A nationwide coalition that includes recording artists Negativland, the estate of Terry Southern, and others is declaring November 23 to be “Bag Day,” and asking that at noon on that day, people all over the U.S. protest the homogenizing and destructive effects of corporate chains, by browsing in Barnes & Noble bookstores - with paper bags on their heads.

The choice of Barnes & Noble as Bag Day’s primary target is due in part to a lawsuit filed in March by the American Booksellers Association along with two dozen independently- owned bookstores. The lawsuit contends that the enormously successful chain, whose legal worth has nearly doubled in the past year, has “engaged in a pattern and practice of soliciting, inducing, and receiving secret, discriminatory, and illegal terms from publishers and distributors,” and that much of the chain’s expansion “can only be profitable if the chains receive illegal deals and existing independent booksellers are driven out of the marketplace.”.

The idea for this national protest was conceived and launched by an Austin-based activist group. In recent weeks, many other groups and individuals have joined in to help promote the event, including recording artists Negativland, the estate of Terry Southern, Alt-X/Black Ice, the AK Press, the Church of the SubGenius, and others.

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