Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Cambridge Free Shop

manos relaying | 05.09.2004 08:26 | Free Spaces | Cambridge

On Saturday 4th September, some people from the Cambridge Action Network set up a 'free shop' in Cambridge market square. Anyone could give or take stuff, yet the most important rule was: no money exchange.








What is a Free Shop?

“When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?” – Allen Ginsberg
Come along and get stuff for free
Bring things to give away
No money: this is not capitalism

We’re giving it all away. Books, food, music, clothes, furniture; things we no longer need or no longer want, recycled and circulated to any of you who need or want them. And don’t you have things you no longer want, which could be used by someone else? We hope so, and we hope you’ll bring them along to share at the free shop. Because we live in a world of great wealth and great waste: we throw out products when we get bored of them, and straight away go out and by new commodities; supermarkets dump unsold fruit and vegetables while they try and persuade us to buy more and more complicatedly processed foods. In this situation, a free shop shouldn’t be unusual, it should be normal.

In a world of surplus, why do we still spend all our time paying for things? Exchanging money for goods is not a natural necessity, nor is it simply an efficient method of distribution: it’s about power and control. Every time we go in to a shop and interact with someone as just a shop assistant or just a cashier, we reproduce a whole system in which people are not able to interact as people, but in roles determined by money: as buyer and seller, rich and poor, owner and worker. Consumption isn’t a private act, it’s an integral part of a system that controls our access to resources to control our actions and our lives. We can see this system all around us, in the smile that persuades us we’re buying more than just a cup of coffee or the ads that persuade us that we need to be healthier (eat more), more popular (wear more); more human (buy more). The economic relations that start in the shopping centre spread out to determine more and more of our lives.

This is what the free shop stands against. Distributing goods outside of the money system is a small act of social disobedience, a disruption of the image of inevitability that we see every time we walk into a shop and think we have to buy the things we want or need. Come to the free shop and take stuff, come and bring stuff, or just come and talk to us. And maybe, as you walk around the shopping centres of our city, you’ll think: shouldn’t these all be free shops?

manos relaying

Comments

Display the following 9 comments

  1. The Oldest Form of Trade - It Still Works! — Ye Olde Shoppe Assisystante
  2. Camlets — Ye Olde Shoppe Assisystante (agayne)
  3. Free Shop Logo (Colour Version) — In the C.A.N.
  4. Another Version — Free Love? I don't think so!
  5. Pedantic, perhaps but.. — Anita
  6. Capitalism Works — Brian
  7. Sure - capitalism works - but for what? — Eno
  8. Communism Brian? — alex
  9. Communism??? — Dan E.
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech