it, back in the 1980s and 90s when it was being implemented, but it has turned out to be a catastrophic failure on more levels than I can count.
What's needed now is a re-localization: a return to locally based economies, all over the world. Let the Chinese manufacturer goods for themselves while we get American factories humming again.
But this time, let those factories be worker-owned cooperatives rather than top-down corporations--just like Gore-Tex or Clif Bar or Eileen Fisher, all big brands that are actually owned by their employees.
Let's gather in malls and shopping centers all across the U.S. on Black Friday and use the Thanksgiving holiday to push the corporations represented there to do what's right for America.
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Jennifer Browdy De Hernandez
Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez teaches comparative literature and gender studies with an activist bent at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, MA and blogs at Transition Times.
What's so effective about the Occupy movement is how it makes creative use of public space to get its message across.
For instance, the terrific techno-graffitti unleashed last night in New York, where protesters projected their message on to the Verizon Building without leaving a trace.
I have a idea for continuing this strategy, but with a new target: the great American MALL.
As you know, it's just one week until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when all good patriotic Americans are supposed to line up at the big box stores at dawn, credit cards in hand, ready to start the mad Christmas shopping rush.
This year it seems that the whole capitalist enterprise that fueled those crazy Christmas shopping binges has started to crack and sway.
I dimly remember why Christmas is associated with gift-giving--it had something to do with the Three Wise Men bearing gifts to the baby Jesus, right? But this American tradition of giving mountains of gifts to one another, competing with each other to buy the biggest, shiniest, best gift of all--that has nothing to do with the spirit of Christmas.
Myself, I prefer to celebrate the winter Solstice in this season, the day when the deepening darkness turns the corner of the equinox and we begin the long slow return to light and warmth.
I propose that this Black Friday, Americans should link arms with our family and friends and Occupy the malls of America. Instead of driving ourselves ever deeper into debt with those credit cards, we should protest the corporate policies of outsourcing that have made it so unusual to see American-made products for sale in American stores.
If we want to put America back to work, we are going to have to reinvent the whole economic model of globalization. It had a nice ring to it, back in the 1980s and 90s when it was being implemented, but it has turned out to be a catastrophic failure on more levels than I can count.
What's needed now is a re-localization: a return to locally based economies, all over the world. Let the Chinese manufacturer goods for themselves while we get American factories humming again.
But this time, let those factories be worker-owned cooperatives rather than top-down corporations--just like Gore-Tex or Clif Bar or Eileen Fisher, all big brands that are actually owned by their employees.
Let's gather in malls and shopping centers all across the U.S. on Black Friday and use the Thanksgiving holiday to push the corporations represented there to do what's right for America.
Jennifer Browdy De Hernandez
Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez teaches comparative literature and gender studies with an activist bent at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, MA and blogs at Transition Times.
What's so effective about the Occupy movement is how it makes creative use of public space to get its message across.
For instance, the terrific techno-graffitti unleashed last night in New York, where protesters projected their message on to the Verizon Building without leaving a trace.
I have a idea for continuing this strategy, but with a new target: the great American MALL.
As you know, it's just one week until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when all good patriotic Americans are supposed to line up at the big box stores at dawn, credit cards in hand, ready to start the mad Christmas shopping rush.
This year it seems that the whole capitalist enterprise that fueled those crazy Christmas shopping binges has started to crack and sway.
I dimly remember why Christmas is associated with gift-giving--it had something to do with the Three Wise Men bearing gifts to the baby Jesus, right? But this American tradition of giving mountains of gifts to one another, competing with each other to buy the biggest, shiniest, best gift of all--that has nothing to do with the spirit of Christmas.
Myself, I prefer to celebrate the winter Solstice in this season, the day when the deepening darkness turns the corner of the equinox and we begin the long slow return to light and warmth.
I propose that this Black Friday, Americans should link arms with our family and friends and Occupy the malls of America. Instead of driving ourselves ever deeper into debt with those credit cards, we should protest the corporate policies of outsourcing that have made it so unusual to see American-made products for sale in American stores.
If we want to put America back to work, we are going to have to reinvent the whole economic model of globalization. It had a nice ring to it, back in the 1980s and 90s when it was being implemented, but it has turned out to be a catastrophic failure on more levels than I can count.
What's needed now is a re-localization: a return to locally based economies, all over the world. Let the Chinese manufacturer goods for themselves while we get American factories humming again.
But this time, let those factories be worker-owned cooperatives rather than top-down corporations--just like Gore-Tex or Clif Bar or Eileen Fisher, all big brands that are actually owned by their employees.
Let's gather in malls and shopping centers all across the U.S. on Black Friday and use the Thanksgiving holiday to push the corporations represented there to do what's right for America.
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