Shop Till You Stop

"Take your hands away from the product!" roars Reverend Billy. His Church of Stop Shopping -- about 12 people dressed in gold robes and rocking side to side as they sing an anti-consumerist gospel -- pull their hands violently up and away from an imaginary Mickey Mouse toy made by sweatshop labor, or from a $5 latte, or from one of FAO Schwartz's "war toys."

Union Mall Rats -- Where even Rev. Billy goes to shop "We must go beyond kvetching about transnational trauma factories!" says Reverend Billy in a press release that outlines some alternatives to sweatshop-shopping. In the rhetoric used outside of the Buy Nothing Day protests, the Church of Stop Shopping takes a slightly more conciliatory tone: "People cannot live on Not-Buying alone." So when you need new yoga pants, jeans, scarves or button-down Oxfords, visit the Union Mall at www.NoSweatShop.com, which bills itself as "the one-stop shop for progressive consumers." The fledgling virtual mall has five tenants so far, each of which has to certify that their products are from union shops or worker-owned collectives. The mall boasts a seal of approval from AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. Reverend Billy also endorses merchandise from Musicians Against SweatShops (MASS), whose members include Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, Chumbawumba and Billy Bragg. Best of all is the anti-brand brand from Adbusters: the Blackspot sneaker, made from union-only labor (see www.blackspotsneaker.org). MASS is a sponsor of the Union Mall and hopes to use its artists -- and their coolness factor -- to persuade people to shop the site. "The fashion industry listens to the youth and the youth listens to the music," said No Sweat founder Adam Neiman. "Musicians Against Sweatshops has the potential to make the global garment industry dance to a different tune." As for Reverend Billy, he has a firm faith in the democratic power of selective consumerism. Buying carefully, rather than not at all, is the thorny path to salvation -- even though it is still consumerism -- because "every sustainable fair labor factory builds the case for a world without sweatshops." -- James Westcott

"Children, are we going to stop shopping today?" the Rev. implores, and some of the crowd gathered outside the Plaza Hotel in New York City on this November 28, the busiest shopping day of the year, yell agreement. For an estimated two million people around the world, the day after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day, a worldwide campaign of theatrical interventions into malls and chain stores, prompted and loosely organized by Adbusters magazine.

Reverend Billy is putting on the best show in New York this year. He's been preaching his ascetic Word in Times Square and various Starbucks around the city for the past five years, and he's now very natural in his role: dressed in a white suit, black gloves, and with the white collar and (bleached) blond bouffant of a Southern Baptist minister, he plunges into the crowd and shakes many hands and kisses one baby. "Come on, my children!"

A few police officers trot alongside as the crowd starts marching down a rain-soaked Fifth Avenue thick with post-Thanksgiving shoppers. The Rev.'s choir sings a chirpy hymn that goes, "Stop shopping ... Hallelujah ... Change-a-lujah," and someone bangs a drum and someone else blows a trumpet.

This theater of the absurd is met with brick-wall faces by passersby. Many don't even look twice, so caffeinated by Starbucks and mesmerized by Nike and hypnotized by products that they can't recognize The Odd any more when they see it. "Wake up!" Billy screams. "You're living in a multinational theme park illusion!"

The blank faces only confirm for Billy how desperately people need to hear his message. Members of the church hand out flyers to bemused shoppers explaining the conceptual art they are witnessing. "Where do our purchases come from?" the flyer asks. "Who made them? Do these products express us? Are we proud of where they came from?" People are encouraged to use independent stores (see sidebar), to create a gift economy, and, finally, "Try small changes first and be kind to yourself!"