i just read a short interview with yomango @ adbusters. i have no clue how long this has been online, but it left me quite impressed. yomango is a group of activists based in barcelona [of course] that promotes “shoplifting as a form of civil disobedience and survival technique”.
Yomango offers workshops on theatrical theft, stolen-goods fashion shows, and fabric Yomango labels for stitching into lifted clothing. The brand name Yomango, which in Spanish slang means “I steal,”? is a play on the popular clothing chain Mango. As a lifestyle, Yomango is spread around the world by formal activist “franchises”? in Mexico, Germany and across South America. Informal participation is everywhere.
for me personally, my shoplifting days have long gone, but i like the way these guys take an act that already happens everywhere and daily, and will continue to do so as long as the capitalist system exists, and re-contextualize it as an act of civil disobedience.
AB: Do you really want to live in a world in which everyone’s stealing from each other?
PAUL: We’re not talking about stealing actually. We’re talking about “Yomangoing,”? which is different. We’re talking about liberating products from multinational companies or big chain stores, malls and commercial centers. We are not stealing from anyone; we are stealing from other entities, other properties.
so i can just hope that the guy who stole my wallet in london reads this, yeah that means you!, and returns my stuff to me asap and starts stealing from the bad guys instead. ok, so i am kind of a bad guy. like, who’s bad? but still…
san precario, the patron saint of the precarious [apparently]
also, and only slightly related: the excellent dj food mix Raiding the 20th Century, where strictly kev “liberates” 100’s of songs, is online again. if you don’t have this already grab it while you can. [via beatmixed]
I am always a bit sceptical towards this kind of approach.
I am definitely no fan of the dogma of private property and the ideas and justifications yomango give are of course defensible. But the thing is, today’s Capitalism can afford such behaviour, just as well as a riot from time to time. In fact, it could even be seen a incentive to produce more goods – in a time when we should rather do the contrary. Plus, it might also help develop further all the techniques of surveillance, i.e. extend the big-brotherization we know all over the western world.
Considering that, isn’t yomango a “neutral action” – in the sense that it brings as many more problems as it solves? Is it worth it?
as always i am humbled by your considerations. you are of course right, stealing, or i’d rather call it shoplifting here, is a rather short-sighted form of protest. in fact, included in the prices we pay in stores is a countervalue for the goods that get stolen on average. as are the costs for surveillance systems and personal. so of course if nobody shoplifted the goods would be cheaper. and your points about this kind of action in some way justifying the system are of course vaild. having said this, if people steal, they best steal with a cause. and from the right shops, corporations, etc. and what exites me about the approach yomango is taking is the secondary activities, like the clothes label, the stolen goods fashion shows, etc. thats how this does turn into a statement that is more qualified than shortsighted stealing. imho.
«so of course if nobody shoplifted the goods would be cheaper»
I am not sure about it, as said, i doubt that stealing has a real economic impact. Although that might be an argument for the ones who get stolen, of course.
I am not discussing the statement of yomango, which is as justified as breaking some banks’ windows. And the secondary activities are certainly interesting as long as they are creative and no replica of the evil which is targeted by yomango. I just wanted to point at the limits of such protests. imho 😉
yeah. i agree. such protests, if they even are to be considered protests, are not truely changing anything. i think, this is the dilemna adbusters have realised awhile ago. defacing adverts is cute at best and still plays it inside the game. and this is why they have been fishing for the grand political discourse in their mag lately. and not really succeeding at it.
the thing i remember about my active rioting days is that it “felt” good. how banal, even lame, huh. what we did may have ultimately only led to more and certainly more efficient repression. but at least we were doing something, creating damage, expressing our discontent. at least we were not merely following like sheep. if now i analyze what we did back then many things are an embarassement. it is always a fine line between a self-serving kind of acting out and doing it for a cause. nowadays things are even harder, because what the “system” has learned since then is to literally adopt any trend and movement within the shortest period.
so how do you express dicontent today? my guess is that we will see a swing back to more destructive and short-sighted, even violent forms in the next few years.
Agreed, the point is not about “not doing a thing because nothing changes anyway”. People who pretend so are just sad and/or funny with their own inactivity. After all, the very last reason that remains to go to demos and such is to be clear with your own conscience.
On the other hand, people should be more conscious of the limits of their protest. And of course, the question of the best way to “get” something through protest is a hard. If we would know it, we would certainly rush towards it. I don’t know it, and still, that does not hinder me from demonstrating or protesting “classically”.
Which brings me to another point: it seems to me that, nowadays, many people discriminate between the different kinds of protest and do not see the complementary ways of action. What is so wrong about demonstrating AND voting AND doing something else etc.? I wonder if this kind of self-segregation of the protest is not helping “teh evil system”, eventually.
«my guess is that we will see a swing back to more destructive and short-sighted, even violent forms in the next few years.»
I for one am surprised that it has not come yet! (unless you see a link with the actual terrorist activities, which is perhaps defendable on a very meta-theoretical level, much less when it comes to the content of this “protest”). Perhaps does it have to do with the increase general level of repression (techniques), which itself comes for a good part from the teachings of the left-wing terrorist activities of the 80’s in Europe.
Following this idea, i am even more surprised that we do not really see the rising of stronger subcultures. After all, Punk-Rock in GB was mainly a product/response to the violent social conditions of the late 70’s. I don’t think the actual conditions are softer. But who is there nowadays? Are such people atomised, way too much in front of their computers (hum..) or already ready to be recovered by H&M?
it has been said by smarter people than me that just like the “right” the “left” was for awhile there in a crisis of models. the old cold war devides broken up by the fall of communism. but agree with you. it’s been an awfully repressive climate lately. capitalism has shown it’s true face as clearly visible as never before. “the enemy” is very much back and it is ugly as hell. lets kill it. quick.
but damn it, if only we had the secret on how to get things started again. because while everybody is wallowing in their justified or not lethargies most def. the world is not exactly improving around us. has everybody just given up?
“But who is there nowadays? Are such people atomised, way too much in front of their computers (hum..) or already ready to be recovered by H&M?”
they are prolly all blogging or writing comments on friends blogs… while playing with their new psp’s. and i plead quilty as charged.
but uhm. i am old and allowed to get all fat and couchpotatoey. oh and rightous.
The whold idea of a RFID blocking bag has been around for years. Not only do they promote stealing products they have no problem stealing ideas.
http://www.mobilecloak.com/
http://www.mobilecloak.com/block_signal/
The off switch for always on mobile wireless devices and technologies.
http://www.mobilecloak.com/mobilecloak/index.html
RFID Tolltags: (Any)Pass, FasTrak, SunPass, GPS – Mobile Cell Phones,Smartphones, Communicator