Can you shop the corporations out of the town centre? Not really

Ever since Huddersfield Anarchist League picked up sponges and took to the streets to highlight the sorry state of many of our historic, abandoned, buildings, Huddersfield town centre has hardly been out of local news.

Civic Society waded in to back us up about the state of listed buildings in our town, which was once described by Engels as "handsomest by far of all the factory towns of Yorkshire and Lancashire". McDonalds' management completely missed the point by ordering out their slave labour army to clean up the crap, that they would never themselves dare touch, as a publicity stunt. Local capitalists ranted about the state of St Peter's street, while not having the common sense to pitch in and help HAL volunteers, in the cleanup of their own doorsteps. Kirklees Council began getting their finger out to deal with the degeneration of the Co-Op building by placing student artwork over its filthy windows. The Examiner put up a survey to ask readers what they think the Town Centre's problems are and how to solve them. The tide was on our side!

One of the results of the Examiner survey was a call for more independent stores in the town centre. A number of small, independent businesses have approached the Huddersfield Examiner to drum up support for their shops at Byram Arcade on Westgate. They say their motivation is the result of a recent survey by the paper and saying that their shops present a realistic alternative to the corporate Kingsgate Centre and Supermarkets that dominate our town.

While I don't see it as a realistic way to challenge the tyranny of capitalism, I'm happy to see some people escaping the tyranny of employment and I'd rather have them there than corporations who make a mockery of democracy. That's not saying that working for an independent business is necessarily an easy ride, but it's one hell of a lot easier to keep these bosses in check than the likes of TESCO, or Boots with their infinite resources to piss all over workers.

The problem with all this, as a consumer, is quite simply that prices are higher in these independent shops, usually so much so that it prohibits most workers from going there.

On the whole, this is not down to the business owners not wanting to lower their prices (as this would bring more customers and more money for themselves) but a fundamental flaw in free market capitalism. Massive corporations are able to gain huge discounts on their costs through unscrupulous practices such as bullying suppliers and getting away with paying their staff so badly that they can only ever shop at their own stores. Independent business will never be able to compete with this, no matter how many grants and loans and tax cuts the state throws at them and even this is moot as it is incompatible with the current ruling doctrine of neo-liberal capitalism.

If you're lucky (or ruthless!) enough to have the cash to shop independent, then please do. For most of us though. who do not have the option, this is neither a challenge to corporate dominance in Huddersfield, nor a serious step towards improving our town centre. Unfortunately, the real solutions are one hell of a lot more hard work than just taking our money to a different store and require us to gain our independence and freedom through organising ourselves in our communities and workplaces.