by Crimethinc. Workers' Collective
Available in 284 free installments
Owner:
Next, designate well in advance a good spot on the ceiling of the mall w^here your banner can hang down with optimum visibility in or in front of the store you are targeting but out of reach of security guards. At the time of the action, move quickly to the designated location, tie the balloons firmly to the upper kite rod, and release the banner. Be sure to test it out beforehand to make sure you have an adequate number of balloons for the weight of your banner.
Shortly before the test run that is described at the conclusion of this recipe, another affinity group launched a balloon banner in a corporate bookshop on their opening day. Two operatives entered the store separately one in civilian dress with a dowel and a rolled-up banner with loops in the top secreted separately on her person, the other dressed as a clown bearing balloons. As it was a festive occasion for the bookshop, the presence of the clown didn't attract unusual attention. The dowel was slipped into the banner, the banner was slipped to the clown, and the clown affixed the balloons to it and released it, making swiftly for the exit wdth the secret of his identity kept safe, thanks to his absurd getup.
Fliers
Corporate Dowrisizing 206
To complement the balloon banner, or as a separate action, print off massive quantities of fliers describing the corporation's exploitation of workers and the environment. "Whenever possible, try to include the testimonies of actual sweatshop workers instead of speaking for them; these can be found easily enough on the internet.
To distribute the fliers most effectively, we recommend placing them in folded clothing and posting tibem in dressing rooms (see Wheatpasting, pg. 598, and Sticker'mg, pg. 520), where hopefiilly customers will read them before they buy anything. Armed with a stack of fliers the right size, you can flll a pile of shirts or pants with remarkable ease and swiftness.
This is where the name badge and smile come in handy: prepare for your new job as a greeter! Stand just inside the door, and as customers walk in, smile and say something like, "Welcome to the GAP, where we bring you low prices by destroying the planet. Can I help you find something?" If you prefer a more subtle approach, try writing a slogan on your T-shirt and strOdng a pose with the mannequins?everyone loves a cute anarchist shovring off the latest fashions covered in handwritten slogans like "GAP: made for kids, by Idds," or simply the cleverly-modified logo "CRAP."
Greet the Customers
Beginning at high noon on a Buy Nothing Day some years ago, we executed all of the above ideas with about ten people.
The first part of the plan, which was intentionally omitted from the recommended ideas above, involved banners attached to a four-foot remote-controlled helium blimp. The gleaming silver vessel was powered by twin plastic propellers and said "US Navy" across the sides. For all its beauty, however, it was a problematic contraption from the beginning. When we taped the banners onto the sides, even though we had made them from very thin wrapping paper, they threw off the balance of the blimp so badly that we had to add an oversized party balloon to the top just to get it airborne. All of this added weight and air resistance, and rendered the once-efFective remote-controlled propellers totally useless.
Regardless, we pressed on with the plan and at precisely twelve o'clock a close friend and I burst through the doors of the food court and launched the banner blimp upward. We quickly blended into the huge crowd of day-after-Thanks giving shoppers and made discreet exits while the remote control was passed around our team of amateur pilots, who were already positioned at tables. The blimp made a few successful laps roughly three feet above the heads of the hungry shoppers. Amazingly, it failed to draw much attention to itself, but its banners? "stop consuming, start living" and
Account
You can tape a handwritten sign to any offensive vending machine to discourage those who intended to do business with it; "out of order" is an old standard, but "eats dollars" tells the honest truth about vending machines?working or broken.
You can use aerosol-can foam insulation to clog anything fronn bill acceptors to card readers.
You can send black-page faxes to your least favorite corporations to jam their lines and use up all the ink in their fax machines.
Corporate Dowmizing 207
To protect the youth from gender-role
brainwashing, you can switch the
voice boxes in gendered corporate
toys and return them to the shelves.
Corporate Downsizing 208
