Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

"swEATSHOPS=sLAVERY, BUY NOTHING!"?^were clearly legible. Then, suddenly caught in a gust from the heating vents, the bhmp was pushed into a giant neon fast food sign, where it stuck as its propellers spun powerlessly. A confused employee began beating it with a broomstick, and by the time it was dislodged it had sustained critical damage. Alas, despite a courageous attempt at re-launching, it was never to fly again, and a security officer dragged it through the crowd and into the mall office.

The blimp only lasted about ten minutes, but the sheer hilarious spectacle of it had raised our spirits. We quickly raUied at a meeting point in the parking lot where we divided 600 fliers between ourselves and retrieved the balloons and paper banners. We split up and re-entered the mall through different entrances; some of us headed to GAP, Abercrombie & Fitch, Sears, JC-Penney, and American Eagle to distribute the fliers, while three of us walked quickly toward the designated banner launch point.

1 was holding a bundle of six black and red balloons as I hustled through the jewelry department of a JC-Penney. I kept nervously glancing down at my watch, and was re-heved when 1 arrived under the GAP at precisely the same moment as my accomphces, who were carrying the banner and another six balloons. We quickly tied it all together and let it fly straight up to the vaulted glass ceiling. The long ribbons dangled the banner at a readable level that was totally unreachable by the grappling hooks that were soon thrust at it. Shoppers lined the sides of the walkways and stared up at the banner with open jaws. Many were holding our fliers in tiheir hands!

At this pouit, the security guards were frantically talking into their two-way radios and looking up at the balloon banner in disbelief Later, we found out that in hitting the glass the balloons had triggered a silent alarm. The banner was up for four hours until a large platform could be raised under it and security was finally able to pull it down. After the last of the fliers had been tucked away in corporate clothing and the extras thrown off" the second-floor balconies, and I had been kicked out of five separate clothing stores

(thus ending my career as a greater), we met back outside and celebrated an afternoon well spent. The consequences were minimal: some of us were banned from the mall for a year, one of us who had been working at a pretzel stand in the mall lost his job, and charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct were threatened but never filed.

Mall security cameras can be used effectively to identify participants after the event. Masks are an option to bear in mind, but that approach has drawbacks as well. Perhaps the clovm makeup described earlier is the best solution.

Engaging with customers directly can be surprisingly effective. The average shopper doesn't put too much thought into where her clothes are made, and will most likely be as outraged as you are once you share the testimonies of sweatshop workers wdth her.

Balloon banners fucking rock. Forget blimps: banners are more cost-effective, easier to aim, and more difficult for security to take down.

Lessons Learned

Corporate Downsizing 2og

Instructions

Plant in Fertile Ground

A recipe for Dandelions:

A lungful of air will spread the seeds. Manicured lawn becomes bed of weeds.

First things first: ask yourself whom you want to contact. Everybody? High school students? Potential political/social allies? A music scene? People like your grandmother? Go to the places where those people are. Do these people walk? Put posters on light posts. Do these people drive? Put stickers on the walls of a gas station bathroom. Soliciting for a Critical Mass (see Bicycle Parades, pg. loo)? Why not leave notes of appreciation announcing it on all the parked bikes in town?

If you only put fliers up at the local college and the record store, chances are you will only reach a particular demographic. If that's your goal, great. But if you want to involve people from outside your usual community, you have to make an effort, not just cross your fingers. Leave literature at the unemployment office. The Greyhound station. Planned Parenthood. The dressing rooms of department stores. Inside tabloids. Phone booths. Burger King. Yes, it might get thrown away. But someone will have to interact with your offering before that happens. For best results, tailor the language and format of your material to the target readership and context.