The Really Really Free Market

The Really Really Free Market

By KIRK WEDEKIND

While the worker's of the world celebrated their fight for a better life in myriad demonstrations around the globe on Mayday, the protest against the constricting and often imbalanced economic 

markets of the world and especially America took on a new form of speech in Gainesville. The Really Really Free Market existed for several blissful hours during the afternoon/evening of May 1 at the downtown community plaza in Gainesville. Whoever said irony is dead? In the "Free Market" of the American economic system, nothing is free. Every good and service is based on money and labor, and always at the expense of someone else. This system was turned on its head last Wednesday as a real free market further united participating member's of Gainesville's civil society.

In other words, everything was free. No bartering. No trading. No cash. Everything is free. Bring what you have to give and leave it on a table. Then go looking for what goods you might need or

have a use for. Enjoy it. Exploit it. There was a peaceful and healthy balance throughout the day. There were no arguments, no fights. No problems. It was a remarkable testament to the possibility of humans sharing and enjoying skills, goods, workshops, and smiles. Free haircuts. Free clothes. Free plants. Free shoes. Free face painting. Free art supplies. Free expression.

There were tons of clothes. There were random appliances. There were nursery seedlings. There were kombucha scoby's (a very healthy mushroom tea-start with active cultures of bacteria and yeast); there was food. Throughout the day there were a procession of bands that took the stage and an audience made of teacher's 

sharing knowledge. The Really Really Free Market left no one behind or disparaged in any way. In fact, there was an overwhelming communal feeling of satisfaction that lingered on the smile of every face that shared this space.

The message was clear: utilize civil society. Become active and involved and bring your best sense of truth to a struggling world, because ultimately we are all in this thing together.