Fight Money with Combined Consumer Power

The Sparks of a Political Economic Fire

Thanksgiving is coming, and for many Americans it will be more expensive and difficult than ever put food on the table. The affordability crisis which is driving more people into precarity and making it harder to afford the everyday necessities of life has reached such a fevered pitch that its political saliency can no longer be ignored. Zohran Mamdani’s relentless focus on affordability in New York, brought him from obscurity to mayor-elect of America’s largest city in less than a year. Democrats Abigail Spamberger in Virginia and Kate Wilson in Seattle also recently won their races by focusing on ​the material needs of people, the system that has failed them, and a promise to fight for people using the levers of power.

However, it’s not these politicians who are creating this movement, they are merely responding to the demands and actions of the people. Alongside these electoral wins we’ve also seen the rise of more potent forms of protest and collective action focused on combining political activity with economic leverage. For example, Starbucks workers, after years of stonewalling from executives, have decided to ramp up the pressure by organizing walkouts, strikes, and most recently a blockade action which shut down a major Starbucks distribution center.

Especially promising is that consumers have also been starting to collectively and creatively using their economic heft: The ongoing boycott of Target for anti-DEI policies has damaged both the company’s brand and profitability. A good reminder that sustained and coordinated boycotts can still work in the 21^st century. Another creative approach to economic protest has recently been used to protest Home Depot work with ICE. Protesters en masse bought $0.17 windshield scrapers at the store and then immediately returned them, creating huge lines and delays, and clogging up the stores operations without generating any profit.

DSOT has been calling for these kinds of economic organizing, since 2018, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to see energy, and experimentation with economic protests. In addition to not shopping on Tuesday, we encourage everyone who has the time, energy, and safety to go participate in whichever other activities call to you. As more and more people see the connections between corporations’ (and their political cronies) pursuit of profit at any expense, and the worsening of their lives and the robbing of their civil liberties, the possibilities for change from united action grows.

The strategy of using economic power to create political leverage and legislative action has been used by the wealthy for years, through campaign contributions and think tanks they’ve been buying off politicians and writing legislation to enrich themselves further and exploit the working class. Until the 99% begin to use their own combined economic heft in a concerted manner towards their political goals they will be fighting the class war with at least one hand behind their backs, which is probably why they've been losing for so many years!

The upcoming We Ain't Buying It, a five-day boycott of major companies enabling the Trump admin, is hoping to seize on all this energy and renewed awareness at a crucial time for corporate America: Black Friday weekend. The organizers hope to transform what is supposed to be a weekend of gluttonous consumption and cheap materialism into a solidarity building action, undercutting corporate profitability at a highly public moment.

Experience shows us, however, that no matter how large and successful these targeted actions are, after the protest ends these companies will have weathered the storm. The sustained nature of the Target boycott, and its effectiveness when compared to other flash in the pan economic boycotts emphasizes the importance of sustained action, and while we encourage everyone to participate in whatever way you can in high profile, short-duration boycotts, we think many of  many of these actions will only reach their full potential when combined with sustained economic actions like DSOT.

So make sure that you participate in the we ain't buying it protest this upcoming week but after that be sure that you continue your economic activity and your political organizing by joining us each Tuesday in growing solidarity, to finally engage in the class war in earnest on behalf of the 99%. Don't shop on Tuesday

#DSOT