by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
Another thing to watch out for is rat poison. The odd shop owner will sometimes pour bleach or other lethal substances onto the edible goodies outback to deter the presence of our fellow dumpster divers, rats. Sometimes you can smell it, and sometimes there will be discoloration on the packaging. Be sure to inspect your score.
Don't feel pressure to use or eat everything you retrieve from the trash?it's not your job to metabolize away the sins of our whole spendthrift civilization. In the case of those nutrient-free sugar cookies, remember?some things are in fact trash, from the very moment they're produced. Don't put them in your body?do what it takes to shut down the industries maniacally producing such junk.
In the opposite situation, where you really need something but the ones holding it hostage won't oblige you by throwing it away, you can expedite the process by doing so yourself inside their establishment, or damaging it so they wall for you. In a related instance, one of us once got caught scamming massive quantities of photocopies from a copying corporation that purported to recycle their waste but in fact did not. All the precious fliers and 'zines she had produced were confiscated, but we dumpstered them back later that night.
In the stimmer of 2000, foUovvdng my first few years of dumpstering and the attendant case of pack-ratitis, I found myself caught up in a great purging, an elimination of all the objects choking up my home. It started one Saturday afternoon around 1:00 p.m. as a simple room-cleaning, but sifiing through the layers of dumpstered knickknacks I started to set items aside that had to be returned to the source from whence they'd come. By 2:00, things had changed: I was throwing out cassette tapes and dirty clothes. By 2:45 1 was throwing away stacks of things I meant to mail to people, entrusting them to the other postal system. Soon I realized this was more than a mere physical cleansing of my dwelling space; it had become something primal, something that had to he done.
Epilogue
If You're Not Careful Backlash!
Dumpster DiV/og 227
You can take fruit that is about to
go rotten and freeze it to mai<e
smoothies, or mash it up to make
fruit crisps or pie filling.
If all that dumpstered fruit attracts
fruit flies, you can control the
situation with carnivorous plants.
Dumpster Diving 22S
At 3:00 I started in on the home furnishings, and then the pots and pans. By 9:00 a.m. the next morning, my house was completely empty. I threw out all of my belongings as well as those of my brother, who was away for the weekend. I threw out the shelves from the refrigerator, and then dragged it onto to the street as well. The experience was simultaneously terrifying and Hberating.
A few minutes later, as I lay naked and shivering on the bare floor trying to fall asleep, I looked out the window and saw my friend Jason digging through our trash, my old sneakers in one hand and the thrill of discovery on his face.
Effigies
Cardboard Cloth Paint Paper mach6
Tape
Industrial stapler
Rope
Whateveri
A PUBLIC SETTING RIPE FOR
TRANSFORMATION A DEPLOYMENT TEAM
ingredients
In this country, effigy-making has a rich radical heritage that stretches back to before the first American Revolution. If you can't actually overthrow, pummel, or set fire to your oppressor, it can certainly be heartening to do so to a surrogate; this is good for morale, and also helps provide visibility for your discontent. That visibility can be dangerous?authorities and counter-revolutionaries will do their best to enforce even symbolic respect of their idols?so be sure to deploy your effigy with plenty of supporters around, or a plan for escape; but such visibility can also be useful, not only to incite your fellows, but also to gauge and perhaps influence the sentiments of others.
One well-known effigy format that benefits from its festive character is the pinata. Filled with candy or other goodies, associated with a participatory game that everyone wins, pinatas can be at once radical and accessible in every way For a stirring report of such effigies in action, read the account following the Distribution, Tabling, and Infoshops recipe (pg. 210). On the other hand, other situations may call for something more direct: the day a war starts or the results of a rigged election are announced, it might be appropriate to take to the streets and set fire to an effigy of a political or military figure. Imag-
instructions
