Boycotts Have Begun to Bite

Truly this is an age in which those people who have been historically marginalized, disenfranchised, oppressed and enslaved by dominant powers are being called on to rise up and resist their continued mistreatment.  That means that this is the time for us to resist the Trump administration and its attempts to revive exploitative supremacy.  Over the last eight years much of my writing for this blog has therefore focused on the theory and practice of strategic nonviolent resistance.  As I have repeatedly stated, this kind of resistance consists of much more than merely staging mass protest marches and rallies.  As noted in Gene Sharp's book From Dictatorship to Democracy, there are at least 198 methods of strategic nonviolent action.  (His book lists only 198 methods, but he himself acknowledged that there are actually many more methods than these.)

One of the categories of tactics of strategic nonviolent resistance is the category of economic and political noncooperation.  This kind of noncooperation - especially of economic noncooperation - can impose extremely painful costs on a would-be oppressor or dictator (such as Trump) and on those rich and powerful people who comprise the dictator's pillars of support.  I'd like to suggest that the use of boycotts has begun to catch on in this year, 2025.  A number of large retailers who terminated their diversity, equity and inclusion programs this year are now feeling the bite of consumer boycotts.  Such retailers include Amazon, Target, and Home Depot (or, as I like to call them, Home Cheapo).  This year's holiday season may not be a very merry Xmas for such retailers as these.  You can read more about these holiday boycotts here: "Can Holiday Shopping Boycotts Make a Difference?", Yale Insights, December 2025.  Note that even though the cited article seeks to cast doubt on the effect of these boycotts, the fact remains that the boycotts are having enough of an effect to force the mainstream organs of power to take notice.  

Please Don't Buy Anything Except Gasoline and Food This Holiday Season

To those who are regular readers of this blog, I extend a hearty "Thank You!"  I'd also like to ask a huge favor.  As I consider this holiday season of 2016, I think of the relatives of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and many other people murdered by the police over the last several years.  These relatives won't have a Merry Christmas.  Neither will those of us who have been disenfranchised by crooked voter suppression laws, hackable electronic voting machines, and other implements of election fraud.  In fact, I would wager that by the end of 2017, almost no one in this country will be able to enjoy a Merry Christmas. 

This state of affairs is very un-satisfying, especially to those of us who feel particularly powerless just now.  Yet there is always power in nonviolent resistance, and there are many techniques of nonviolent resistance.  Please join me this holiday season in implementing one such tactic - namely, a boycott of holiday shopping.  Let's send a painful message to those who now own our country.  Thank you very much.