Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism observed by social activist. Typically celebrated the Friday after American Thanksgiving in North America and the following day internationally, in 2008 the dates were November 28 and 29 respectively.
This year, a stampede of furious consumers, in the first day of sales in New York city, caused the death of the person who was opening the door of Wal-Mart. The man, 34 years old, appeard dead by the crowd at 5am after being trampled by thousand of people. Today, while the world is under the worst crisis ever seen since 1929, events like that shoud emphasize the importance of demonstrations like the Buy Nothing Day.
Critics of the day charge that Buy Nothing Day simply causes participants to buy the next day, Adbusters states that it "isn't just about changing your habits for one day" but "about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. Unless we decrease our level of consumption in order to have a sustainable style of life, the death of the society as we know will be an irremediable fact.
