To Dan and others,
Well, let's not got too hung up on DIY stores! I only mentioned them
because David Crouch had previously as an example of places that weren't
being reclaimed.
But you are right to point out that DIY stores are places that contain many
exampels of things that both attract and repel about consumer capitalism.
Certainly the lifestyles and baubles offered by this society are attractive
- capitalism would never work if they were not. However, they are also
places of frustrated desire, alienation and in more ordinary terms, sell
many products that are the result of displaced human misery and
environmental overexploitation (ie: misery etc. not visible to the
consumer) - timber from endangered habitats,paints containing toxic
chemicals, etc. Where DIY stores have been occupied it is largely to make
this misery and exploitation visible in terms of action around specific
commodities.
This is strongly related to the ethos behind the new wave of
anti-globalisation protest, and is a precursor to it. In the City of London
it might look like wealth out of nowhere, but it means real suffering that
we generally don't see. Maybe the majority like DIY just as they like
living in a wealthy society, but that doesn't make them right. A million
Elvis fans can't be wrong? Well, as Chuck D said, "Elvis never meant shit
to me". It is also about information and empowerment. They, the
transnational ruling class (or whatever you choose to call them) might know
where we live, but we are starting who they are and where they live and to
tell the world.
Certainly, protestors against economic globalisation are still very much a
minority in this country, and probably in the North in general. Protest
will therefore annoy the settled comfortable majority who don't want to
hear about the bad things. Protest will annoy people who want a quiet life.
Bring the Noise!
David.
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David Wood
PhD Research Student ('Intelligence Sites in Rural North Yorkshire')
Centre for Rural Economy
Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
0191 222 5305
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