An editorial:
The first two months of the second Trump Adminstration have been a doozy of chaos, outrageous firings and political alarums about autocracy, oligarchy and the end of democracy.
Whoof. One would expect the country to react as it did in 2017 with the first Women’s March, up till then the largest protest in US history. Nationwide, three to five million men and women demonstrated against Trump positions regarding women, immigrants, LGBTQ and other human rights on January 21, the day after Donald Trumps’ first inauguration.
In the chaos of late January and February 2025, however, the public protests have been scattered and smaller. I had hoped to find a protest to join on President’s Day, February 17. The politicos in my hometown of La Verne Ca advised us to see what neighboring Claremont was doing. It was frustrating personally to be relegated to a smaller demonstration in a neighboring city, tucked away on a secluded college campus.
A week later I came across a Facebook post suggesting an Economic Blackout on February 28 promoted by a John Schwartz. Who? Schwartz apparently is a meditation teacher from Chicago. He created a group he calls The People’s Union USA and promoted an easy agenda with vaguely stated aims. Simply don’t shop on February 28. And don’t use your credit cards.
The powerful corporations would soon find out that people’s wallets can collectively outpower the corrupt oligarchs and their bought politicians.
Schwartz’s call to action first appeared on February 3 and then apparently it went viral on social media. It had no national broadcast coverage until the day of the blackout. And very little coverage since then.
But people have been noticing. Among my own peer group of mostly retired, well informed seniors, 80% had heard of the Boycott, were willing to participate in the simple act of not buying things. 40% had found out through social media, 40% from their friends. 20% had not heard of it at all. (This is a VERY unscientific poll of diverse but similarly educated retirees. )
My point being, there was a willingness to register a protest with this very vaguely worded call to action. Especially since it was the ONLY call to action we could follow.
Schwartz’s Peoples Union is calling for future actions, including another 24 hour Economic Blackout for March 18.
The NAACP also has a call out. Their aim is at corporations that had abandoned DEI programs upon the onset of the Trump Administration. On February 15, it launched the Black Consumer Advisory to direct citizen dollars away from retailers that had dropped their pledges to promote diversity, equality, and inclusion. And they are publishing lists of retailers that have made announcements about their DEI plans.
Faith leaders are also calling for a 40 Day boycott starting March 5. It targets businesses like Target, Walmart , Google and Amazon.
Of course, the model for successful economic action is the Montgomery Bus Boycott of l955. Then a 13 month boycott was sustained by community support, national media coverage and legal action. Victory came with a Supreme Court Ruling that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. It was at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement of the l960’s.
Let me repeat: the most successful American economic boycott was sustained by community support, media coverage and, finally, legal action. And let me be clear, the amorphous and vague Economic Blackout of February 28 appeared to attract attention, to gather community support even with minimal publicity over social media. The People’s Union lacks a strong and simple target, the NAACP seems to lack media support for their calls to action.
So for now, whither the Blackout? Whither the Boycott?
Can we go on from here?