Labor unions, democratic organizations and community groups are organizing an economic blackout this year to commemorate May Day, International Workers Day, inspired by the economic blackout in Minnesota during the massive ICE operation in the state.
May Day Strong events are being planned across the US, with organizers calling for “no school, no work, no shopping”, in protest of government policies they say put billionaires’ needs above those of workers.
“May Day has to become bigger in this moment,” said Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers. The unions have backed the economic blackout planned for May Day. “This is about building a more popular united front.”
An even better option is to boycott one company or corporation … just one until you either run them to the ground or eliminate them completely. Keep shopping like you always do, just get everyone to avoid a particular company or corporation.
I’m up here in Canada and during the gas price wars that started in the late 1990s, everyone ranted and raged when the price of gas jumped by half a cent. In those early days, everyone rallied and wanted to do something about it all. One successful campaign was in organizing people to just boycott one of the companies. For instance, just get everyone to avoid Shell for a month, or avoid PetroCan for a month, or avoid Esso for a month. It may or may not have had an effect but one of the things that came out of it was an even bigger media campaign to shut down movements like this. There was a big corporate backlash and you could see trolls and fake accounts appearing everywhere to shut down this movement … it did shut it down but the takeaway for me was that it meant that it had a strong effect on corporations.
When they spend money on corporate propaganda, you have their attention and have started making them dig in their own pockets. Need more organizations like this!