On Friday, December 15th, “a “merry band of miscreants” entered a Whole Foods in NYC, lifted a bunch of groceries, and walked out in Jeff Bezos masks,” reported independent journalist Talia Jane on Twitter/X.
On Friday December 15th, a merry band of miscreants entered Whole Foods and liberated a variety of foods to return necessary resources to our communities. The People harvested and prepared these items, and this food belongs to the People. We are merely giving back what is already ours.
We assert that corporations like Amazon and Whole Foods do a tremendous amount of harm: hoarding wealth and resources, stealing labor, and destroying the land we live on. When we purchase food from Whole Foods, only a small fraction of what we spend is going back to those doing the labor to produce the food–the vast majority of it is funneled into Jeff Bezos’s coffers, where it is in turn reinvested in weapon manufacturing, war, and big oil.
Furthermore, Amazon’s contract for Project Nimbus with the IOF means that Bezos profits directly from the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Boycott. Divest. Shoplift. Not another dime for genocide!
As of November 2023, Jeff Bezos has a net worth of nearly 170 billion USD, an almost inconceivable amount of wealth. To put it in context, it would take you over 215 lifetimes to manually count the numbers between one and 170 billion. Corporations like Whole Foods perpetuate the myth of scarcity which falsely asserts that food must be earned and hunger is an unavoidable consequence of modern society.
We see this for the lie it is, and we refute every part of it. Access to food is a human right, and we will feed our communities by any means necessary. We believe direct action is a vital form of resistance against the capitalist institutions built to crush, starve, and bleed us to death. Solidarity with shoplifters everywhere! We hope you will be inspired to take similar action wherever you are.
Move like water. Take back what has always been yours. Become ungovernable.
Another flyer read:
These items were liberated from this Whole Foods location because we believe everybody deserves to eat. The shelves in this store have been stocked with items that were harvested, prepared, and cooked via a long supply chain of exploitation and extraction from people and land.
This food was made by the People and it should fill the bellies of the People.
Don’t fall prey to the myth of scarcity! Look around is enough for all of us. This food is being hoarded, and we are giving it back to our communities. The world belongs to us—everything is already ours.
We reject the capitalist logic that food is a privilege–it is one of our most basic human rights. We deserve to eat whether we can pay or not. Tear down the system that starves and kills people, one liberated apple at a time!
I'm Joe Stalin and I approve this message.