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163

US activists plan May Day economic blackout: ‘No school, no work, no shopping’ (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) by grimpy@lemmy.myserv.one to c/politics@lemmy.world

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.”

top 16 comments

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 18 points 7 hours ago (4 children)

Instead of planning a one day of action like this ... just get people to agree to step back from excessive shopping, spending and send their money to non-corporate mega businesses instead. If everyone did this all across the country, it would severely affect the bottom line of major corporations. Nothing makes these monsters listen more than in taking away their money.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 hours ago

Just get people to step back from decades of brainwashing telling them to buy more more more!

Yeah, not that easy

[–] blattrules@lemmy.world 22 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t think it’s that easy; people are taking out ten year loans on cars rather than just buy used just because they want something new. Ticketmaster has been blatantly ripping people off on concert tickets for decades and the way to fix it would be to just stop buying overpriced tickets, but people are still spending what Ticketmaster is asking. There’s no impulse control for luxury items anymore.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It baffles me that in this economy, companies are still making money off luxury items

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

That's the only market they care about anymore, as far as i can tell. Companies would rather try to sell 10 $1,000 items than 100 $100 items. Understandable in certain respects, but the brunt of the equation lands on the less well-heeled consumers...

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 hours ago

I have stepped back from shopping not out of protest but because shits too expensive. There was a time when I would get $200-300 worth of food from Costco monthly to stock up. I have restortwd to Aldi and only the basics to survive. Bean and rice wraps are my family's main source of food for the last 8 months.

[–] innermachine@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

For real a one day black our literally means nothing. More than half of those people will just buy 2x as much tomorrow, or planned around not buying anything for the one day (read:spent more before or after) which makes the weeks bottom line look no different than it did last week. Quit participating in consumerism as a whole if you want to make a difference! Or strake out for more than a week so it actually hits their pockets. Promise everybody nobody supports a one day strike more than the private corpos knowing you'll be back for more tomorrow after getting the anger out of your system.

[–] chahn.chris@piefed.social 18 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Sometimes getting people to take the first step helps them get moving in the right direction.

A day of action where people can see many others doing it will cause many people to think about this more.

This is a good idea even if its individual effect will be small, it will help light the fire.

[–] innermachine@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I hope your right! Not saying doing nothing is the answer, just foolish to think a single day strike is going to hurt the big corps pockets. But if it gets people to do more, then that's what really matters.

[–] chahn.chris@piefed.social 1 points 2 hours ago

Exactly one day doesn’t do anything to cause pain but it does send a message and could change culture if it continues and builds more momentum.

The single day isn’t what they need to fear, the culture change is.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] innermachine@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

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!

[–] Crystalbound@lemmy.world 14 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Just being realistic - this will have no effect unless its sustained and massive. Otherwise its just a blip on the radar that companies wont even notice

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 hours ago

And some people will stock up the day before, completely defeating the purpose

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 hours ago

i am getting increasingly annoyed by "Activists".

Those people are just citizens living their life and making sure their elected government knows what they want it to do and what not.

not fucking "activists". just people. as in "The People" who is the sovereign of any democracy. or Citizens, as we usually call them.

[–] ViceroTempus@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

A sustained rent/mortgage strike would do a lot more damage and help build up the working class's resources, making future economic strikes actually viable.