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Cherry: Our Free Time, Our Free Love, Our Free Care continues to be the backbone of the economy.
Ari: This is where the Socialist Feminist Theory of Wages For Housework comes in.
Cherry: oooh, and Free Products, Free products run the world.
Ari: The “free market” was conceptualized by Adam Smith in his text The Wealth Of Nations during the 18th century negotiation of industrialism and capitalism. Though the modern state emerged to mediate privatization of property, this “free market” concept encouraged the removal of the state from economic intervention altogether.
Cherry: Have you heard of laissez fare economics ? The “laissez fare” “free market” concept became hardened, economic philosophy almost 4 Centuries after the violent “THEFT” of life and land by European colonizers in Africa and the contemporary landmass known as “The Americas.” This leaves us with questions over the interpretation of the word “Free” by said economists in a colonial context.
So this is free ?
The aggressive privatization of Land, and “enslavement” of bodies went hand in hand, influencing the formation of Marxist thought. Black Marxism is an economic concept developed by Cedric Robinson and organizations such as The Black Panther Party and Critical Resistance. The NEW RED ORDER asks that settlers: GIVE IT BACK !
Cherry: The mass accumulation of land and lording over said land, forces people into positions where they must make and sell unnecessary goods to siphon money upwards. Landlords hold the land over worker’s heads. Land and access to it, as a resource, is at the core of all conflicts playing out across the globe. How do we pay rent on stolen land? What does it mean to pay rent on unseeded territory? Land is meant to be lived on, shared, communally accessed. No ONE has more right to live and thrive on this Earth than any other.
Ari: The enclosure of land, and bodies in prisons remain connected historical legacies of capitalist ideology. The obscuring of the world “free,” “free man,” and “free market,” within systems of privatization, accumulation, and state powered genocide continue.
What is so different about product looting during riots, 99% discounts during black friday, and the boxes of promotional product influencers get shipped to their houses ?
Cherry: Does everyone want free everything, because everyone wants to be free ? free from the pain of labor ? free from guilt ?
FREE GOODS normalize the land & labor theft upon which the “free market” is built. FREE GOODS are a part of the market’s operation of supply and demand.
Ari: In this case, we are displaying “STOLEN PRODUCT” as a critique of the word “FREE.” Let the fact that it was stolen ring out everywhere to remind us of the reality of working conditions.
The security tag represents the domestication of literally everything. Often used on cattle, on Virgil’s Off White – Nike Collab, with refugees, ICE CAMPS, PALESTINE, etc. Censors are artifacts that reflect and enforce the accumulative construction of the indoors & outdoors, of states, it represents THE GROWING PRICE of our oppression. Security tags are removed upon the ritual of payment, and departure from the indoors. The border between payment and theft, is mediated by the tag that marks the uncensored and censored body.
In the early 2000’s American Apparel used to let certain young people in the Lower East Side steal from their store on Houston st. Those who were brave enough to take the risk, were deemed as cool by the company. It was part of the brands strategy to get influencers in their clothes before social media. Tao Lin, author of the book “stealing from American Apparel” didn’t quite make the cut of influencer, and got arrested. Read the best don’t get caught /
The perceived difference between looted goods and free promotional products is dependent on the body modeling them. The economic impact is uniform.
Cherry: Question being invited inside, but only at a cost. Question trying to leave, but at the cost of your life. RIP BANCO BROWN.
Ari: Imagine freedom, imagine the return of land to freedom, with the recognition of whom it was stolen from, imagine the de-pavement of the land, the regeneration of urban space with skateboarding plazas with no rules, imagine a better world !
Ari: I never dream of having my own store. I dream of groups of people in multi-colored coats outdoors, with 700 goose-down fill so warm they would never need to go inside no matter the weather, resisting domestication, screaming AMOR DE REY, unifying in gangs, giving each other hugs, staying off drugs, and holding down their neighborhoods.
CHERRY: The American dream is not mine. That fallacy is my waking nightmare. I dream of nothing more than freedom for all oppressed people. Equity instead of misguided equality. The right of people to move freely unencumbered by man made borders and lines of division. The right of all people to have bodily autonomy. I dream of a world where empathy is practiced. Where people work not for wages or merits, but for love of one another. Where self-care is extended past the ego to honor the self that we see in others.
WAGES FOR HOUSEWORK ! SERVICES NOT SURVEILLANCE ! BRUJAS WORLD SYNDICATE ! LEVANGUARD ! GIVE IT BACK !
BRUJAS is working with Vacant 2 Vibrant San Francisco’s New Deal Program funded by Wells Fargo (the landlords) to produce the first WFH show ! The opening night is Friday December 8th ! Indoors in the Embarcadero, the historical origin site of street skateboarding – pull up to our presentation and workshops !