Mother's Day Reclamation

by Sandy Haksi

Ahh, Mother's Day. A day to show our mothers how much we appreciate them by killing flowers, pulpifying trees, and gorging on sweets by way of the plantation. Now that's love...

Okay, we jest and it's not that we all aren't deserving of a little luxury now and then. But sometimes it seems that Mother's Day is about trying to shop our way out of responsibility, something we modern day capitalists have elevated to an artform. And as usual, we're cheered on by the multinationals who have taken what began as a day for women's activism and transformed it into a multi-billion dollar bonanza for industry. Few people know that the roots of Mother's Day lie in women working together for a better world. Today's commercialized parody has strayed far from the dream of its founding mothers.

We've put together a fun short movie for a campaign we're doing for a women's aid and development organization in Canada called Take Back the Day, and you can delve further into the origins of this activist holiday. We also check in on the Campaign 4 Corporate Harm Reduction, as well as show-case some of our other multi-media projects. And it wouldn't be complete without our own "Just Say No!" slogan... to the reign of corporate power that would take over even our mothers' holiday.

Happy "Mothers" Day!

--Kat, Terry, Sandy, Atef, Aviva, David, and the entire Hello Cool World team