Last friday in Adelaide, around 30 AARG - adelaide's anti-corporate raucous gremlins - donned green coveralls and black flags and charged into an Adidas shop and began dancing around their portable sound system. The occupation was to challenge adidas for it's union busting in indonesia, where it relocated plants and the workforce - minus the union workers.
The action went swimmingly and the gremlins left before any police arrived.
I felt that this action was just a starter, something to empower everyone who was there into understanding that we can protest how we want and they can't stop us. To send a message to adidas bosses that if we come for them there's nothing they can do about it. That's probably as far as it went as a challenge, it was just a challenge to corporate space, but going in the direction of the international workers' cause.
I think what happened there was more of a practice run for something that'll keep growing in size, effectiveness, creativeness etc. I think it's worthwhile at least as a visible way to share ideas through actions.
xo
To send a message to adidas bosses that if we come for them there's nothing they can do about it.
I doubt they'll be losing much sleep over it 
To send a message to adidas bosses that if we come for them there's nothing they can do about it.
until they call the police.
True. Well then, we were having a dance party, something every communist loves 
How long did this dance party last btw? It doesn't say in the initial post. I can only assume it was within police response times. So it can't have been that long a party.
Did Indonesian workers or union members call for this support?
It only went for under 15 minutes, it was decided to dance, leaflet, talk to the crowd, and leave before the police got there.
As for a call out, it wasn't a direct callout for solidarity actions, it came through an anti-sweatshop campaign website that did a report on what was happening with the workers. So there was an action here to give out some information and have some fun, draw attention to the issue, at least in the street and online.
But the lack of a direct callout i don't see as those workers not wanting international support, but maybe feeling like it isn't there to be asked for, feeling isolated? At the moment i believe they're still looking to get their jobs back.
xo
Captain Soap: A question, in what sense do you think this "occupation" challenged adidas?
The action challenged ADIDAS in that it help to publicize their co-operation with union busting factories in Indonesia. A banner criticizing them and showing a link to further info hung from their awning, visible to hundreds of people in a high foot trafficked mall for at least an hour. It also challenged ADIDAS in that it largely prevented their store from operating for the brief period of the action.
Was this action called by the union members? Not in a way that is unproblematic. Most of the information for this campaign was adopted from an on going Oxfam campaign, which it appears has had direct contact with the union. While we recognize that there are problems with this, perhaps people would like to suggest alternatives, merely than simply deriding the action that was taken.
We're in a city with little to no radical activist political formations and a corresponding lack of civil disobedience and direct action. For all it's faults, we managed to mobilize (what for our city is) a significant number of people to use civil disobedience tactics to oppose exploitation of workers in the 3rd world. We didn't bring down ADIDAS or repel a police invasion, we know that, but it's pretty disappointing, we get reposes from 4 different people and not one of them contains an ounce of solidarity or support.
I never derided it. i asked a question.
Alternatives? Well, if you haven't had any contact with the workers and they didn't call for this action, maybe drop them a line or something?
"I never derided it. i asked a question."
True. Fair enough.
"I never derided it. i asked a question."
True. Fair enough.
i think this is a fucking cool action. sounds likeit has all the ingrediants of a sweet action- music, quick, quircky, confrontational and fun.
good on ya for organising it and keep it going. Gabs if your keen next time you do a solidarity action p.m. me and i'll organise a joint action over here.
nevermind the haters on this forum, i'm sure half of them couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag.
Well done for oganising this and having a critical perpective on the situation. I guess the folks who seem to be critical of your action are worried that your time and energy might be better placed, organising around local issues where you can have more direct impact. Not that anyone on here is against international solidairty, just that without any contact with workers or a direct call out it for co-ordinated campaign isn't really likely to have much effect beyond local publicity, not a bad thing if your aim is to raise awareness of the situation. But it is not going to disrupt Addidas enough that they will take this factor into account, so it won't change their behaviour to the union. Have you contact the union to imform then of your actions?
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A question, in what sense do you think this "occupation" challenged adidas?