A great Federative Council took place between the 29th of November and the 3 of December 2002 and it was made even more memorable on Saturday night (30th November) as FYEG delegates from all over Europe descended on the busy shopping streets of Gent. In Friday night’s activism workshop, we had discussed the possibility of holding a direct action event as part of each FYEG gathering in the future.
With a few colourful banners and some great leaflets made up by the Belgian young greens that day, we set off to raise awareness of consumerism among the shoppers!
Buy Nothing Day is all about becoming aware of the pressure placed on us to consume far beyond our needs, it encourages us to think about living in a more sustainable way –even if just for one day. The free hugs we offered were very popular and some shoppers even joined in with our very bad singing! The march as very successful, and we spread our message to some people who had never heard of the day before while also seeing a bit more of Ghent! All in all, we all agreed that we would look forward to participating in lots more positive actions at future FYEG events.