Steal Something Day

Posted by Krisztina
Filed in City
November 20, 2007

Buy Nothing Day rubs me the wrong way. Yeah yeah, consumerism is rampant and we in North America consume more than our fair share. I totally agree, but I don't see how buying my toilet paper on Thursday night instead of on Friday will change anything. By asking us to "participate by not participating" the folks at our favourite culturejamming magazine are ignoring the systemic forces of capitalism, neoliberalism, and multinationals and putting the onus on us as individuals. We just have to stop shopping (for one day) and that'll fix everything. Or at least we'll all learn something about our consumptive ways and live a little more simply afterwards. I'm all for the personal is political, but tackling the large issues of inequality and economic injustice has to be more than a symbolic one day fast from shopping.

It's the "perfect feel-good, liberal, middle-class activist non-happening" as the folks at Steal Something Day say so succinctly.

Enter Steal Something Day, the cheeky rebellious little sister to the self-righteous older Buy Nothing Day.

The folks at Steal Something Day (no real website or organization behind it, I just found it on facebook [facebook, the hotbed of anarchist organizing...]) urge folks to "participate by participating" - to look at "the historic and contemporary resistance against the causes of capitalist exploitation, not its symptoms"

Not that going out and stealing something on Friday will change anything either, but at least it's funny. At least it talks about the complexities of the issue.

How much does Adbusters pay for all those crappy BND commercials anyway?

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Is Breast Cancer awareness limited to the month of February? No. When the hoi polloi hear about Buy Nothing Day they are shocked. They don't understand. To you and me, it's obvious. BND isn't intended to shut down the economic system in one day, and it isn't even an attempt to send a message to big business; no one is counting. It is about looking at our impact. They never let the big guys off the hook. They never said 'it will solve everything'.

Posted by: Sean Orr at November 20, 2007 2:18 PM | Quote Comment

There's also Sell Nothing Day

http://www.blogto.com/fashion_style/2007/11/sell_nothing_day/

Posted by: Tim at November 22, 2007 7:36 AM | Quote Comment

Right: to what extent is a symbol useful? The only way that this will have any positive effect in reducing consumption is if a significant amount of the participants think along the lines of using the day as a way to learn how to solve problems in daily life without consuming more. The probable truth is that most participants see it in the light of alleviating the market for a day.

While people are quite aware that this one day will not solve the problems, the implementation of symbolic rallies does have its use. Promoting awareness and inviting the public to take the first step, if symbolic, doesn't hurt.

Posted by: Britt Tuckey at November 22, 2007 4:30 PM | Quote Comment

On November 23rd, 2007 I refrained from buying anything material. The idea behind examing what we buy on a daily basis is beautiful. It goes to show how many mindless purchases are made without thinking where it came from or what use it will have in the following weeks. I noticed this while I was walking through the mall and serving customers at my work. I knew I was not making a huge impact to the economy, but my personal benefit of experience and realization was key. I did not feel like a silly middle class do good activist, instead I became aware of the consumerist influences that surround us everyday.

Posted by: Alex at November 24, 2007 11:35 PM | Quote Comment

Amen, Krisztina! After all, isn't our relationship to capitalism based on our labour rather than our purchasing power? Which is why for the working poor, it's an insult to ask them to "Buy Nothing."

Buy Nothing Day is as effective as that "Make Poverty History" campaign - uh, how do we do that without talking about capitalism?

And in response to the first post, a lot of people "Buy Nothing" everyday. Cause their poor. And big business is still not listening.

Posted by: Sharmeen at December 4, 2007 6:17 PM | Quote Comment