Occupy’s “Buy Nothing Day”: a grotesque call for mass austerity

The Occupy protesters have launched a "Buy Nothing Day" to coincide with Black Friday. Their campaign oozes with disdain for the working class, and reveals the group's true colors. It is truly grotesque that, at a time when people are struggling to get jobs and maintain living standards, Occupy is calling for austerity. It shows that their calls to rein in the "1 percent" are really a means to pave the way for austerity for all.

The day after Thanksgiving is referred to in the US as "Black Friday" (because it could tip stores into the black, i.e., profit), and it typically kicks off the Christmas shopping season. Stores introduce sale prices, and people have time off work to do some shopping.

"Buy Nothing Day" is led by Adbusters, the Canadian anti-consumer magazine that sparked Occupy Wall Street, and the announcement is prominently displayed on the OccupyWallStreet.org website (here). It is apparently part of a campaign called #OccupyXmas. Their appeal for support begins with a contrast between the holy Occupiers and another group of campers:

You’ve been sleeping on the streets for two months pleading peacefully for a new spirit in economics. And just as your camps are raided, your eyes pepper sprayed and your head’s knocked in, another group of people are preparing to camp-out. Only these people aren’t here to support occupy Wall Street, they’re here to secure their spot in line for a Black Friday bargain at Super Target and Macy’s.

How will the Occupiers protest? They will deploy "flash mobs, consumer fasts, mall sit-ins, community events, credit card-ups, whirly-marts and jams, jams, jams!" Occupy Seattle has announced their plans for the day:

It's going to be a noon-to-5 event, featuring speakers on, naturally, the "consumer epidemic," music from such groups as the "Occupy Chorus," the "Seattle Subversive Square Dance Society," and a booth to make homemade holiday gifts. Also scheduled is a caravan that will depart from the park to the Walmart in Renton, to march on the sidewalk in front of the store, and perhaps to also leaflet people in the parking lot.

There might be people who are under the illusion that the Occupy protests want the "99 percent" to have good-paying jobs, and then once they get that money, you know, spend it.  But no, silly fools! That's not what Occupy is about:

We don’t camp on the sidewalk for a reduced price tag on a flat screen TV or psycho-killer video game. Instead, we occupy the very paradigm that is fueling our eco, social and political decline.

Yes, I'd love to see the encounters at the Wal-Marts: Occupiers telling working class people "don't buy that flat screen TV!"  Maybe at least it will make it clear to folks that the Occupy movement is not on their side.