previous antics

we have done a variety of mini actions in manchester. here are just a few:

Riders of the Apocalypse

On Saturday, a group of cyclists pissed off with the ever increasing amount of dirty, dangerous and downright ridiculous 4x4s which are accelerating climate Armageddon took to their bikes and donned skeleton outfits to shame 4x4 drivers.

Dressed as skeletons and wearing high vis jackets saying: “4 x 4 = POLLUTION” they cycled along Deansgate surrounding 4x4s as they drove (and sat in traffic mostly), letting the driver and everyone around know just what they thought about their choice of transport.

The fancy dress, slogans on their backs and just the sight of something different going on attracted lots of attention (its not every day a skeleton rides round Manchester!). Most of it was positive, except from the drivers who tried to escape (in shame), only to be swiftly followed down side streets! Numerous parked 4x4s were given ‘Poor Vehicle Choice’ Parking tickets including Satan’s own car of choice; the Hummer.

This was part of Saturday Clubs’ month of actions on transport

You can’t buy beauty

We wanted to do a positive action, one that made people think without making them feel bad about themselves or angry towards us for blaming them. So instead of just sabotaging L’Oreal or telling people what was bad about them we decided to make people feel good without the use of makeovers or L’Oreal’s unethical and harmful products.

We went out into the street, outside Boots where they sell not only L’Oreal but hundreds of other unethical beauty products. We gave out stickers saying ‘I don’t need a makeover because I am beautiful’, we had pieces of paper that said ‘I don’t need a makeover because…’ and asked people to fill in their own reasons. We also gave out alternative, natural beauty tips and recipes and leaflets explaining why L’Oreal isn’t worth it.

We also made stickers to put onto L’Oreal’s products warning people about the harmful chemicals they contain, and their unethical behaviour. These were put onto their shampoo, makeup and anti-ageing cream packaging in the shop.

The response was amazing, everyone seemed really cheered up by the whole thing, asking for more stickers for their friends and filling in the paper with comments like (I don’t need a makeover because…) ‘I am happy with who I am’ and ‘I am worth more than L’Oreal’. We brought a smile to people’s faces where L’Oreal bring only low self-esteem, harmful chemicals and unethical practices.

FREE MARKET

we are anti capitalists and one of the major things that seems to attach people to it is consuming. people claim they love to shop, but with the misery it causes through debt, unfair trade, sweatshop labour, destruction of the planet and more we decided to encourage people to question consumerism and whether people really needed all the things they bought...

we made a zine that told people why we are concerned about over consuption and also gave tips on how to get stuff for free in manchester and further afield (such as shoplifting.. hitching.. squatting etc)

we decided that we'd have a free market and give stuff away for free so that people wouldnt have to buy it.. and tell them how we got it so that they might be able to do it aswell...

some people went skipping for goodies the night before..and pulled in a massive harvest: 3 binbags crammed to bursting of cakes and breads. not to mention a football and a bag of compost!

some baked huge vegan cakes.. some got clothes by shoplifting them or raiding wardrobes and tat piles.. and we had boxes of books tha people had donated too.

we had hoards of stuff..

when we arrived at the urbis we quickly set everything up.. the clothes folded neatly on the table, the cakes displayed looking delicious and crisps, toys and allsorts all around. Then we made like East End market stall holders and told people to help themselves.. hundreds of people swarmed and loved it, really interested in why we were doing it and loved the zines..

koolio..we were all so surprised at how well it went.. families, old couples, kids and youths all came and had some cake or took some clothes and a flyer or zine..and within about an hour and a half everything including the clothes rail had gone...

CONGRATULATIONS 4X4 DRIVERS

dressed in suits and a cheerleader the saturday steeped out onto the streets of manchester with certificates to congratulate 4x4 drivers on their amazing contribution to climate change and to health problems. We lay in wait by traffic lights on deansgate (a traditionally yuppie area in manchester).

When one approchaed we all approached and asked them to wind down their windows so that we could present them with a certificate.. then we cheered and clapped, through streamers and party poppers all over the vehicle..with someome shouting on the mega phone to alert passers by to why they had won one of our certificates..

(Unfortunately) there were loads of them, they all reacted differently some got angry and some just looked thoroughly ashamed..either way maybe they'll think bout it..

we ended the day by visiting the local hummer dealer baur millet on deansgate to show our disgust at their business of giving kids asthma and encouraging people to drive such oil guzzling machines (a hummer uses more petrol than a tractor!)..we advised their customers against purchasing one and awarded each hummer with a certificate (which the salesman didnt seem to notice us doing as they were still on the vehicles later!)

on our way home we put certificates on each parked 4x4 we passed..hopefully theyl get the message that we dont want their pollution and their accident prone machines..

4x4 drivers: stop taking out you feeling of inadequacy on us and our planet... get some self confidence and a bike....

G8 RANDOM PARK ANTICS

at the garden of delights we all raided the fancy dress box to dress up as our (least) favourite capitalists whilst some other stayed in our normal clothes and acted as though we were capturing these evils... shouting people to help us and giving out flyers to the G8 awareness day. It was pretty random but attracted lots of attention and was a conversation starter about the G8 and we had lots of fun too...