Did you celebrate 'Buy Nothing Day' and resist consumerist pressures?

As commercial companies tried yesterday to foist 'Black Friday on us, an American import supposed to mark the beginning of pre-Christmas consumption, Ad Buster publicised their Buy Nothing Day which took place today. LINK

They stress that the day isn't anti-shopping  as such or anti small shops but about creating awareness about the effect of consumption on the environment and its basic inequality.

This is how they explain the Day:

It's time to lock up your wallets and purses, cut up your credit cards and dump the love of your life - shopping.

Saturday November 30th 2013 is Buy Nothing Day (UK). It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

Everything we buy has an impact on the environment, Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of consumerism. The developed countries - only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage, and an unfair distribution of wealth.

Of course, Buy Nothing Day isn't about changing your lifestyle for just one day - we want it to be a lasting relationship with you consumer conscience - maybe a life changing experience? We want people to make a commitment to consuming less, recycling more and challenging companies to clean up and be fair. The supermarket or shopping mall might offer great choice, but this shouldn't be at the cost of the environment or developing countries

I wonder if we should celebrate this at the Wembley's London  Designer Outlet next year?

Sacrificing childhood to capital

I explored Fryent Country Park with 28 eight and nine year olds today. They found their way out of a maze made of willow saplings and as they emerged from the woods marvelled at the sight of hay meadows stretching out in front of them. Reading their eager faces I could see that they were yearning to run through the long grasses and wild flowers and they were ecstatic when I let them go with meadow brown butterflies rising and fluttering above their heads as they  tumbled laughing into the sweet smelling hay.

Later they saw ponies and horses in a paddock  commenting on their stature and comparing the slender legs of a pony with the stocky legs of a carthorse, describing the feel of the donkey's  lips on their hands as they fed him, the colour of  the pony's teeth and loving being so close to an animal..

In the orchard they found toads, newts, millipedes, ladybirds, woodlouse, slugs, worms and snails and examined them through a magnifying glass. All the time the children chatted about their discoveries and pointed out their observations to each other. At the ponds they found tadpoles and tiny froglets and as with the mini-beasts eventually returned them gently and safely to their habitat.

In the afternoon in the cool of the Barn Hill oak woods the children worked together in self-chosen teams to build shelters for themselves. Small children managed to drag great tree trunks across the clearing and with their friends propped them up to make a tipi or tent shape, sometimes their structures collapsed, but they returned to the task with enthusiasm and perseverance.

After saying goodbye to the tired but happy class and their teachers at the bus stop I returned home just in time to hear Michael Gove on the Radio4 news speaking about the new national curriculum and the need to keep up with our international competitors and how this meant 'raising the bar' and children of 5 doing fractions and computer programming.

I could get into an argument about the accuracy of international comparisons and Gove's misuse of the PISA evidence (see LINK) but actually this isn't the point, The real issue is the Government's determination to make education serve the needs of the economy, and by that they mean global capitalism, and introducing its ethos and discipline  into schools both through the curriculum and through its rapidly privatising structures.

The child is no longer at the heart of education and education is no longer holistic, liberal and liberating.. Instead global capitalism and rampant consumerism is in charge and children and childhood are subjugated to its needs. With a fact based curriculum producing test and  examination results as a product, teachers subject to payment by results, and 'failing' schools that don't buy into the system forced to convert into academies, schools are being industrialised.

With university teacher training set to be replaced by 'sitting next to Nelly' work-based training, teachers will effectively be deskilled and no longer have the background in educational philosophy, history, cognitive psychology, learning theory  and subject knowledge possessed by past generations of teachers. Pearson and Amplify (the education arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation) stand by with an i-Pad based individual curriculum for each child LINK, which rather than, as claimed, 'freeing up the teacher', could eventually replace him or her.

What is really incredible about Gove's 'vision' is that it probably won't actually serve the long-term needs of capitalism because it will produce narrow individuals, schooled into passing examinations and taught not to question, when what a society facing  the twin crises of dysfunctional capital and climate actually need is creativity, imagination and the ability to think and act  beyond self-interest.

I must return to the woods...

Has the Green Party got the capacity to take on this challenge?

Riots: The danger of growing inequality mixing with a culture which puts consumerism above citizenship.- Caroline Lucas

As I posted Barry Gardiner's comments on the disturbances earlier it is only fair that I report what Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP, said in the same debate on August 11th:

We reject and condemn the horrendous violence, arson and looting that we have seen on the streets of Britain. But we must seek to understand why this happened to prevent it being repeated. If we stop at denunciations and crackdowns, nothing will be learned about why sections of our own population feel they can riot, loot and treat their neighbours and communities so appallingly.

The bigger picture has to be considered. Britain is deeply unequal. Last year, London's richest people were worth 273 times more than its poorest. Given the growing evidence, from Scarman onwards, that increasing inequality had a role to play in at least some of the rioting, the government must commit to an impact assessment of any further policies to establish if they will increase inequality.


If individuals are defined as consumers not citizens, there is danger that those who cannot afford to consume feel they have no stake in their community and become more likely to turn against it.


The Prime Minister has said this is 'Not about poverty but about culture.' But it is about both. It is about inequality and culture and how dangerous it is when you mix growing inequality with a culture which puts consumerism above citizenship.
 

6pm - all appears quiet in Wembley

Central Square, Wembley, this evening

Having heard this afternoon that there were rumours that Wembley would 'kick off' evening I had a stroll around to assess the atmosphere. If anything Wembley High Road was a little less busy that usual with fewer young people  around but there were half a dozen or so pairs and sometimes trios of police officers spread along the street and in Central Square. However people seemed calm and there was the usual commuter traffic at Wembley Central station and on the bus routes and the regular al fresco drinkers in the square seemed relaxed enough.


A number of shops were shuttered (although it needs a good local eye like mine to know which ones shut early or are closed for good, rather than closed as a precaution!)  TK Max , Wilkinson and Tesco had closed early but the pubs and most of the fast food joints, including McDonalds and KFC, remained open.

A policeman told me that although things appeared calm on the surface they were keeping their eyes on several small groups of youth in case they came together. He confirmed that shops had closed early in case of trouble later today.

There were no police that I could see in Wembley Park but Currys and JD Sports in the Stadium Retail Park which have proved popular in 'consumerist rioting' were closed and shuttered and some of the bars were open but with doors and windows boarded up. ASDA remained open and busy. Tesco at Wembley City was closed. Wembley Park station and Wembley Stadium station were both operating normally.