Starting at midnight Thursday night through midnight Friday night, we will be joining with people across the country and beyond to demonstrate our collective outrage over the hostile takeover of our government by unelected billionaires and by those who put profits before people. For one day, this Friday, we pledge not to buy anything from any major online or in-person retailers, and we pledge to refrain from using credit cards. We recommend staying away from Facebook, Instagram, and “X.”
This action began as a protest against those corporations who abandoned diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to placate a white supremacist administration. Those corporations include Target, Citi Bank, Google, and Disney. It quickly expanded into a “Buy Nothing Day,” with particular recognition of the role of finance capital. The concept of Economic Blackout 2/28 has quickly spread on social media, propelled by activists, faith communities, students, and rank-and-file workers everywhere. The movement goes beyond our borders. In Canada, consumers will target USA-based companies to protest Trump’s tariffs, and Mexicans will participate in the Latino Freeze Movement to protest US anti-immigrant and anti-DEI policies.
Please participate in this action! It is a simple act that we all can accomplish and that can quickly add up to a collective impact.
In resistance,
National Board, CPUSA
What a performative complete waste of time. Do something real or do nothing at all.
quickly add up to a collective impact.
It will have absolutely no impact except for giving the shitheads on the other side some new ridicule material.
It worked for Conservatives when they boycotted Target and whatever dumb beer company over support of Pride. We ridiculed them for it, and look where they are now.
I think it’s fair to say that there’s better ways to protest, but getting people off their asses in any way could be a gateway for some to realize that a little discomfort is worth the outcome.
But the two examples you mentioned were targeted and permanent. Conservatives were going to target to harass workers and vandalize displays. Kid Rock fired a rifle at cases of Bud Light. Conservatives get violent when they protest, and the loss in sales isn’t replaced by the communities they are courting, because both brands immediately gave in to the terrorist demands.
Imagine how ineffective those protests would have been if, instead of violence, every conservative decided to stop drinking Bud Light or not shop at Target for one day. It’s unbelievably naive to think a one day boycott would accomplish anything.
Exactly this. A one day boycott is strictly performative.
Is that what they did? What was the one day that they chose to quit buying bud light? Is that all they did? Just a one day boycott and then go back into silence and resume drinking bud light? I remember it somewhat differently…
Bud, it’s about teaching Americans about solidarity, because anti-unionism propaganda over 70 years has beat it ojt of them. This one day of not buying stuff, is like Day 1 lesson of Solidarity Kindergarten. You have to start somewhere.
What a pointless comment. Offer up a detailed solution, or don’t comment at all.
Detailed solution: Find something real instead of symbolic, mental-masturbation. I don’t have to offer anything more complex to call bullshit what it is.
Do something real
If I had been planning to make a big purchase on Friday, but decided to join the boycott and not make the purchase, that is absolutely doing something. That is money that the retailer will not get from me.
If I usually buy groceries on Fridays, or Friday is the day I drive by the local Target and sometimes stop in, but because of the boycott I actively decide not to, that is absolutely doing something. That is money that those retailers might have come to expect, that they will not get from me.
If enough people make those decisions, the impact will most definitely be felt and reach the top.
Collective action is incredibly powerful. Sometimes collective action means deciding not to do something, together. And that is also incredibly powerful.
I’d love to hear your suggestions on what “real” looks like to you.
Commit to 6 months or they’ll never even notice or care. Based on the most recent POTUS election, roughly 1/3 of the population agrees with you. 1/3 of the population just plain doesn’t give a fuck. The final 1/3 of the population will choose to buy extra on your day of boycott just to say fuck you. Now of the 1/3 of the population that agrees with you, we might say quite generously that 20% will even know about this. Of that 20% you’ll be lucky to get 10% participation. At the end of this one day, it doesn’t mean a damned thing.
I think it’s absolutely horrible what Amazon has done (and Wal-Mart before them), but I still buy some stuff from them for a variety of reasons. Not least of all is the fact that the 1/3 of the population that actually gives a shit all stopped shopping there permanently it wouldn’t even slow them down.
Any/ever “don’t shop on x day” is strictly symbolic and mental masturbation.
Harshly said, but correct. A one-day change in spending is piffle. Anyone participating in this is participating in piffle. Make a serious, long-term change in your spending patterns and it might, arguably, add up to something, but this is … I don’t even know what this is, but I’m not doing it.
Instead of bitching, what are your bright ideas and calls to action? What resistance are you organizing? This is, at least, something.
I’m resisting performative bullshit. Swear off of these fuckers permanently.
All efforts, great and small.
It’s bullshit and not effort at all. I didn’t shop anywhere yesterday. Do I get a gold star?
As a bare minimum, show up and picket. Everyone go in first thing when the store opens and fill their baskets with all the things they were going to buy and then simultaneously park them in front of the checkout lanes and walk out. Make sure the ice cream is buried in the bottom of the cart.
“Only the things I say you should do are worth doing, and nothing else!”
Don’t be an ass… it makes you look like an ass and doesn’t help the effort. I gave you some real things that could be done like were being requested. If you can’t see the difference between a performance and a real action then that’s your problem.
I support this and I will participate, also I’ll agree that this better than doing nothing but I have to say that the commenter “echo” has a point. A one day protest like this will solve nothing and it’s as performative as John Lennon lying in bed for a week in the name of peace. It’s great that people care and want to do something but lasting change comes from committed and sustained action.
My plan is to start on the 28th and continue to buy as little as possible for as long as possible. If I do need to buy something, I will try to find a local establishment and use cash. Buying nothing for as long as possible will allow others to ask question and give the movement opportunity to grow.
