Don’t buy anything, jam the bank for free!
Buy Nothing Day is an international challenge to our oversaturated, unsustainable consumer culture. For the past five years, Optative Theatrical Laboratories has challenged this glut with guerilla theatre culture jams at places like McDonald’s, Starbucks and more recently Chartwells.
Mass consumption wouldn’t be possible without the banks and this year, the greed of those institutions has been exposed globally. That’s why this Buy Nothing Day OTL is going to the bank.
We’re always looking for more jammers to join in the fray. If you’d like to take part, we’re meeting today at 1pm at an undisclosed location. Please call 514-699-3378 to find out more, but since we have already been infiltrated once (by American Apparel in 2006) we’re not taking any chances, so expect to be thoroughly vetted.
This also isn’t the first time OTL has jammed a bank. In 2007, we joined with the Frente Amplio Opositor (Broad Opposition Front in English), a group of theatrical activists based in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico, a small community being destroyed by an illegal open-pit mine in the middle of their town.
The mine was operated at the time by Metallica Resources, which has since merged with other companies to form New Gold, which continues in this devastating operation.
Our jam spoke out against Metallica Resources, but also the CIBC Bank, a major investor in the company to the tune of $11 million.
This is a video of the performance from Guerilla Video Productions entitled The Toxicity of Gold:
And remember not to buy anything today – curb your consumption!
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 am
[…] the World Bank and IMF. They are also actively involved in pushing for greater regulations of the Canadian mining industry operating in the Global South. They accomplish their goals through education and […]
April 10th, 2009 at 7:24 am
[…] input from the public, with public opinion silenced or, as in the case of the Mexican village of Cerro de San Pedro, in a completely illegal […]