Proletarian Grocery Shopping in Ghent

by Joeri Wednesday, Jan. 08, 2003 at 11:11 AM

Activists in Ghent (Belgium) go “proletarian grocery shopping.”

Proletarian Grocery ...
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Translated and reposted by Willem Jansen

Monday afternoon (6 January), there was “proletarian grocery shopping” in Ghent. 25 activists loaded as much staple goods as possible onto 11 shopping carts. The goods were intended for the poor and for Fourth-World* organizations. Some of the activists then tried to talk their way through the checkouts, while others of them distributed flyers explaining to shoppers and store employees the reasons and purposes of the action. The store management refused to allow the carts to pass through the checkouts but produced and donated an alternate load of goods.

Following proletarian grocery shopping, freshly made soup and the goods from the supermarket were distributed in the Brugse Poort neighborhood of Ghent. Leftover goods were donated to the Intercultureel Netwerk Gent (ING), who distribute food to residents of Brugse Poort and Poverello.

*Translator’s note: I think that by “Fourth World,” Joeri is referring to the disenfranchised people of the world.

On the banner, there’s a pun: “Not Words, but Dates (the fruit, ‘dadels’)” as opposed to “Not Words, but Deeds (‘daden’)” and under the pun, “Food for Everyone.”

http://belgium.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=44440&group=webcast

http://belgium.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=44457&group=webcast

Original: Proletarian Grocery Shopping in Ghent