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Buy Nothing Day 1998:
International contacts and activities
Send corrections, additions and other news toLast update November, 23th, 1998
AUSTRALIA
Friday, November 27th: 'Buy Nothing Day'
Contact: The Environment Centre of Western Australia, PO Box 7375, Cloisters Square, WA 6850, Perth, Australia
AUSTRIA
Friday, November 28th: 'Kauf Nix Tag'
Contact: Ronny Wytek, A-1040 Vienna, Johann-Straussgasse 33/7 Email:
Activities: We are a small group, celebrating BND on a famous "shopping highway" in Vienna. People who come along will get (waste)paper with "kauf nix" (buy nothing) written on it. Last year we made good experiences with this. One of us will be dressed as Santa Claus (moral instance). Maybe we will make some street theatre. Others will wear large sandwich-boards with information on it. We will make music. We meet at 10.30 at 1060 Vienna, Mariahilfer Strasse 75.
BELGIUM
Saturday, November 28th: 'Niet-Winkeldag'
GENERAL CONTACT: Netwerk Vlaanderen vzw, Inez Louwagie, (network for alternative economy and fundraising for grassroots- organisations) Vooruitgangstraat 333/9, 1030 Brussel, Belgium. Email:
Activities:
ANTWERPEN a group of at least ten people, dressed as professional sales-executives (men in black, GSM, suitcases) will sensibilize hundreds of people at their salespoint, a real market car. The customers may look al all the cheap prized, high-tech, attractive goods, but buying is strictly forbidden! Folders will be spread around. Location: Meir: main-shopping street in Antwerp, at 14:00. Organisation: Young Greens - Open Ecological Progressive Students (OEPS!) at the University of Antwerp. Contact: Knut De Swert or Gerben Granzow Email: or: [email protected]
GENT: symbolic streettheatre in the main shoppingstreet (org: Netwerk); leafletting and adjust shop-window in the Oxfam-shop (org: Oxfam Wereldwinkel - fair trade shop); Youth for Nature and Ecology (Jeugdbond voor Natuurstudie en Milieubescherming) will perform streettheatre in coordination with the Netwerk- action.
LEUVEN: streettheatre at 14h in the Diestsestraat, at the statue of de Warme Bakker. (Org: Netwerk).
Other contact:
GENT - Kenneth Flipo, Postbus 361, 9000 Gent 1, Belgium. Phone: (+32)-9-233-1666. Email: (mention: Kenneth).
CANADA
Friday, November 27th: 'Buy Nothing Day'
GENERAL CONTACT: The Media Foundation, Allan MacDonald and Kalle Lasn, 1243 W, 7th Avenue, Vancouver BC V6H 1B7, Canada. Phone: (+1)604.736.9401. Fax (+1)604.737.6021. E-mail: Internet: http://www.adbusters.org
Activities: Vancouver: a veritable hotbed of 'Buy Nothings', the city is being postered, press alerted, crowds gathered. 'critical mass' geared up and activists summoned. The performance artist dubbed 'Chiclette', the Posh Urban Piglet, will be released and left to trough through the shopping mud. Somewhere in America a banner of epic proportions will be unfurled where you most expect it... Adbusters has purchased a number of 30-second Buy Nothing Day TV spots, which will appear om CNN Headline News during the week leading up to November 27th.
QUEBEC: Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia University (QPIRG Concordia) Michael Caplan, 2130 Mackay, room 101, Montreal, Quebec H3G 2JI, Canada. E-mail:
Activities: education on ecological economic alternatives, ecological economics teach ins, BND-Christmass carolling (song-texts available in French and English!), a huge barter, street theatre.
TORONTO: Toronto Action for Social Change (TASC), Brian Burch P.O. Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West Toronto, ON M6C 1C0, Canada Phone: (416) 651-5800; E-mail:
Activities: probably two BND/corporate hypocrite combined actions during the week leading up to BND (targetting Anderson Consulting and Loblaws). Contact Brian Burch.
Other contacts:
The Wellness Foundation, Jeremy Wright. Phone: (+) 001-749-3379. Email:
The World Bussiness Academy, Ottawa Chapter, Kendel Rust, Phone: (+) 001-749-3336. Email:
The Quality for Life Network, Mark Jowett. Phone: (+) 001-594-8503. Email:
Karen Hill, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. E-mail:
FINLAND
Saturday, November 28th: 'Ala osta mitaan -paiva'
GENERAL CONTACT: Friends of the Earth Hameenlinna - Finland attn: Ville Aho, HaMY, c/o PL 31, 13101 HML, Finland Email:
(Ville Aho: c/o Sami M.J. Nieminen. Kaivokatu 24B23, 13100 Hameenlinna, Finland. Phone: +358-(0)3-6165816)
Will be coordinating the BND day in Finland.
HELSINKI: Luonto-Liiton Vodenmaan Piiri (LUP), Mechelinenkatu 36, Helsinki Phone: (+)358-9-446313 Email: or [email protected] or varpunen
FRANCE
Saturday, November 28th: 'La Journee sans Achats'
GENERAL CONTACT: Car Busters Magazine & Resource Centre, 44 rue Burdeau, 69001 Lyon, France. Phone: +(33) 472.002357. Fax: +(33) 478.285778. Email:
Activities: streettheatre, 'spoof-ads', media-work
Other contact:
Eric Britton - EcoPlan - Technology, Economy, Society Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France Phone: +331 4441.6340 (1-4) Email:
GERMANY
Saturday, November 28th: 'Kauf Nix Tag'
FREIBURG: Umwelt- und Projektwerkstatt, Freiburg. Luciano. Email:
GREAT-BRITAIN
Saturday, November 28th: 'No Shop Day'
GENERAL CONTACT: Enough/Anticonsumerism campaign, Paul Fitzgerald, One World Centre, 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS, U.K. Phone: +44.161.226.6668. Fax: +44.161.226.6277. E-mail: . website: www.enough.org.uk
Other contacts:
LONDON - London Enough. Phone: +44.171.7217638 (Michiel)
Action handbook for local groups available and a special newsletter.
Action example from Manchester: Enough in Manchester are launching the Christmas Liberation Front - an elite, dedicated, Arctic-hardened commando unit of disaffected Santas who, after months of careful monitoring, are poised to confiscate any Christmas decorations that have appeared in Manchester City Centre at an inappropriate time. This follows strict warnings to all those shops who are yet again blatantly exploiting the spirit of Christmas for purely commercial gain. "Stressed-out shoppers, mountains of waste, and having to deliver Christmas presents made for slave wages in the Third World isn't exactly my idea of a Season of Goodwill" said a disgruntled Rudolph of the Christmas Liberation Front. "It's time to reclaim Christmas as a time of celebration and warmth with the people and reindeer we care about." More information:
A second Manchester action is being mounted by the Sisters of Immaculate Consumption.
80 UK No-Shop-Day actions will take place, in: Belfast, Bradford, Ceredigion, Derry, Dundee, Falmouth, Fife, Hull, Lancaster, Leicester, Liverpool, Lostwithiel, London, Manchester (2x), Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Penzance, Sheffield and Swansea.
THE NETHERLANDS
Saturday, November 28th: 'Niet-Winkeldag'
GENERAL CONTACT: Omslag, werkplaats voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling (Breaking Point, Workshop for Sustainable Development), Marta Resink and Dick Verheul, P.O. Box 163, 5270 AD Sint-Michielsgestel, The Netherlands. Phone: +73-5941622 or +30-2730100. E-mail: Internet: koopniets.nl
Activities: local street-actions all over the country (so far local initiative-groups in 21 different towns); publishing the (first) KonsuminderKrant, ('consume-less' newspaper) - nation-wide spread through all local libraries; action-handbook, newsletters for active local groups, window-posters, media-work. Favorite actions this year are special stalls where people can exchange their ' ever-received-but-never-used' presents, and all kinds of street-theatre. Also: lazy chairs in crowded shopping-streets, creating shopping-free zones, measuring ecological footprints, spreading Christmas-gift-exemption-vouchers etc.
More details on our web-site.
There will be BND-activities in : Amersfoort, Amsterdam (2x), Arnhem, Capelle aan den IJssel, Delft, Den Bosch, Den Haag, Deventer, Geldrop, Gouda, Groningen, Hellevoetsluis, Hilversum, Leeuwarden, Leiden (2x), Nijmegen (2x), Oegstgeest, Rotterdam, Veldhoven, Vlissingen and Zwolle.
NEW-ZEALAND
Friday, November 27th: 'Buy Nothing Day'
GENERAL CONTACT: Murray Sheard. Email:
Other contacts:
Manu Caddie, 63 Clifford St, Gisborne, New-Zealand. Phone: (06) 8686889. E-mail: Internet: http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~subsonic/crc/bnd.html
AUCKLAND Stuart Sontier and Fiona Jack. stu@ihug. Internet: http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~stu/buynothing/index.html
Activities: involving schools and putting together a schools kit. This kit consists of Project and essay ideas, a Shopaholics quiz, and frequently asked questions. Also we've included letters we've sent out to teachers and students. Its all available for non-profit use, and if you want it in useful formats (MS word and publisher) this van be emailed. We're particlarly pleased with the Quiz and hoping it will make it into a youth focussed magazine in December, as part of an after-BND report. The schools kit is on the web: http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~stu/buynothing/
CHRISTCHURCH Geoff Ford. E-mail:
NORTHERN-IRELAND
Saturday, November 28th: 'Buy Nothing Day'
GENERAL CONTACT: Foyle Basin Council - Local Agenda 21 (Ireland), Peter Doran. 22 Bishop Street, Derry, Northern Ireland. Phone: +44 (0)1504 268403. E-mail: Internet was http://www.ecology.u-net.com/fbcnews.html
Activities: In North West Ireland there will be a conference 'Earth Rights: Consuming Culture and Sustainable Development'.
Partner organisation: Galway One World Centre, Galway, Republic of Ireland.
Announcement - Anyone willing to organise an event in Ireland on November 28 is invited to co-ordinate planning and publicity with the Foyle Basin Council in Derry.
NORWAY
Saturday, November 28th: 'Nullkoptagen'
GENERAL CONTACT: The Future is in our Hands (Framttiden i vore hender), Carin Leffler Phone: +47-22.20.10.45. E-mail:
Activities: Although "The Future in Our Hands" has the main responsibility for the activities on the 28th, several other organisations are co-working, or supporting us, in other ways: The youth fractions of the Labour Party, the Socialist Party, the Christ Democrats and three solidarity/aid organisations. The local groups in all these organisations (spread all over Norway) will be active in their own local environment on this day. In Oslo (the capital) we will have a stand on the main avenue, street theatre (in three spots!), live music, hand out Fair Trade Coffee and home made ginger biscuits, hand out "flyers" and other information about BND, overconsumption,North/South-issues, "peaceful Chistmas" and so on... We will try to discuss with bypassers about these themes, give out cards with the message "You don't have to give me any gifts this Christmas" (the bypasser can give this card to his/her friends and family), and give bypassers ideas about "sustainable" Christmas gifts.
In addition, we will of course invite media (TV, radio, newspapers etc.), and write letters to all major newspapers in Norway.
POLAND
Saturday, November 28th: 'Dzien bez zakupow'
GENERAL CONTACT: Federacja Zielonych Grupa Kielecka (Green Federation Kielce Group), Margaret Jermak Ul. Zagorska 9/5, 25-336 Kielce, Poland Phone: (+)48 41 3448129 Fax: (+)48 41 3430342 E-mail:
Activities: street action & media-work (no detailed plans yet)
SLOVENIA
Saturday, November 28th: 'Dan brez nakupov'
LJUBLJANA - Elves (Tom d'Elf), Skrati Metelkova 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Email:
SWEDEN
'Kopvagrardagen'
No activities announced this year (yet).
UNITED STATES
Friday, November 27th: 'Buy Nothing Day'
Divers contacts:
Centre for A New American Dream, Sean Sheehan / Anna White, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 900, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Phone: (+)301-891-ENUF (3683). Fax: (+)802-860-1735. Email: Internet: http://www.newdream.org
Science & Technology Caucus of NGO's at the CSD, Irini Sarlis Email:
PORTLAND (Oregon) Craig Rosebraugh Email:
NORTHERN CAROLINA Margaret Howe Email:
Activities: there has been a call for a boycott of the GAP clothing stores and there are planns for a rally and picketing around the country, especially in Northern Carolina. Pickets at GAP stores in: San Francisco, Berkeley, Santa Rosa and Eureka.
Please send corrections, additions and other news to:
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