Cracker Six:
Inside:
1 x Christmas Hat with ‘ACTIVIST?’ written on
1 x Lego ‘Activism Man’ complete with sword of ethical justice and binoculars to follow commodities with
1 x piece of paper reading ‘D.I.Y ACTIVISM’
by Matt Creagh
When you sit down to eat this Christmas, before you tuck in, almost inevitably you will turn to someone next to you and pull a cracker with them. I’m here as the activist lego man to remind you all that commodities don’t just appear! We must be aware of the invisible social relations that exist between two people when they share a cracker. Someone made the crackers you will use this Christmas, that person will perhaps be geographically far or near and they may well have been exploited, certainly they will be tied to you socially.
So when you pick up a cracker over the forthcoming festive period think about where your crackers came from, the hands that made them, delivered them… where did the materials come from- what is really behind the ‘bang’ in your cracker!? Have a look at the other posts on this blog to satisfy your curiosity!
As the activist lego man; I use my lego binos to ‘follow the thing’, to uncover the social relations embedded within commodities. I use my sword of ethical justice to promote ethical trade in a globalised World in which free market capitalism has led to many inequalities. We must recognize that multi-nationals sometimes exploit cheap labour to provide us with commodities.
This Christmas time, I implore you to look at your crackers in a different light, look beyond the veil of ‘commodity fetishism’ and take heed of the ‘lives in things’.
But people don’t have to forgo crackers this xmas- we don’t have to ban them! ‘Get with the fetish’, buy your crackers with ethics and trade justice in mind. Read our site, follow #EthicalCrackerFriday, send in your own tweets! People must become aware of the social relations in commodities and the exploitative practices behind them. Social change can happen. Everyone has the potential to be an activist.
References here
#EthicalCrackerFriday 