2003-2004 was maybe an election year in France with regional elections in March and European Union elections in June, but Chiche! stayed, as usual, far away from this party game. For us the year was marked by three ways of grassroots action that we had the pleasure to experience.
First the Antipub, anti-advertising movement we were part of: everywhere in France the activists discovered the pleasure of saying, “f*ck” to the ads by writing on them, covering them… a way to say NO to this brain eater that has a part in our will to over-consume.
Second the Vélorution is on the road again! Demos on bike are back! We’re part of them in Paris and Toulouse and entirely responsible in Lille. We hope these demos will become big anonymous critical masses…
And third the actions we made in supermarkets trying to raise awareness on the waste; produced by big packages; labelling products with too much plastic packaging; giving the consumers flyers about waste; dressing as supermarketplastic-bag-yetis. Over-wasting and over-consuming will stay a big concern for us.
Let’s not forget the rest of our activities. We produce leaflets about every issue of political ecology (ask us for details), and the next one is about being green every day. We are still quite a small movement with few local groups, but our editing activity, on paper and on the web, makes us meet many people who have sympathy with our ideas. To imagine our next Chichian year we are organizing in the Lyon Region our yearly Chiche! banquet. Four days of workshops, discussions, good organic food and fun, from 2nd-5th September. You’re all invited!