The 2005 BND Dialogues

This page is still in process.

Backdrop Raw materials Missing Proposed group process to prepare next round of BNDs Your Views and Suggestions Backdrop This site was originally established as a newsgroup under our 1994 Consumer Holiday program, and then later modified in an attempt to provide a handy source of both information and of perspective on the Buy Nothing Day movement in various places around the world, its background, activities, accomplishments and possibly future directions. (Our inspiration and reason for doing this are amply set out in the various introductory and explanatory materials variable on The Commons Open Society Sustainability Initiative Web site, of which IBND is but one of several dozen programs, all of which directly committed to the issues of sustainable development, individual responsibility, and social justice.) Over the last half dozen years we have tried on a few occasions to see if we might generate group discussions of some of the underlying issues, of which the most notable try to date was a push to see if some of the organizers might wish to consider linking their BNDs to a common central theme. The first proposal was to try for a direct involvement of homeless people in the 2000 projects, but in truth this concept was never clearly enough argued nor pushed for with sufficient energy and continuity to make itself heard. The most notable lesson taken from that experience is, in a nutshell, that ideas and proposals such as this, no matter how good they may possibly be in principal, need to be brought into a spread out, independent, self-governing movement like this in quite another way, with much greater participation of all concerned and eventually stronger backing from the group, or at least some parts of it. This very briefly is the backdrop to the Dialogue Forum which is now being set out here. And here are a few ideas (subject to critical comment and revision) that we would now present for comment and further development by all those who are interested to get this underway. Back to top Background Materials for Dialogue The goal here is to group to the extent possible access to what might be thought of as some of the principal raw materials of this dialogue. As it presently stands here is what we have in the order indicated, opening with the good three year old Friends of the Earth piece which tries to set out the issues as seen from several perspectives. We follow this with an in-process two-part selection of pieces taken from the media (can you help us fill this section out?) which have the advantage here of looking at these issues once again from a variety of points of view. As a next step we have begun a collection of frankly critical articles, which appear here under the rubric "Contrarian Corner". The final three sets of link bring together message collections and archives, which include mainly announcements of events, some reports, and a few discussions or points of view. Taken together, they should suffice to get the exchanges off to an informed start. "Awkward Questions", Friends of the Earth Selected Media Reports Selected articles and links from @World BND archives "Contrarian Corner" challenges Adbuster BND 2000 Reports International BND Archives BND Messages archived here Missing? Sorely missing from this list of essential background for informed discussions of our topic is a good, reasonably short bibliography of available sources that can help us come to a deeper understanding of some of the thinking, issues and progress that has been made in terms of a number of the important underlying issues. And while it is possible to have plenty of opinions about Buy Nothing Days, pro and con, without knowing anything about this deeper background, it would be hoped that some of the discussants at least would have some familiarity with this quite rich intellectual and cultural heritage. Alternative economics systems Alternative Lifestyles Alternative moneys and barter Anti-publicity Basic needs Campaigning and direct action "Consumerism", rampant and other Failures of capitalism Marketing, publicity and advertising Media use and abuse New economics Organizing grassroots movements Sustainability, Environment, Ethics Tactics for successful protests The role of shopping in a post-modern society And while we have no such list to offer here at the outset, we do have a process to propose. Specifically, we are taking contact with individuals and groups who have been looking at these issues from a variety of perspectives, and it is to be hoped that one of the outcomes of trying to bring them into these discussions will be to provide us all with a deeper understanding of the issues and the options. Stay tuned! Proposed group process to prepare next round of BNDs (for comment) Goals: To get together to share our experience, information and views -- to the end of developing a stronger and deeper base in support of future BND actions all over the world. It has been suggested that the central planning task each year should be to review together the accomplishments and short-comings of the latst round of events, and to look forward together to the plans for the next BND. And in all cases sharing them through the various fora, national and international, as broadly as possibly for both information and comment. Notes: Each cooperating group is invited to share their results and critical analsysi based on their own events, accompsihments, reactions. It woudl be good if these reuslts ould be psoted in Decembe while they are still fresh in mind. They need not be overly long, but a bit of critical analysis woudl be helpful. Also, it woudl be good if in all cases we coudl have accfess to media coverage and mateirals. Initial contacts and organization effort for collaborative to take place over month of December. Extend invitations to wide range of organizations (see list here) in an attempt to get more depth, breadth into discussions (asking in turn for recommendations for yet other candidate groups, Discussion Lists, interested individuals). Target a Spring 2006 virtual roundtable (assuming that a reasonable amount of feedback has come in and satisfactory progress made on this simple structure) Contact those likely to be interested and invite them to submit additional reports on their work, links to media articles and reports (including audio and video), etc., that can then be filed into the appropriate sections and thereby available for easy access for all. Consider organizing exchanges over a period of several months, with 'sessions' devoted to specific topics, events or perhaps questions (see below for some possible examples). Idea of inviting 'moderators' to come aboard for specific sessions, who may also upon conclusion attempt to write up a short summary of findings and recommendations (which we can of course expect to be extremely diverse in many cases). The 'raw materials' for the Dialogue are of course and most importantly the participants and the experience, ideas and energy they bring with them. In addition: The basic BND concept, in all its variants and ways of being interpreted and done, is among our most outstanding resources. The experience accumulated to date, which can be accessed via: Emails and other reports from those directly involved (access to which is available here through the links shown on the menu) Media coverage (also see links) More formal reports or overviews (??. This being one of the possible products or byproducts of the present exercise) The much broader background of information, knowledge and points of view that are available via currents and groups working in tangentially related areas (such as those covered by the above mentioned list). As the exchanges move ahead, they will not only appear as email on the main Dialogue site, but also from time to time we or others will undertake to provide synthetic overviews and summaries, with a view both to informing efficiently and to stimulating additional discussions. Your Views & Suggestions This is the place to turn to share your ideas and tips with us. Better yet, why not reply to the Dialogue mailbox so that your information and comments will get to the others immediately. Back to top Home @Forum Post Office No Copyright © 1994-2000 The Commons, Paris, France. ® Last updated 17 October 2005 Site Map    What's New    Search