Shopping is a form of activism – the issue is, is it effective? As an anti-consumer Leftie I’m suspicious about consumer activism – isn’t buying stuff still oiling the wheels of the industrial consumer complex, even if you’re buying the most ethical products? But let me explain why we can’t ignore it as a basis for some activism.
We can’t because we live in a consumer society – shopping isn’t all we do but it’s the prime way in which we are now socialized. We used to live in a producer society where work defined us – our identity, character and social place. If consumption now plays this dominant role, then shops have to be a site not just of oppression but resistance – because they are the prime site of life. The media no longer covers industrial action, but it will cover boycotts of Starbucks over tax avoidance or resistance to workfare at Poundland.
