This year more than ever, nationwide boycotts are being called for in the big box stores.
Walmart, along with many other big corporations, will be open on Thanksgiving day to get a jump start on Black Friday. Many workers will not be able to spend the holiday with their families. Pay at Walmart and other big box stores is so low that many employees need food stamps and other government assistance to get by.
I’ve been boycotting both Walmart and Walgreens for years, along with many of my friends and colleagues. But I’m afraid that boycotting is not enough! I think we need to do something more dramatic and much more visible this Black Friday. Not just your regular run of the mill protest with signs and chants. Try a Whirl instead!
The first whirl was a a Walmart store in Troy NY on April Fool’s day in 2001. Here is the Wikipedia definition:
A Whirl is a culture jamming ritual aimed at retail superstores and described by participants as “art and action.”
An event consists of a group of supposed shoppers who congregate at a large superstore and slowly push empty shopping carts silently through store aisles. Participants will not purchase anything and seek to form a lengthy chain of non-shoppers, continually weaving and “whirling” through a maze of store aisles for up to an hour at a time. Participants describe their actions as “a collective reclamation of space that is otherwise only used for buying and selling”. Whirl-Marters seek to mimic and mock what they perceive as the absurdity of the shopping process.
In addition to being “just darned fun,” the activity provides a legal outlet for would-be protesters to address “cathedral(s) of consumption” like Wal-Mart. Consequently, experienced Whirl-Marters (when confronted by security or store management) do not admit to being protestors and instead maintain that they are engaged in a peaceful “consumption awareness ritual.” Whirl-Marters do not aim to block store aisles or interfere with legitimate shoppers, and typically will not speak unless addressed. Their aim is to create a non-disruptive, peaceful demonstration of how ridiculous they see Western consumerism to be. Participants are non-confrontational in seeking to make themselves silent examples rather than active propagandists.
I have participated in Black Friday / Buy Nothing Day whirls. They are great fun and can be an opportunity for personal transformation. As the Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping says, when it comes to shopping, we’re all sinners. Walking silently through a big box store gives you and opportunity for reflection on our national pastime of shopping. What its doing to us and to the planet on which we live.
I highly recommend organizing and participating in a Whirl this Black Friday.
Do it for the workers. Do it for the planet too.
