Page Content | Events
Features
Newswire
Publish
Links
Regions
Other IMCs
Search
Leeds Bradford IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

(((i))) Leeds Bradford

Read It. Write It. DO IT!

Feministas' Mayday - Guerilla Stickering

the Feministas | 01.05.2007 17:03 | Mayday 2007 | Gender | Social Struggles

Feministas Guerilla stickering campaign today...

Feministas were out in the sunshine today for a spot of covert stickering for May Day... we transformed and informed in designer shops [Harvey Nichols], newsagents, tourist info boards, Ann Summers and a range of other places of public interest.
With 'Capitalism Kills' and 'Feminists are Everywhere' stickers we helpfully snuck into the conciousness of ladies of leisure, buyers of 'women's' and 'lads' magazines, purchasers of sweatshop produced clothing [Primark], places of worship, cash machines customers and general bods on the street.
We'd love to hear what pixiying you were up to today and hope you've all had a chance to make the world a better place...
picture links below:

 http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/480048890_e2c6de88ca.jpg
 http://farm1.static.flickr.com/203/480048880_68627c533e.jpg

the Feministas
- e-mail: feministas@clara.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/feministas

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Wicked idea but...

01.05.2007 20:56

If you're going to do the ace action of putting stickers on Primark clothes it needs to be clearer than 'capitalism kills' if you really wnat to say something. That means nothing to most people, but most people are genuinly upset to find out their clothes are made by people earning bugger all in terrible conditions. I was with some students yesterday who were upset by this when it was explained but they didn't know what capitalism was, why would they? Stickering's great fun, shame it doesn't always actually tell anyone anything except those that already know....

plain speaking


Why do feminists come in for attacks on Indymedia?

02.05.2007 07:14

It was May Day yesterday - a chance for everyone to make whatever contribution they can to celebrating workers solidarity and anti-capitalism.
Why did the Feminista post get criticism and snidey little snippings? Do you not think grown women are capable of working out their own tactics? and what were the snippy commenters up to themselves eh?
Why assume people who shop in Primark don't know what Capitalism is? I know, and I got some very nice vests there before I found out about who was making them in Bangladesh.
Do people not know what a feminist is???
As for the feminista label - this is both hommage and joke... perhaps you should check out the feministas before you make assumptions?

Research is showing that anything remotely female gets much higher attacks and criticism on the internet [from women and men] - why is this do you think??? and what's the point of Indymedia if all the armchair anarchists just see fit to have a go when folk put news up?

May Day is about solidarity so don't be such an eeijit

cassandra


criticims?

02.05.2007 08:49

I’m not sure that the first post was much of a criticism. And well, as for people not knowing what Capitalism is I think its pretty much a fair point, still its questionable whether such a protest relied on people knowing what it was in specifics which was being protested. –In primark a different context was being protested which might have made the stickers unusable to post on cash points say –it was the general topic that was being highlighted. And if anyone’s interested there’s a seminar series up in Glasgow talking about neo-liberalism.  http://www.cppr.ac.uk/centres/cppr/esrcneoliberalismseminar/)

As for feminism, yes its getting a bad rap and very few women, and nearly no men consider it part of their value structure unless you point out that actually they do, they just don’t label it as such. I’ve talked to phd students who teach gender studies tutorials and the students consider it akin to swearing at someone. So yes, I suppose some pr is needed –or not.

Still, nice to see something was being done for may day!

mx

mary


Why feminists come in for attacks on Indymedia

02.05.2007 09:33

1) Partly because MI5 and their infilitrating Spook-Plants have an anti-feminist agenda

2) Partly because not enough female feminists care to respond to their trolling

Danny
- Homepage: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/357875.html?c=all


about the removed -ista comment

02.05.2007 14:18

Sorry if I caused offence - I did not intend to, and it certainly wasn't because the story was something feminist.
I've commented in other places on indymedia too about people tagging on -ista, whether it's imcista, sambatista or whatever, now and in the past.

Of course grown women and men are able to make their own decisions about tactics. Hopefully we can discuss those tactics, and though less good than face-to-face, indymedia has become part of that exchange. We need to do this from a place of trust and solidarity, and try to avoid jumping to conclusions/removing comments from the newswire.

I'm afraid it's just something that annoys me. We are not the Zapatistas. Using the -ista tag doesn't make us cooler or in itself part of some global movement. It does make us more inaccessible. And yes I checked out the feminista page first, and yes, I can understand why it's better than tagging feminist on the back of boilersuits!

In solidarity...

it was me


To clarify...

02.05.2007 15:31

I didn't mean that people who shop in Primark won't know what capitalism means (I used to shop there too as do all my family who do know what it is), just that most people in general don't know what it is or why you'd be against it, until it's explained anyway.

And no I wasn't doing anything for mayday but I do lots of stuff thanks.

plain speaking


sorry

05.05.2007 17:36

I've got to say this action was a bit wank really. The stickers didn't really inform anyone of anything and most people would just be confused by criticisms of places like Primark. Primark sell decent clothes for fuck all, and thats why people shop there. All clothes on the high street are made in sweatshops anyway: attack the economic system as a whole, there is no good part of it.

Apart from that, i don't really see what was feminist about this action, and i really really resent the idea that its being criticised because it was feminist. Its being (gently) criticised cos it was a bit pointless and weak, why go saying 'can't you believe a women can do something for on her own'? Bit of a jump to conclusions there.

Feminism is an integral part of anticapitalism and mayday. I think the best overtly feminist group on mayday was the Sex Workers Union one year (2002?) but i'm sure there are plenty of better ways to reassert the importance on women's struggle on mayday than this.

Have a think about it.

Sarah Connor


Write It
Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

Search

The Common Place - Leeds The 1 in 12 club - Bradford The Trades Club - Hebden Bridge

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

IMCs


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