Church of Stop Shopping's topics - tribe.net

Call for Art, Art Outside 2008, Austin TX

earth2LL — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:35:20 GMT

Calling ALL Artists For The 4th Annual Art Outside Brouhaha! March 6th – 16th 2008.
To take part in AO|08 Go Here- http://www.artoutside.org/

Ladies and gentlemen of the art world, we are seeking any and all creative humans who use their skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others. That is, we are looking for those whose life is art, and everything they do is DIY. We are searching for those who are creating the Hand-Made Nation. We are calling !ALL! make-believers, dreamers and reality re-arrangers. We are searching hi and low for lowbrow-urban-contemporary-pop-surrealism, pop art, op art, hard-edge, lyrical abstraction, post minimalism, which might be interpreted by some to mean that we are looking only for painters, but that is most definitely not the case. For you see, of course, we need masters of typography, sketchers, illustrators, satirical stencilers, screen printing is way cool, and yes, you too, graffiti fools. Least we forget every culture jammer in the hood. Do you manipulate earth/land/sand/plants/junk into art? Then we have a home for you.

Now, we know some of you may be thinking “What about Dadas’ Dadaists, though?” To this we say, but of course we are calling all inspired by DADA- for where would art be without fluxists, productivism, neoplasticism, pittura, metafisica, arbeitsrat and bauhaus. Well, we are looking for all of “you” from then and now, if any of you still are around. And one may wonder… What about the cubists? We say, “But of course.” Conceptualists? Indeed. Installationists? Please! One might ask if we are seeking anything that might fall under postmodernist modernist who are not distracted by abstractionists and other IST’S. Of course there is always impressionism, post-minimalism, pre-contemporaryism, and expressionism. Are you working in symbolism or surrealism or any of the other -isms that we have not yet mentioned? Well come on out. But wait that’s not all, that could not possibly be all this call for ARTE is all about? Well, Dali you’re right,

This call goes out to all kinetic sculptors, fire sculptors, sound artists bending invisible waves, and video projectionists playing with light. We must invite the minds of the poets and their spoken slam voices, along with improv comedians who mimic the true history of time. Or was that the klown? How can we forget about the klowns! Mimes? Performers “performing” art, puppeteers with their puppets, musicians making sounds. Oh, and least we forget outsider artists wanting to be outside.

In short, we invite all the conceivable movements, modes, and theories of art known to wo/man kind. We say to you, the Artisans of the world who wish to unite because the world needs ART, because the world’s not right. It is time, Your window of opportunity is now. Our space is your blank canvas. Your dreams are our inspiration. You and your art are invited to take part in this epic artistic endeavor.

The world may be going to hell… So let’s make some art.

To take part in AO|08 Go Here- http://www.artoutside.org/ao08faq.htm

P.S. If we happened to have forgotten any form of ART in this call for art then we do deeply apologize. Please note that you too are invited.

To take part in AO08 Go Here www.artoutside.org
& befriend us on myspace....
http://www.myspace.com/austinenchantedforest
http://www.myspace.com/artoutside

and on tribe...
http://tribes.tribe.net/austinenchantedforest

and check out...
http://www.austinenchantedforest.com

Support our Benefit For VALENTINES, Feb 14th and 15th
@ the United States Art Authority

http://www.austinenchantedforest.com/valentines.html
http://www.austinenchantedforest.com/antivalentines.html

and to truly stay “in tha know” sign up for our lo-fi no spam mailing list
http://www.austinenchantedforest.com/email_list.html

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What Would Jesus Buy?

djuna — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 23:07:04 GMT

Saw this documentary last night at the Roxie in SF.

AWESOME, definitely worth the $10 ticket I had to BUY to see it.

The Reverend is in town and answering questions after each showing at the Roxie!

WWJB is on again tomorrow (Sunday 09/30) at 7pm and Monday at 9:15pm.

http://docfest.withoutabox.com/festivals/event_item.php?id=10367

I HAVE JOINED THE CONGREGATION!!!!

Ps. There were a couple of things in the film I'd love to discuss if anyone else here sees it!

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 2 replies

robes!

Scout — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:08:52 GMT

Anybody in the bay area know a reasonable place to rent or borrow robes? I'm a teacher & am planning a billy-style action. Thanks!

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies

Streep to Narrate Starbucks Audiobooks

singingnymph — Wed, 24 May 2006 14:42:39 GMT

May 24, 8:36 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Meryl Streep is narrating a pair of children's classics, "The Velveteen Rabbit" and "The Night Before Christmas," that will be released later this year as audiobooks at Starbucks coffeehouses.

"This is continuing our commitment to providing customers with compelling family entertainment titles," Starbucks Entertainment President Ken Lombard told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The audiobooks feature musical accompaniment by George Winston, the Edwin Hawkins Singers and others. After an initial four-month run at Starbucks, Random House Inc.'s Listening Library will give the recordings a general release.

Starbucks Corp. has been expanding its entertainment offerings over the past few years, releasing CDs by Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones, among others, and promoting the movie "Akeelah and the Bee."

The company recently announced an alliance with the William Morris Agency, a talent and literary agency that will help Starbucks identify music, film and book projects to consider for marketing and distribution in its stores.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/STREEP_STARBUCKS?SITE=WILAC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Forest Ethics

singingnymph — Tue, 09 May 2006 01:38:41 GMT

Found this throught the Rev's site.
http://www.forestethics.org/

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Rapture Interruptus

singingnymph — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 17:22:07 GMT

I get the Stop Shopping blog via LJ & these pictures just made my day.
http://www.revbilly.com/blog/?p=248

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies

nice article

singingnymph — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:45:21 GMT

Ooh, a rich guy who gets it.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/17/paying_our_fair_share.php

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Scary Website

miriam — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 02:38:01 GMT

http://obsessiveconsumption.com/

Check it out.

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 1 reply

Rev Billy w/ Joan Baez, Bishop Joey...at Hurricane Katrina Memorial

amor — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:43:33 GMT

http://ia300135.us.archive.org/1/items/Joan_Baez_with_Rev._Billy_Bishop_Joey_in_songs_of_support_for_victims_of_Hurricane_Katrina/RevBillJoanBaezKatrinaMemBurningMan2K5.mov

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Rev Billy and Church of Stop Shopping mentioned in the UK Sunday Times

playabarbie — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 12:07:21 GMT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2056690,00.html

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Disney pics and protest

abjectphoto — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 03:23:36 GMT

http://www.stratecomm.net/~fritz/gallery/anaheim?page=1

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 3 replies

buy nothing xmas

singingnymph — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 09:48:31 GMT

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

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Rev Billy bus tour got into accident

abjectphoto — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 02:59:53 GMT

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=4213260

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 2 replies

How?

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:54:46 GMT

How did I not know about this tribe sooner?!?!?!?

The Rev Billy is my hero, my inspiration, my raison d'etre, my anti-christ!

The day he exorcised my credit-card, in the hallowed halls of the Castro Theater, is something my grandchildren's grandchildren will tell their grandchildren about.

They will sing songs and tell of the night he preached from high atop the Burning Man (well, atop a stage at the north wall anyway) and forever changed the course of human history.

I am humbled to be among the true believers, at last.

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Holiday gifts that won't inflame the gods of anti-consumerism

heidik — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:01:56 GMT

This holiday season I hope to shop as little as possible. It is so hard though to participate in the gift-giving without falling prey to the consumer frenzy that overcomes so many.

Please share your ideas for good gifts that don't require heavy shopping. I'm not the crafty vixen I'd like to be either, so if you have ideas that don't require serious crafty talents that's appreciated.

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 3 replies

Housing needs for December Tour!

papaki — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 00:29:39 GMT

I'm writing on behalf of Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. We are a diverse group of neighborhood defenders and community activists planning a cross-country stop shopping pilgrimage during the Christmas season. We will embark on a series of performances in theaters, malls, fields, parking lots, community centers and shopping centers as we make our way west from our homes in New York City to Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean just a few weeks from now. Our work is joyous but contains an urgent and very basic message. American Consumption is out of control. We address this problem creatively and compassionately, through performance, polemic and grassroots organizing.

We really need your help.

We are in need of overnight housing as we make our journey west. We are 25 singers, 5 musicians, 2 directors, 1 preacher, and a small documentary camera crew. I 'm sure you can imagine the prohibitive cost of housing a company of this size in motels and hotels. Frankly, this tour would not be possible if we went that route. But it's not just the money; we also think there is a great deal to gain from interacting with people inside their homes and communities as we travel. We learn what challenges you are facing and you learn the same from us. Talking and listening is the very most basic democratic process and the single most important grassroots tool we know of.

I invite you to visit our website www.revbilly.com to learn more about us and what we do. I welcome your calls anytime and look forward to discussing our work and answering any questions you may have.

We will be in Los Angeles on December 22, 23, 24, and 25. We will also be traveling to other spots beginning December 5th. If you have contacts in Minneapolis or Dallas, we would love to talk to you. If you would be willing to house between two and 30 members of our company during our stay please call or email Madeline Nelson at 917-538-7505, madeline.nelson@verizon.net

Because it is a tremendous act of faith to welcome people in your home I offer you a partial list of organizations and community groups we have worked with in the past for your general reference:

Global Exchange, UFCW, Walmart Watch, Unitarian Universalists, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Association, Institute for Local Self Reliance, War Tax Resistors, North Brooklyn Alliance. Code Pink, The Ecologist, Burning Man, Womens International League for Peace, Quaker Friends, SEIU, Adbusters, PICA. Students Against Sweatshops, Women in Black, Friends of the Earth, Organic Consumers Association, Green Party (national and local chapters), Equal Exchange, NO SWEAT coalition, Forest Ethics, The International Workers of the World, United for Peace and Justice, We Save Trees! and numerous universities and colleges.

Thank you so much for your time and hospitality!

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November events, Rev reading on the 10th

flactivist — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 00:06:00 GMT

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd call your attention to an opportunity to hear the Rev for free in Brooklyn. November is busy for the Church in NYC...Buy Nothing Day, a revival at St. Mark's the following Sunday, then the start of a cross-country tour! Hallelujah!

Vox Pop opens its doors to Reverend Billy, who will read to the Vox Populace from his book: *What Should I Do if Reverend Billy Is in My Store?* as well as the introduction he penned for the new edition of Abbie Hoffman's *Revolution for the Hell of It!* The Reverend will be joined by Harry Ram of the London-based *The Ecologist* magazine.

FREE!

VOX POP: Books, Coffee, Democracy
1022 Cortelyou Rd.
Brooklyn, NY 11218
Telephone: 718 940 2084

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Buy Nothing Day!

singingnymph — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 22:51:10 GMT

http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies

Reverend Billy Choir Auditions this thursday in NYC

abjectphoto — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 22:59:36 GMT

Tue, 4 Oct 2005 10:35:33 -0400

Subject: Reverend Billy Choir Auditions this thursday

Greetings choir and friends,

We are opening the choir up to new membership in order to gain more ethnic diversity and to help vocally balance our sections. We are seeking talented singers.

Cast your nets wide to spread the word. If your friends and associates cannot make Thursday's audition have them call anyway to set another date. Details below.

Peace and power,

James Solomon Benn, choir director

SEEKING HISPANIC, ASIAN and AFRICAN AMERICAN SINGERS

Singers of color sought for the OBIE-Award winning interactive gospel play "Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping."

We are Artists-in-Residence at the St. Mark's Church at 10th and 2nd Ave. in the East Village. The choir is now 30 voices, conducted by James Solomon Benn.

We audition singers on Thursday evening Oct 6, starting at 6 PM, in the Parish Hall of St. Mark's.

The door is around the right and to the back. Please come with one favorite song prepared a cappella(without accompaniment). To schedule your audition call 718 797 1749. We are touring across the country in December, and this will be taped for the creation of a feature documentary.

Singers cast now will be paid for their participation in our tour. Thank you.

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Frontline

abjectphoto — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 21:10:12 GMT

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/

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Is shopping a hobby?

BluePickleBicycle — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 23:34:15 GMT

I work at an elementary school and today I asked the kids to draw their hobby. Most of the boys drew skateboards and football teams and pretty much ALL of the girls drew SHOPPING BAGS!!! (moans in lament...) What are we going to do???

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 1 reply

9/16/05 Doonesbury

amor — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 19:55:38 GMT

Today's Doonesbury strip does include the magic phrase:

stop shopping [!]

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html

as in Bush saying: "If we stop shopping, the hurricane wins!"

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies

Retail Therapy?

Cody — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 04:48:03 GMT

Is buying shit really therapy? I know too many people who think that going to the mall or wherever to buy stuff will make them feel better. What is that?

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 3 replies

Village Voice article on Wal-Mart

abjectphoto — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 15:35:25 GMT

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0533,flee,66882,5.html

The New Movement Against Wal-Mart
Fresh blood joins the battle to keep the mega-retailer out of NYC
by Chisun Lee
August 16th, 2005 10:24 AM

Asi Klein of "Wal-Mart No Way!" talking to a passerby in Park Slope
Willie Davis/Veras
The hand-painted signs were still being propped up, but a small crowd had already gathered on the Brooklyn sidewalk. "We're organizing against Wal-Mart," announced Peter Sikora, 30, as he struggled to unfold a portable table on an 85-degree Saturday.
Passerby Lupita Gonzalez dove for a clipboard and filled in her contact information before even reading the literature. When Sikora told her about the group Wal-Mart No Way's call-in campaign, Gonzalez pulled out her cell phone and dialed 311.

"Wal-Mart discriminates against women and destroys good jobs, and it would take away business from local businesses. I don't want it here," she told the operator, who promised to get her message to the mayor's office. Gonzalez, 34, like Sikora, lives on the increasingly trendy strip of Fifth Avenue in northern Park Slope, near two sites the retail supergiant is rumored to be considering for its first store in the city.

The nation's largest retailer, with $285.2 billion in annual sales at the most recent count, and largest private employer, with 1.2 million workers, has not yet planted its flag in the five boroughs. But it is on a mission to conquer. It is buying full-page ads in community newspapers like the Park Slope Courier to woo the city's consumers. It has won over Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro and some of the City Council, and it is working on skeptical pols like Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz. It is assessing traffic flow, shopping patterns, and low-wage labor supply, as it does whenever it gets serious. The one thing it has stopped doing is revealing its dream locations. "New York is a very viable marketplace," said spokesperson Mia Masten, "but we don't have any particular sites in mind."

That caginess comes of lessons learned. The suburban behemoth is increasingly provoking communities' fury as it ventures into urban markets. Two months after it declared designs on a Rego Park, Queens, site last December, its plans were sunk by a steely coalition of labor, neighborhood, and small-business forces.

Accusations involve every issue that could possibly apply to a multinational retail corporation: sweatshop wages and factory conditions overseas, child labor here and abroad, increased traffic, environmental destruction, systemic discrimination against women, poverty-level domestic pay, and fervent union busting. Anti-Wal-Mart blogs and websites number in the dozens. All the major unions have an anti-Wal-Mart position or campaign, as do many social-justice groups and elected officials. Thousands of newspaper and television reports and numerous books have chronicled people's ire.

Yet despite the universe of opposition, Wal-Mart has proved nearly invincible. Even after years of hot pursuit by organized labor, not a single one of Wal-Mart's 3,600-plus U.S. stores, employing 1.2 million Americans, is unionized. Wal-Mart continues to dwarf every other corporation in sales, raking in $285.2 billion in its fiscal year ending January 2005. Its stock price had recently stagnated, but it announced plans to re-energize by opening up to 335 new stores in the U.S. this year.

Opponents believe if New Yorkers give it an inch, Wal-Mart will take the whole city. They want to ward off the enemy at the gates. "If Wal-Mart got in, it would take over and become the only place most people could afford to shop," said Sikora, a Cornell graduate who works at a consumer rights group. His aim is to draw more young, liberal professionals like himself—the type who might have campaigned for John Kerry and who wield some political and possibly financial muscle—into a vanguard previously composed of old-school community boards and unions.

Tabling in hipster areas, some 20 to 30 regular volunteers have signed over 1,000 potential reinforcements to an e-alert list and sold hundreds of $20 T-shirts to raise money for a television ad. Now an official nonprofit, they have gotten repeated coverage in the community newspapers where Wal-Mart has bought full-page ads.

But even with fresh blood, Sikora acknowledges, the odds against the resistance are "enormous."

'The hidden cost of cheap underwear'

Matteo Manzella, a meat cutter with Local 342 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, hung out at the sidewalk stand with Sikora and crew on his way to work an afternoon shift at the nearby Key Food. Looking not unlike Hulk Hogan, he proclaimed, "Wal-Mart's got low wages, discrimination, and no benefits! They literally tell their employees to go on welfare for benefits!"

Wal-Mart dismisses UFCW as a selfish "third party" conspiring to gouge consumers with pricey groceries. But those less than dirt-cheap prices enable Manzella to earn a decent living and "great benefits." As a result, he said, he's more than happy to "do a custom order" for any shopper. In 2000 a tiny fellowship of 10 meat cutters in Texas became the only Wal-Mart workers ever to hold a successful vote to unionize. The company eliminated their jobs and stocked factory-cut meat.

"I don't buy nothing from Wal-Mart anymore. I buy all my fishing gear from other places now," Manzella declared.

The activists believe that promoting Manzella's underlying message—that shopping at Wal-Mart has human consequences—is crucial to countering any support the retailer's ads may be stirring among consumers. This month volunteer Daniel Stolzman, who works in film, shot a slick, fast-paced television spot to convey just that point. Eschewing hokey PSA fare for a rather suspenseful narrative, the ad will invite viewers to sign up at the group's URL, wal-martnoway.org. It will urge residents to contact Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and it is set to debut as the city's election season heats up this fall.

Some of the money to fund the ad was raised at a recent mixer hosted by a wealthy friend of Sikora's fiancée and fellow organizer, Claire Tuck, a law student. In an art-filled apartment in the West Village, UFCW organizer Ed Lynch explained, "We're trying to bring together many, many different groups." He sipped a beer with his buddy from the iron workers' union as young professionals edged past with their pastries and wine to catch the view from the 11th-floor terrace. He said UFCW, along with others from the city's Central Labor Council, had begun a multipronged offensive, leafleting at the Staten Island ferry, recruiting support on stretches of mom-and-pop shops, and lobbying pols.

"But we decided this couldn't just be a union-focused campaign," said Lynch. The fight is just too large, he said. "We're trying to educate the consumer. If you think about why that $300 bike is only $159—that it was assembled, probably by a child overseas, definitely by someone who could never afford to buy it—it's harder to want that bike." He leaned in and whispered, "I'm saving this for my speech later, but you have to think about the hidden cost of buying cheap underwear."

The few localities that have successfully fended off Wal-Mart have benefited from clearer-cut battles and smaller, more efficiently aroused constituencies. In Guelph, a town in Canada, opponents have kept the retailer away from its desired location, next to a longtime Jesuit retreat, through 10 years of activism and court battles.

More famously, the low-income, mostly minority community of Inglewood, just west of Los Angeles, trounced the corporation in its first foray into urban America. In 2004 the retailer tried to skirt the land-use approval process by forcing a voter referendum. Despite spending $10 million and boasting that consumer demand would prevail, Wal-Mart won less than 40 percent of the vote.

And recently in Chicago, one proposed Wal-Mart store was rejected by the city council after much local protest, while another was approved. Cities such as San Francisco have enacted bans on the retailer's "supercenter" models, which sell groceries and reportedly take up areas the size of 17 football fields.

'Reputational issues'

Wal-Mart is trying to turn on the charm. Recently its Northeast rep, Philip Serghini, 36, suggested meeting at a Starbucks a few blocks from his home on East 10th Street in Manhattan. "We don't have offices in the city," he explained. He was fit and tan, like a less beefy Ken doll, dressed sportily and toting a backpack. Declaring "I have to try it," he sipped a green-tea Frappuccino as he explained that the cacophony of anti-Wal-Mart criticism does not reflect real wrongdoing so much as the company's "Pollyannaish" neglect of image management. "We recognize we have reputational issues," he said.

He echoed a company comment in a July Wall Street Journal profile of CEO Lee Scott that the quarter-trillion-dollar multinational corporation had been "naive." Shrinking violet no longer, the corporation now has answers for everything, many of which can be found at its public relations website, walmartfacts.com.

On union busting, Serghini punted to his superior Mia Masten. Via cell phone she insisted that none of the 1.2 million employees "want to be unionized." The company touts an "open-door" culture where management embraces complainers. A simple Google search will turn up countless accounts to the contrary. Masten stressed, "We're the norm. Our competitors aren't unionized." But as a recent Times report detailed, competitor Costco pays workers an average of $17 an hour—nearly twice Wal-Mart's average—along with affordable health benefits and a relatively generous pension plan, permits unions, and still turns a hefty profit.

On gender discrimination, Wal-Mart last week tried an ironic flip on the David-Goliath image, asking a federal appeals court to dismiss the famous class-action lawsuit. It claimed that there are just too many plaintiffs—about 1.5 million women—for the company to defend itself against allegations of unfair denial of promotions and lesser pay. No matter that the size of the class is in direct proportion to the size of the mammoth employer. The appeal aside, Wal-Mart claims to have implemented "leadership seminars designed specifically for women" and to have launched other "diversity initiatives."

On sweatshop conditions, publicity materials state, "We require suppliers to ensure that every factory conforms to local workplace laws and that there is no illegal child or forced labor." Critics argue that some countries' "local" standards would seem cruel here, and that Wal-Mart should use its heft to better conditions, not drive down the bottom line.

Wal-Mart's reps complain that its sheer size makes it the easiest target in the world. Its size, however, also turns any of its questionable practices into problems of tremendous, even global, scale. A Pulitzer Prize–winning 2003 Los Angeles Times series documented how Wal-Mart's entry into a market depresses wages generally and shuts down competition, eliminating jobs. It tracked how the company's demand for ever lower prices from suppliers pushes manufacturing overseas, where faster, cheaper production is squeezed from third-world workforces.

Surprisingly, on the issue of domestic wages, Serghini offered some brutal honesty. Although he boasted that Wal-Mart is the nation's leading employer of blacks and Latinos, he explained that the routine hourly gigs most of them have—$9.68 an hour for full-timers and likely much less for part-timers—were never meant to support families. The company acknowledges that many full-time workers will probably earn less than $20,000 per year, while critics have gone as low as $11,700. Said Serghini, "We hire nontraditional employees—hundreds of thousands out of high school, a huge bloc of seniors."

Moreover, he continued, "Are the benefits we offer rich benefits? They're probably not the richest benefits in the world."

But he bristled at the widespread criticism that Wal-Mart workers should not have to seek public health benefits but do, or that it is wrong that some of them reportedly rely on food stamps. The company provides less than half of its workers with health coverage.

"We don't put people on welfare. We get them off welfare," he said. "We pay what the market will bear."

'How bad does it have to get?'

Many might say Serghini has a point. In a city with over 400,000 on public assistance, the prospect of an estimated 300 new jobs per Wal-Mart store—assuming competitors stayed in business—cannot be lightly dismissed.

Above all, Serghini said, there is a real hunger in the city for deep discounts. He said that, this April, nearby Wal-Marts had tallied $96 million in sales the previous year to city residents. A recent company-sponsored survey showed 62 percent of 800 city respondents wanting stores closer by.

Wal-Mart describes its cut-rate pricing as if it were doing the work of God. Or Marx. "These savings are a lifeline for millions of middle- and lower-income families who live from payday to payday," claimed CEO Scott in one newspaper ad. "Wal-Mart acts as a bargaining agent for these families—achieving on their behalf a negotiating power that they would never have on their own. Wal-Mart harnesses the collective clout of ordinary Americans to make their lives better."

Such collective bargaining power is precisely what critics say Wal-Mart workers need, but not to buy discount socks. Said community advocate Vivian Rothstein, who helped lead the Inglewood fight, "It's circular. People get shitty wages from Wal-Mart, and then they have to shop at Wal-Mart." Scott likened the discounts to giving "a raise" to customers, but Rothstein argued the company's own workers need an actual raise—and the resulting freedom to shop occasionally at, say, Nordstrom.

But losing patience with questions about low wages, Wal-Mart's Serghini finally exclaimed, "If our wages are too low, then government should set the minimum at $20!" The company constantly points out that the federal minimum is only $5.15 an hour.

One of Wal-Mart's most public critics agrees, at least in the sense that government must step up. Congressman George Miller of California, whose widely circulated February 2004 report excoriated the retailer's employment practices, said last week, "Wal-Mart illustrates how easy it is to exploit the weaknesses in our labor laws. They must be strengthened." He said the place to begin was by increasing the penalties employers face for squashing workers' attempts to organize—fines that big companies eat as a cost of business. Without a stronger collective voice, Miller said, workers will continue to be victimized.

"The question is, how bad does it have to get before we get to the point of reform?" he said. With Wal-Mart now the leading corporate contributor to political candidates, most of them employer-friendly Republicans, that day may be quite distant.

Democrats have said that if more higher-income voters expressed their solidarity, reform might become more palatable to politicians. That is where the new New York City crew hopes to come in.

Brooklynite Lupita Gonzalez called back 311 to make sure her views had been reported. But she was told that, without her "service request number," her complaint could not be tracked. The mayor's office would not comment beyond regurgitating Bloomberg's response from March, when he was publicly cornered by reporters. The pro-developer billionaire said then, "This city should be open to everybody. And if you don't want to go to work for somebody, don't. If you don't want to shop there, don't."

He is, obviously, unlikely to support the Wal-Mart No Way campaign. But even successful resisters elsewhere realize it will be a constant battle to keep the giant at bay. In the meantime, they are capitalizing on the company's unintended effect—the diversification and energizing of local activism—to enact stronger processes for community control of labor standards and development.

Said Sikora, "Wal-Mart should be careful what it wishes for. If the company sneaks a store by, the opposition that they face in this city will just snowball."
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More by Chisun Lee

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Shopalujah!

amor — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 02:41:50 GMT

Anyone going to see the Reverend and his church tonight at the Victoria Theatre in SF?

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies

REV BILLY and NIGHT OF THE IGUANA at Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In

ricothunder — Tue, 31 May 2005 07:02:43 GMT

A special GDI feature, not only mid-week, but in a downtown location. What draws us out on a Thursday night? Why, Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, of course. Don't miss this dynamic evening of redeption and jubilation. Note the downtown location.

Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In Special Event

The Night of the Iguana
with Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir

Night of the Iguana is John Houston's masterpiece adaption of the Tennessee Williams play. A defrocked preist who's lost his faith, a lascivious widow, a lonely middle aged woman, a beautiful 17 year old nymphomaniac, a poet on the verge of death, and a gorgeous Mexican coastal paradise.They are united in that they are divided, in that they are all tortured souls seeking beauty, life, meaning and engaged in battles to stand tall, to live with integrity and love. On a hot, cloying night, a night of the iguana, when all their ropes snap taut, they meet. In glorious black and white.

Plus we'll be joined by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir who will bring their own special entertaining blend of spirituality and activism. Throughout its seven year existence the Church of Stop Shopping has fought Starbucks, Disney, Walmart (to name a few) promoting independent businesses and gift, thrift and barter economies; encouraging the survival of our neighborhoods; and giving a voice to countless sweatshop workers worldwide. More on Rev. Billy's past visits to Santa Cruz at tinyurl.com/7myvr

PLUS selected shorts, community goings-on, good company, and an intermission.

Thursday June 2nd, 8:00pm
Under the Soquel Ave Bridge, Santa Cruz

BRING lawn chairs, blankets, pillows, friends, wine, & food to share for intermission. Donations are greatly appreciated and directly support the project and the Revolutionary Garden Society who sponsors Guerilla Drive-In. (We are currently saving to get a spare projector bulb.)

SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is exactly what it sounds like -- an outdoor movie theatre under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Guerilla Drive-In is helping reclaim public space and transform our urban environment into the joyful playground we deserve.

SPECIAL SHOWING LOCATION: S on Hwy 17 to Hwy 1, L on River St, L on Soquel, park a ways away (not in the Royal Taj lot), we're under the bridge

MORE INFO summer schedule & do-it-yourself: www.thespoon.com/drivein

BREAKING NEWS: Join our low-volume Guerilla Drive-In announcement list:
guerilla-drive-in-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. Tell a friend, eh?

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies

Start Stopping!

miriam — Wed, 05 Jan 2005 04:35:13 GMT

I was so excited to find this tribe a minute ago. And then, I realized you all've stopped. And not just with the shopping!

So Stop Stopping, and Start Stop Shopping!

Um, I'll stop with that, if you write. And that's a threat.

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 2 replies

Buy Nada

guacamoleairlines — Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:49:24 GMT

Anyone home here?

Anyone want to help expand on my buy nothing day idea:

1. Dress in orange (jail) jumpsuit with handcuffs
2. Hand out fliers that say "Reverend Billy went to jail for your sins"
This will be in Union Square, San Francisco on Friday, 11/26.

I need help with flier design.

Thank you.

posted in Church of Stop Shopping - 0 replies